2020 already! Unbelievable! I was born in 1951 and always thought of the year 2000 as a Bradburyan science fiction fantasy. But here I am, still alive and kicking. I’ve been lucky enough to have witnessed countless revolutions in all fields. I can’t help feeling, however, that in many aspects we seem to be going backwards, in spite of our so called progress and evolution. We are constantly trashing the planet, our home, as if we could eventually move somewhere else. Global poverty levels keep increasing. Economic gaps between the richest and the poorest keep rising. Ironically, our sophisticated technology and social media are making us more and more isolated. Instead of making eye contact with our fellow beings, our attention is caught by innumerable screens; loneliness keeps surging almost at epidemic levels.
I must say, therefore, that I greatly miss my childhood and teenage years, when there were no cellphones, but we knew everyone in the neighborhood; when we could play out in the streets or rode our bikes until dark; when we were not trapped by consumerism; when our utopian idealism was still intact.
Although all this sounds like Proust’s “In search of lost time”, I welcome 2020, still hoping that humanity will turn over a new leaf…
Published on Buenos Aires Times