Maybe the current issues and struggles we deal with pushed creativity and imagination out of focus? Or is it that all the hardships, sudden twists, breaking routines, and fears are setting us up to be more woke?
Where exactly do we seek for the best creative solutions? Since the very beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic we have encountered numerous, exciting ways of creative expression, through visual arts, music, literature etc., we see examples of these all over social media, they are created promptly as a response to current issues; they are instantly shared by many and possibly transformed on the go in order to communicate the message or personal attitude and style more effectively. The phenomenon of social media is no news, but the current circumstances have now highlighted the full capacity, freedom and power social media posses. People exchange ideas, cooperate, create, write, sing; there’s less hypocrisy and more solidarity and support. Socialization and cooperation reflect in a way the basic human need of survival. Socialization in its direct, physical sense is, of course, minimized, but in a broader, indirect sense it has strengthened. The unknown has always created fear, the fear of unknown brought about the concept of religion. Nowadays the unknown in the virtual world makes us follow, share, comment, react; we seem more alert and socially active.
Is this a nature’s reminder? Is this about conspiracy or maybe carelessness? Was this really inevitable? Who’s to blame? Have we forgotten the basic human values? Have we forgotten what it means to be a human being?
These are some of the questions we all ask ourselves these days; we think about them, speak about them and write about them. These are important questions, but they call for a serious change, both within us and in the world.
Is there anything we could do right now? Right now we could start reading (again) The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann, a novel we can now easily identify with. Right now we can start reading Shabono by Florinda Donner, an American writer and anthropologist, one of Carlos Castaneda’s disciples, who lived with a South American tribe, a tribe that believes in animism, lives in unity with nature and whose language knows no other tense nor time but present. Not due to underdevelopment, but as a reflection of a different point of view. We can try and make our present moment sensible, conscious and filled with creativity as a solid base for a better future.