We are facing the historical clock, about to determine if we have a future – 10/29/2022

For years we’ve been watching time, shivering, afraid it’s going to collapse. For years we have been paying the utmost attention to every event, seeing the paramount importance of the daily news, suffering in the face of the effects of the ongoing devastation. We are consumed, exhausted, centerless, distant from ourselves. We are attentive to the world without possible rest, as if it were necessary to spy on it every second, as if it could collapse at any moment, in the few minutes we are distracted, or in the hours of still restless sleep. . For years we have been watching the weather in desperation, in the cryptic hope of some peace.

We are looking for the world clock, committed to knowing the exact time we live in. It is not enough to know something about that time, to glimpse the movement of centuries or decades: our obsession is the immediate present, the knowledge of historical time with the accuracy of the hand. “which hour?” It’s the question Roberto Schwartz asks in the title of one of his great books, explaining one of the fundamental reasons why we write, why we read, and why we think. We always want to discover the time of the world, the time of the country in which we live, because only then will we be able to distinguish between what to think, what we feel, and how to respond to the demands of everyday life. Every moment is crucial for us to learn how to respond to the whirlwind of small events.

And then, as a historic hour approaches, here we are faced with a colossal event, one of the greatest in our lives. This Sunday we will be on the watch for literal watches, awaiting a decision that will affect our entire existence in countless aspects. It is now up to us to accept the responsibility of the moment, bear its weight, and perhaps find some pleasure in the call to action that is offered: the outcome depends on this vagueness and inclusiveness of who we are. And what shall we do, then, with the heroism we have finally attained, how shall we respond to the historical hour that so calls upon us? After years of awakening and torment, how will we respond to all that we have witnessed, all that we have suffered from, and all that we still suffer from?

About the country’s historical hour, there is perhaps not much to say, perhaps not appropriate to re-emphasize the urgency of severing the ongoing political project, destructive and violent, insensitive to the extreme. But if country time still seems imprecise to someone, bewildered by a lot of noise, by the whirlwind of cross-information and jumbled discourse, it might be a good idea to try to capture something broader: the historical time of the planet. We are not the only ones who care about the world, the world also cares about us without rest. The world watchers are sleepless and watch us in despair for fear that the fateful meltdown will begin here.

They know that this Sunday is not just about deciding the fate of a country that once seemed nice to them. They know that a broader destiny is being determined, the largest forest in existence, the largest freshwater reserve, and a full-fledged immensity necessary for the balance of climate and the survival of the planet. They know, at least on this point, that the contested projects are in stark contrast. A candidate who wants to continue to destroy in the name of sovereignty or profit, in defense of a supposed development without any future. The other wants to join the world’s efforts to create an alternative, sustainable, and anti-destructive economy, even though it realizes it faces an endless challenge, the greatest of our time.

A hundred seconds until midnight At the end of the world The allegorical count that compresses all existence into 24 hours and indicates how close we are to the end of the world, or the decimation of humanity. Why are we so obsessed with the immediate present, the historical clock? Perhaps because we feel like our time is running out, there may be no future for us soon. But the good news is that this clock is also turning back, as a precise response to our actions, to the actions we take. This is the historical hour that we will live in this Sunday: in which we can advance further towards the end of the world, destroying the country and the world; Or go back for very precious seconds and thus experience a moment of peace.