The posthumous condition

The philosopher Marina Garcès explains that we are no longer in the postmodern condition, but in the posthumous condition (please, read Radical New Enlightenment if you haven't already). And she speaks of "a period of grace that we give ourselves when we have already conceived and partly accepted the real possibility of our own end". In this way, we (mal)live asking ourselves when it will all end, because the narrative of "the irreversible destruction of our living conditions" has been imposed.

Contemplating the world from this perspective is like watching children playing in a schoolyard just before a nuclear bomb hits them. This is what we seem like, in the midst of the countdown to self-destruction. We are not dying, but killing ourselves, and on this path we opt for authoritarianism, 'retrotopias' (Garcés recalls Zygmunt Bauman's concept: utopias projected towards an idealized past), defensive and offensive identities, and the discrediting of the wisdom that makes us more human. In fact, we have externalized our knowledge and have reached a point where we are now afraid of our own Frankenstein. The terror that our creatures might turn against us is atavistic, it doesn't come from today.

We believe what we are told because it is easier than not doing so. Combating credulity requires great effort; these are not good times for critical thinking. But what will become of us if we don't? At this point, we have no future other than the countdown in which we are immersed. Who wouldn't want to change this scenario?

We must combat the supposed authorities (political, intellectual, cultural, social) with the tools of thought. And on this point, I stick with the idea of Svetlana Alexievich that Garcés proposes: the power of a wise not-knowing (Socrates was clear about it). Do not take for granted anything that is presented to us as established. Question everything and put an end to the monopolies of ideas.

However, it is complicated to have the hope that this can happen on a large scale. It is complicated to have hope in general, even though the victory of hopelessness is a tragedy.

Meanwhile, the noise of the messages continues, it doesn't stop for a second. To think well, deeply, silence is necessary, and silence has become such a luxurious element that there is no money that can pay for it. At this point, to stop feeling out of inertia has become a revolutionary act.