It's funny how the older I get, the more I need silence. Complete silence. Sometimes I wish I could slow down everything. The trains passing by, the sun going up in the sky, the Earth inexorably turning aroung its axis, my thoughts going around in circles again and again around the same topics in an endless spiral that never reaches its origin. I now realize that crossing the ocean is not enough to find peace or serenity. Because the storm is within and no matter how far I go, it will just follow me to the end of the world. The truth is that I always wanted to solve everything through logic, reason and organisation. But the more I think, the less I know. And that doesn't make sense... And the fear never goes away. And the more I want to slow down, the faster the world seems to spin. In these moments, you feel like a small child too afraid of what is on the other side of the window. And when reality becomes stranger than fiction, maybe we're better off on the other side of the looking glass.
I wanted to embrace change... but not this kind of change. I can accept people growing up, getting married and having kids. But I was not prepared for changes in geography... Benoit Lefebvre was talking about changing the sofas around in our heads. Sure Ben, that sounds good... maybe we should all take 5 months off and just study the great social questions of the world. Except.. wait, we kind of don't have the time for that! So instead we'll just butt head on into each other and the last one standing will be the one who's right.
It's funny how in the end the difference between theory and practice is just emotion. I remember my Theory of Knowledge class where Brian Aboud taught us the different ways of knowing. Empiricism, reason, language, some other stuff that I forgot and... emotion. And I never understood how emotion could teach you anything. I always thought it could motivate you to learn, it could bring inspiration, but never any actual knowledge per say. Well, emotion is the difference between a vague theoretical knowledge of social unrest in Syria and a practical, bone-chilling knowledge of social unrest in Montreal. It's the difference between the pieds noirs talking about their experience of the Algerian war and their forced immigration to France and the growing possibility of an independent Québec with all that it would imply for the immigrants already established there.
I'm tired of thinking. I wish I could separate instincts and biases from actual reasons. Ironically, I don't even want to put in the effort of creating Wonderland. After all, it would be nice if the Mad Hatter would just knock on my door tomorrow and give me the answers. Twisted, irrational and absurd answers, true, but nowadays normal and rational have lost all their meaning, so why bother?
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Stranger than Fiction
I haven't posted anything in a long time. Can't really say why... too busy, too sick, too much introspection that needed and still needs to stay out of the public sphere. However I couldn't stay quiet about this. To begin with, this semester started within the limits of the surreal. But I'm not talking about the lights of the Eiffel Tower or the excessive French nationalism that has shadowed my steps these past months. What I want to talk about is an e-mail that I got this weekend from the Concordia Student Union concerning Bill 78 that the Quebec government wants to pass in order to stop student protests against the tuition fee hike. I am not going to post the entire thing, but this excerpt strangely reminded me of 1984:
We are communicating with you about this proposed legislation now because we are concerned that following its anticipated adoption, the CSU and other student associations may be unable to issue public criticism about its contents without risking extraordinary sanctions or risking our ability to continue serving students through regular operations.
One of the functions of this law is that it puts a legal onus on student associations like the CSU to attempt to enforce the law’s contents on its student members.
As a result of some of the implications of this proposed legislation, we feel it is our responsibility to explain that you that you may receive some communication from the CSU not as a result of the political will of the membership or its representatives, but because it will be forced to comply with a law that is neither just nor justifiable. Therefore, in the coming months we ask you to please think critically about the nature of the communication you receive from us and other associations.
Between this bill and the increasing possibility of an Eurozone break-up, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish between reality and fiction. J. K. Rowling, if Voldemort is for real and still trying to take over the world, this is as good a time as any to tell us that we're witches and wizards and that we at least have magic to fight him!
We are communicating with you about this proposed legislation now because we are concerned that following its anticipated adoption, the CSU and other student associations may be unable to issue public criticism about its contents without risking extraordinary sanctions or risking our ability to continue serving students through regular operations.
One of the functions of this law is that it puts a legal onus on student associations like the CSU to attempt to enforce the law’s contents on its student members.
As a result of some of the implications of this proposed legislation, we feel it is our responsibility to explain that you that you may receive some communication from the CSU not as a result of the political will of the membership or its representatives, but because it will be forced to comply with a law that is neither just nor justifiable. Therefore, in the coming months we ask you to please think critically about the nature of the communication you receive from us and other associations.
Between this bill and the increasing possibility of an Eurozone break-up, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish between reality and fiction. J. K. Rowling, if Voldemort is for real and still trying to take over the world, this is as good a time as any to tell us that we're witches and wizards and that we at least have magic to fight him!
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