Chains

They say we’re a ‘disconnected’ generation; closer to the internet and the online world but farther and farther away from reality every time. I guess, depending on how you look at it, this statement is possibly true. We have the world at our reach for the first time in history; from information of all kinds to people all around the world. We know what is happening anywhere in a matter of seconds, and, most importantly, it is harder now than ever for secrets to remain hidden.
I think it is in this century when we can find the clearest picture of reality, a picture not many people like, it is now when old beliefs and conventions are falling apart. A new world being born out of the ashes of the old one.
They call us disconnected because ‘we do not care’, because ‘we’ve forgotten our past and our traditions’. We no longer hold sacred that our parents and grand-parents did and still do. The world is transforming before our eyes and we’re aware of that. So when they say disconnected, when they say ignorant and lost, they’re not looking at this new order of things that is being established, they look at the old society we have left behind for good.
I am not speaking for anyone but for me, I would like to make that very clear, and these views are only mine, not an evidence-based accountancy that you can take in as facts with no questioning at all. These are opinions and, therefore, everyone is in their right to agree or disagree.
Having said this, I would like to say that our generation, at least the experience I have as a part of it, is released. Released of all the burden archaic ideologies had on our conscience. Most of us no longer believe in most the institutions that rule our lives since they have failed us time after time, proving that they are not useful anymore or, at least, not in their current form. If the whole of the world is moving forward, I believe it is time for our institutions to do as such.
Ideologies have uncountable times slowed us down in the past, almost the same number of times that they have brought us forward. I am not against ideologies, as it might seem, but I strongly oppose to those who live by them unable to see a reality unrelated to them and, most importantly, unable to be critical of oneself and its beliefs.
I was brought up as a Catholic by my parents, but, deep down, it was always my choice to believe or not. They never pushed me to do anything I didn’t want to do regarding this matter; it was just the way they were, their belief and ideology and they invited me to take part on it. Their education on the subject was never very extensive and so I was never ‘blinded’ by it. As I grew up, I decided to drop Catholic education and started attended a class that studied all religions. Here, I realised that there was something behind the idea of religion, something that all human beings have needed since the beginning of time and I wondered then if we had been wrong all this time. When I told my parents I did not believe in a God, and definitely not their God, they did not care at all, that was the only thing in terms of ideology that they had somehow imposed to me. Not even political views.
I am not saying, of course, that my parents did not influence on me in any way. Of course they did. But the biggest lesson I learned from them is to always keep my mind open and judge every given facts I find along the way. I’m grateful today because I like the person I turned out to be, and I like that they, two people with two very different backgrounds, came together to raise me in the way they both felt was best.
Now, as a grown up, I can see what they intended. I am a person of no defined ideology, a disconnected person if you wish; I do not vote always to the same party, and I do not believe what they tell me, I see them as a bunch of liars, all of them after the same thing. However, I still vote, although I think the system needs to be reformed, I vote to those who are to me more truthful and I hope will meet my needs and the needs of my country.
I am not religious, but I am not against religions; however, I strongly believe churches of any kind are an unnecessary evil rotting our society and our people, and they need to be eradicated. I know there are exceptions, I know some people of God are good, that they only want to help us, but they all respond to the same group of wealthy thieves.
I strongly believe, and I will conclude this way this clumsy-written essay, that thanks to being disconnected from all of these ideologies or beliefs I have a clearer vision of the world, I can see the raw injustice that surround us everywhere and I can see the evil that it is being done, in name of God or in name of Money, they’re both the same thing, Power. I can see them every single day, even when I am just walking down the street. I see it in the news at a bigger scale, but I can also see it in my friends, in my neighbours and in my family.
There’s only a few truly disconnected people in this world, and I do not dare to affirm I am one of those who can actually see how fucked up our world has come to be. I am still connected since I leave in a capitalist society that has trapped me, I live surrounded by social conventions which has ‘taught’ me what is right and wrong; so, I guess, I am the biggest hypocrite here, the biggest liar and a pretentious little brat that has everything she needs, but I am still trying, trying to break the chains connecting me to the rottenness of this world. I live in hope that one day we all be free of this chains and we will be able to connect to what is really important, each other.