Comparing the news with history books is extremely educational, as it shows that this sense of urgency, that something decisive is always happening, is absolutely unfounded. How little is left of these trifles! And we do not even need to look at history: we open newspapers in other countries and see the same inclination, perhaps driven by marketing, to present everything as important, while we, here at the end of the world, do not even know the bulk of the actors painted as extremely important. Almost everything is exaggerated, when what really matters cannot be found in any newspaper.
Almost Always, Out of Pity…
Almost always, out of pity for these Notes, the comment comes out purified of the real contemporary fact that motivated it. Although the healing effect is undoubtedly palpable, perhaps the commentator seems to exaggerate too much in his unavoidable radicalism. But how difficult it is to comment on current events! That is why it is sometimes necessary to break protocol. At an auction in New York, a “work” consisting of a banana taped to a wall was sold for more than six million dollars. The buyer, is said, has also acquired the right to replicate the “work” as many times as he wants, and it will be up to him to replace the banana when it rots. What can be said? It is undoubtedly a very powerful headline, but what is most impressive is to see in the thousands of articles that the work is not enough, the author is not enough, the price is not enough; but there is an audience, there are connoisseurs, there are promoters, there is a dizzying profusion of interested parties! It is too much! These Notes must be taken care of, because the risk of contagion is real!
The Spectacle of Publicity
The spectacle of publicity is often embarrassing and destructive, and it is better not to watch it. There is little to be gained from it, and it is extremely discouraging to see how the actors degrade themselves in gratuitous disputes, which are almost necessary, since publicity drives everything that is most negative in the dynamics of social relations. It often destroys the good and favors the bad. In short, it is unpleasant to watch…
The Path That Has Led Modern Thought…
The path that has led modern thought to disconnect from reality is well known. However, never ceases to amaze the real and obvious power acquired by some concepts in the modern mind, many of them newly fabricated, which are presented without regard to any objective reality. Imagining a philosopher immersing himself and occasionally getting lost in abstractions is natural, but when we see the bulk of society doing it, that is, the bulk of society reasoning from self-contradictory, sometimes outrageously empty and impossible concepts, it is something that departs from philosophy and escapes normality. Here, we can only understand something by relying on psychopathology and social engineering. A concept is created; strongly stimulated, takes on a life of its own and then is spread like a virus. No one understands it rationally, but it is still managed to make people feel it, to arouse feelings and, therefore, to be effective. And out of the shared hysteria comes the impossible validation. What is most scandalizing is that it has become a common process and does not scandalize… What a transformation!