Debates on the Human Condition Series

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This is not a novel and I am not a writer. Writers are submitted to the rules of writing, to the demands of publishers, to readers’ expectations, to the laws of the market, to fashions. They are victims of a phobia of adverbs, are haunted by repetitions of words which pass unnoticed. I prefer to be free and write whatever I please. From the heights of the pseudo-freedom I’ve built for myself, I observe the individuals around me, my eyes wide open, frowning, shaking my head. The first individual is frustrated with their working conditions and consoles themselves by waiting for their vacations. The second suffers from an arduous relationship with their family, and lives in anticipation of every Sunday football match. The third imagines taking initiative to achieve their daydreams, but takes refuge in fairy tales read in books, seen on television, or watched at the cinema. The fourth has lost a child and hastens to bring into the world another toy to replace it. None of them bother looking for the causes of their condition, let alone try to eradicate them. No one is touched by the doubt that our human condition isn’t a misfortune that fell out of the sky, and that the origins of suffering and frustration are identifiable and sharable. Humanity lives in silent resignation to a future that fathers have mapped out for their offspring, to a fate that no one can escape, governed ab aeterno by a transcendent divine providence. Their habits consist of taking refuge in everything that is an end in itself and as far as possible from the roots of their existential problems. It’s what they call entertainment and which really only serves as a distraction; by its very nature, it must be carefree, insubstantial, futile. However, the entertainment, being an end in itself and detached from the human condition, not only doesn’t bring any benefits, but it ends up exacerbating their state of suffering and frustration in the instant they find themselves again face to face with everyday problems. Those problems that, instead of facing them, they put aside for a few hours. The four individuals above appear to suffer from atavistic sadomasochism. The human condition, in fact, will accompany them throughout their lives even if they don’t talk about it and they try to disown it, to demote it as others’ problems stemming from unfortunate vicissitudes. But reality is different from their sanctuary of lies in which they have taken refuge. Only when they manage to free themselves from everything that is an end in itself, they will see how easy it is to identify and eradicate the causes of human suffering.