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…

and the slogan becomes a song…

I was having a little chat with some coworkers. One was saying about English importance: the treaties, the way to get in touch with the world, the advantages and, in general; all those things we’ve been always told but not so many cared. The interesting thing was what the other one said:  why English? That’s a language I won’t be submitted (and it won’t be necessary to write what else he said)

I pictured some scenarios in my head: let’s take this guy and sit him over a chair with power, let’s say he will be named a minister or a director: what kind of management would it be his? The possible answers of this question actually remove you from any doubt. It would be nefarious, just as it is Venezuela nowadays.

We’ve been living the time of free market and globalization; something opposing will hardly reach a common good. The only way a government controlled market may work is by sponsoring perceptions through alms; you see: I set up an insult, something that makes minds feel rather than understand, so perceptions get open through this sort of offensive feeling via, which also make them get eager, eager for an explanation, and the explanation comes, an archetype: there must be someone, someone evil, evil from abroad; and now I get why I’ve been poor, why wealth is a concept for frustration, then I start summarizing: what do I really want, or need? What the government gives: a box with several products so you don’t get hungry, but remember, this is not just to solve hunger, it isn’t. This is a struggle against the enemy, an enemy who imposed English and a wrong concept of wealth. I don´t know what’s wealth anymore. Wealth is what government tells, so you better start paying attention to its words, so its words become a slogan, and the slogan becomes a song…

What about now? Alms have been reduced because Oil price crumbled. Now the song is about production: what such a thing could be if you first told me I wasn´t responsible for who I’ve been? 

Now that I’m aware my ignorance was planted by the enemy… I just wait for my box of food.

Power is power, Cercei said.

You get convinced by getting confused…

Isn't it ironic, don't you think. Alanis sings and I thought so; the fact of living in a country where people can’t even access to their own cash, an insufficient own cash by the way, and on the other hand top manipulating skills are used as media weapon so effectively that people are actually rethinking of themselves. Maybe it’s not ironic: it is amazing.

According to an article I eyed Post-truth was named the word of the year in 2016. I read some of the explanation and I smiled (better than crying, I guess) because we’ve been living an era of post-truth minded subjection for practically twenty years. This is how politicians have been getting into people’s thoughts.

Poor were told that poverty was a consequence and that the guilt came from abroad, thus shame became pride and slogans became mantras. The taste for dressing was no longer a taste but an imposition, coming – of course – from abroad, (Yes, the enemy has to be an entity out of Venezuela. It is mandatory to justify everything this way) therefore, instead of letting people wear what they wanted and how they wanted it, just to bring up an example, the media – the official one – told people such a way were not ours, that it was an inflected idea of consuming and, that way, people actually were permitting the enemy inside… Nobody bought it at first. The argument was too hollow and of course, many could see the resentment talking rather than the bare fact. The thing begins with affordability, when access started leaving and doubts started coming: is it true? Is it really an invention of the capitalism? They have always seen us as their backyard so they send us the leftovers, and such… Questioning is a gate for perception, and if it’s open you may let a doubt in when you were trying to take some out. You get convinced by getting confused… So the truth became post-truth and a simple news hearing works like a limbo; it seems people need to actually wait until the post-truth media explains so, otherwise messages fade away like it were no news at all, and it happens, a lot, and people act like they’ve just heard a gossip; a rumor. So rumor is no rumor anymore, and it’s a shame because nowadays real rumors are gotten as forbidden info, especially if they’re against the government: it’s just post-truth to me too, just like the official information…

Best Regards