It took thousands of years for humans to understand that the Earth was not flat, even when people stood facing the moon. We have created and have been living in the Kingdom of the Absurd for a very long time.
Just a few hundred years ago, people couldn’t imagine flying. The prevailing belief was that nothing heavier than air could fly, even among university professors studying birds.
Absurdity surrounds us everywhere; this is our world, akin to water for a fish. Give us one thing that makes sense. Everyone desires peace, yet governments spend most of their money on wars very little on peace, and even less on nonviolence. Religions are more preoccupied with dictating dietary choices, appearances, and controlling our sex lives, rather than focusing on God’s kingdom.
Why do conductors and door agents still run the trains in NYC’s subway system today? These are protected union jobs, so even if technology changes, the jobs remain unchanged. In the Kingdom of the Absurd, we can justify anything and everything. The UN Security Council is configured by countries possessing 90% of the world’s nuclear weapons. After WWII, efforts were made by peace-loving people in Europe to form a democratic European Union to guarantee peace and cooperation, but in parallel, an unelected military structure called NATO was created in 1949 by 12 countries from Europe and North America, undermining the initial purpose and setting conditions for today’s Ukraine conflict.
A few weeks ago, New York’s Governor deployed National Guard troops into the NYC subway to help with the “psychology of crime.” Men standing on train platforms with machine guns are expected to address homelessness, mental health issues, depression, poverty, and abandonment faced by millions of New Yorkers daily.
Humanitarian organizations have been promising to address food insecurity and poverty for decades, affirming that these issues are not political and could be resolved through private generosity and government cooperation.
Everyone acknowledges that the future of humanity lies in education, yet the lowest-paid jobs are for teachers and professors, while those who gamble and play with money on Wall Street and the stock market are rewarded. It’s still not easy to convince politicians that human activities and pollution have consequences for our natural environment and affect climate patterns.
The new buzzword is “Mental Health.” Everyone from children to senior citizens needs support and medication from pharmaceutical companies to cope with and adapt to this absurd system.
The most incredible aspect is that billions of people believe in all these absurdities, while others with opposing views spend their time making rational proposals about global conflicts, offering developed solutions.
The rulers of this kingdom are Death and Violence, ultimate chess players using warfare, famine, depression, insecurity, poverty, discrimination, and corruption to maintain control.
As some once believed our planet was flat, now they believe politics is power and money is the solution. Politics always tries to catch up, making mediocre adaptations to people’s aspirations and “reality.” Cultures, religions, art, lifestyles, and sexual orientations are all changing faster than politics. If you believe that President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party in China lifted 800 million people out of poverty, you are mistaken. Chinese people accomplished this; 30 years ago, Chinese youth were copying books by hand in public libraries to study them.
Similarly, if you think Juan Manuel Santos, the ex-president of Colombia, initiated a peace process that people and organizations followed, you’re wrong. People in Colombia had moved past violence long before a politician proposed a peace process. Perhaps you imagined that Michael Bloomberg, the ex-mayor of New York City, banned smoking through legislation and people magically gave up their addictions. The model of that time changed, and health became more important than looking “cool.”
If history teaches us one thing, it’s that the Kingdom of the Absurd has always failed.
Humanity has always prevailed and transformed the world. Today, people can fly around the Earth, and astronauts can sit on the moon, observing our blue planet. Inspired individuals have propelled humanity forward, opening new horizons, and most importantly, developing our conscience. Women’s rights are advancing, Indigenous recognition is growing, environmental awareness is increasing, and children’s protection is expanding. We stand at the threshold of a new revolution, not just industrial or technological, but a universal awakening, a human revolution. If you had asked me a year ago how many people would watch a movie about the scientist founder of the nuclear bomb, I would have said zero. Today, “Oppenheimer” is the third highest-grossing best picture of all time, after “Titanic” and “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.” The young new president of Senegal sees the world with a fresh perspective. Cities are moving away from car-centric planning, and people are demanding a higher quality of life in urban settings. We must mention the generation inspired by Greta Thunberg, gaining more power every day in their fight against climate change. In 2023, Germany reached 50% renewable energy. The speed at which people are embracing AI is incredible. Some parts of the world are looking at a four-day workweek, and some companies have already implemented it. Cultures have learned to coexist, as seen in New York, a mosaic of cultural communities living side by side, speaking over 140 languages, without walls, commuting on trains and buses together.
Please stop searching for solutions (there are none) and reconnect with your deepest aspirations that could propel humanity forward, open up the future, help others, and overcome the Kingdom of the Absurd.
