I believe that what happens in the world every day is the natural result of preceding events. There are so many variables at play that reality cannot be simplified as if it were predefined, planned, or designed at a table by a few individuals. “Strategies” are plans created this way, mostly collapsing into a single reality, bound by the laws of nature.
History is the mother of every school, because in its many pages and facets it tells a story, our story. Unfortunately, stories are not always a reflection of “true facts” (cf. e.g. Watzlawick, P. 1997: How Real Is Real?: Confusion, Disinformation, Communication). But there is something I have learned about history: in the exact moment when silence reigns in the face of an event, it is often a sign of its truthfulness. Think about the landing on the Moon by NASA astronauts in 1969. At that time, no authority on the other side of the Iron Curtain questioned the fact. It simply happened, and it was useless to try to hide it or to convince the world otherwise. The result was silence.
But when silence abounds among people, it is a sign of a disease quietly spreading through a body, like cancer, like grief, like grudge, like detachment.
What happens when a single person detaches herself or himself from her or his cradle and environment? She or he grows, expands, and learns how to live autonomously. Now, let us take this to the extreme. What if this detachment extends to family, friends, hometown, society, and finally reality itself? Loss.
And today’s trend is clear. Loss and detachment are silently crawling, infecting and poisoning hearts and minds. Because when you have nothing left to fight for, when your efforts are not repaid, and you lose hope, the only thing that remains is emptiness. Silence.
Silence and noise are antonyms. Even in a noisy room, ideas and thoughts cannot develop or grow in a healthy way. In both scenarios, balance is out of the equation. When there are too many voices in the room, there is no clear statement, no direction, as if a compass were spinning, pointing nowhere. Magic only happens when many people are in unison, singing the exact same note.
Launching the first official global direct democratic vote on ‘climate action’ is not a foolish idea conceived and predetermined around a table by a chosen few. It is the natural result of a flow of events. History.
And when silence or extreme noise abound in the ocean of thoughts and ideas, finding unison helps to identify the way forward. A direction.
Launching the first global referendum on ‘climate action’ is an imperative. Because when something seems impossible, it is often a clear sign that it is the right path to pursue.
But of course, this is not the end. The world, people, us, we all need more than a vote. We need action. The vote is “only” the very first step. It clears the sky, it gives perspective, a horizon. What lies ahead of us is a healthy and sustainable human existence on our planet Earth, in symbiosis with life itself.
History and facts do not forgive. Among the many possibilities, the only one that proceeds is the one that collapses into reality. As humanity, we have lost too many chances to change the course of time. Too often we have allowed compromising and harmful possibilities to materialise, inevitably marking our path and leading us, together with life on Earth, towards an undignified end.
The first official global direct democratic vote on ‘climate action’ is a window of opportunity that could help us take one step out of the mud. People still believe in this. People still strive for this.
Let people’s will be done.
picture shows “nervosity_101” paintings (2012) by Artémis Athénaïs
