So much activism, today's man has no time to think about himself. Lost in the immensity of existence, he is always trying to do something, because he is afraid of himself. In many cases, when he is faced with the possibility of death, he despairs. And here is a question: What is essential for contemporary man?
Father Fabio de Melo wrote a very interesting book that can help us in this discussion: “Who stole me from me?”. Yes, this is the title of his most famous book. This book talks, among other things, about the fragility of life and how we “love” to sabotage ourselves.
On the other hand, it amazes me when the German philosopher Nietzsche (1844-1900) says that: “When you look into the abyss, it looks back at you”. However, this may be the way out of many of the problems of contemporary man. Yea, we must face the problems head on. But for that to happen, you have to be aware of things, to what happens around us and mainly to accept our condition of finitude.
To exemplify what I'm trying to say, I'll tell you a real case. First, I must clarify that I am not averse to technology, but I am amazed when I see people dependent on social networks.
The case was this: one of these days, I was in a food court, in one of the busiest malls in the city of Manaus, when the behavior of a young woman caught my attention. While she was enjoying a tasty sandwich, she was texting through a cell phone app. A common scene among teenagers and young people around the world.
So far, nothing more. It turns out that, not paying attention to what she was eating, she took a piece of paper, which was next to her sandwich, to her mouth. When she started to chew and realized it wasn't the sandwich, she spat in disgust onto the tray. She looked around to see if anyone had seen such nonsense. When she realized that only I had seen what had happened, she smiled at me a sallow smile.
And the other people who were at the mall at that time, why didn't they see what I saw? What were they doing? Everyone, without exception, was doing what she was doing: fiddling with their cell phones, including her parents, I suppose, as they were middle-aged people!
There is no doubt, therefore, that technology is beneficial. However, it all depends on how we relate to it.. Technology was invented by man and for man. Thus, in the use of technology, man can never lose sight of excellence in “communication”.
As a being that speaks, man must always seek all forms of communication to be understood. Language, as culture, art, etc., must always be a search for human beings in their form of improvement. Thus, what is essential to contemporary man is his creative capacity to overcome this overwhelming feeling of intellectual “incompletion”.
Therefore, the contemporary world has many attractions for today's youth. Unlike the past, the current world does not allow for collective experiences. For the capitalist system, collectivism is a form of alienation.
Is a better world possible for everyone? Is it possible to build a more just, economically and environmentally balanced world? Personally, we think so. But for this to happen, it is necessary to develop the awareness that we are finite beings. With arrogance and arrogance, you get nowhere. Indeed, if yes, the destruction of man himself!
You may also like other articles by the author: Does the fear of death make us live better?
