The second high school

This is an idea I’ve been thinking of for a while. We spent three years wearing blue chemises with jean pants; we call that period basic education. It is – or it was – supposed to come along after six years of elementary, and then - if passes the tests - we wear the beige ones for two more years; with jeans too, that’s what I did at least. From some time and on it changed - I’ve heard - but the way I remember it’s as described. 

Those five years were a very important moment of transformation. I believe I have to clarify some points so I won’t be misunderstood. I’m not an expert of the subject, I know there’re a lot of studies which explains from a scientific approach what I want to imply here; I’m aware of it. I’m just sharing my perception so you can leave me yours… As I’ve wrote it, I may keep going. Transformation; metamorphosis, becoming. Our voice, taste and senses; among many other things, provides our brain with a lot of information we recode by instinct, for instance – and forgive me for the example – we achieve to discover that suck my dick it’s not just an insult but something you may get done and felt. So many things change… 

We got together in groups of forty, forty high school students per classroom. We used to have three short breaks for switching teachers. Those three breaks… 

The breaks were the moment for sharing, the time to be admired or mocked by the rest, the time that; in spite of wearing the same clothes and looking not so different from each other, we start showing ourselves the way we think we’re going to be. So we develop character, passions, interests, poses and pretendings among some other things… 

We get adults; we get adults with a promise, a promise of a future, a future we have to work for until you realize you live – not before deny it a bunch of times – under a communist regime.  

But what does it mean? 

Nothing at all

It is just the second high school…

safe passages

There is this phrase which more or less in english goes like: we’re making the effort for having a better country. Now everything is for having a better country. Last Saturday I went to the venezuelan version of a Food Truck Fair and, like everything lately, it wasn´t enjoyable at all. Many people complained and they had a point to do so, the thing is that the producers of the event weren´t, in my opinion, respectful enough with the upset ones. This mainstream way of management through cell phones and by posting flattering moments of itself is not being well used as I can see. We are supposed to be cheering and grateful because they’re making the effort for having a better country; just like the government. Chavez used to speak about the new man as a person with new values. A lot of money in propaganda got spent to convey such an affirmation. I think it worked, there’s indeed a new man, only that perhaps it is not what’s expected, not to me at least.

The new politicians for instance. They’ve become so popular and then, at last, it turned too little (almost nothing) all these growing alliance against our oppressors. Yesterday, for example, these representatives, both sides, gathered at Dominican Republic to renegotiate terms. I’m kind of lost with those terms. I need my income to reach the next payment. We need a whole new economy system and we need it right away. This terms thing just delay while prices keep increasing. On the other hand, like the people of the Food Truck, these ones also are making the effort for having a better country…

It seems like everything is being done through safe passages. It seems that’s the excuse we better believe so, yes, we’re supposed to self-deceive one another, post it as a good thing to then, by lying each other, make the phrase a slogan. Therefore, let’s say I’m making the effort for having a better country I guess…

Papus

I’ve heard quite some about how important it is to handle English nowadays, mostly from people who don’t use it so much. I’ve learned it long ago, long enough to say long actually. I also worked as an English instructor for some time but, sincerely, I don’t know, no sé si vale la pena el esfuerzo;  trato de transmitir un mensaje cuyo destino se presenta algo borroso, así que, ante la incertidumbre de si vale la pena o no writing this, I’ll do it like this, usando ambos idiomas. El corrector de word ya lo evidencia como locura…

I was reading this book of Papus and I really enjoyed lots of things. Actually it made me come up with the idea that everything symbolizes something; to someone, somewhere, for some reason, at any time, y eso se debe a que uno es un universo en sí, y el mismo dilema que suscitan el cerebro y el corazón; del cual a lot has been written about, es el mismo que se presenta entre el materialismo y la fe. I’ve found it revealing because I spend many days surrounded by gente que se proclaman ateos y agnósticos, and this is mostly because internet gave such a chance. No es un tema de convicción, como nos lo queren vender, it is more like doubting (but without researching) is kind of cooler, y eso, en una crisis como la que vivimos los Venezolanos, and besides, in a time where we’ve become in a nation where heroes are now satellites, news; propaganda, celebrities; politicians (imagínense eso) and achievements; things merely working. Obviamente eso es un cocktail para la percepción.

No quiero pasar por alto lo del materialismo, so I’m going to quote a bit from the book:

El materialismo nos enseña a trabajar por la colectividad sin esperanza alguna de recompensa, ya que sólo el recuerdo de vuestra personalidad es lo que puede subsistir detrás de vosotros; esta doctrina, que deseca el corazón y enseña a no considerar más que a los fuertes en la lucha por la vida, tiene, no obstante, una poderosa influencia sobre la razón, y ésta retiene un poco sus violencias y sus peligros… 

This should be important, at least I think it is porque detrás del presunto antagonismo, hay otros, más concretos, como el del poder y la sumisión: un grupo significante de gente cree que en la sumisión está el deber, y que en el deber está la necesidad, entonces, cómo levantas a una población en nombre de la libertad, cuando el deber está en la necesidad y ésta última en la sumisión… You have to do it from a position of power, which is what happens with the politcians, and that’s why people still wait on lines for cash and bread, for example…