The right to be delirious... And some other thoughts...

I want to share this beautiful text written by writer Eduardo Galeano, from Uruguay... I know it contains some references to the new millennium, but you can ignore them as this document will be valid until our planets becomes a world and people become humans...
P.S. I did the translation myself, so it could have some minor mistakes...
P.S.S I know it's kinda long, but I think it's worth the time...

The right to be delirious - Eduardo Galeano

The new millennium is already being born. We should not take the subject very seriously: after all, year 2001 of the Christians is year 1379 of the Muslims, the 5114 of Mayan and the 5762 of the Jews. The new millenium is born on the first of January by a whim of the senators of the Roman empire, whom a good day decided to break the tradition that commanded to celebrate the New Year in the beginning of the spring. And the account of the years of the Christian era comes from another whim: another good day, the Pope of Rome decided to put date to the birth of Jesus, although nobody knows when it was born.

The time makes fun the limits we put on him so that we believe that he obeys us; but the entire world celebrates and fears this limits.

An invitation to the flight

Millenium goes, millenium comes, the occasion is propitious so that the speakers orate on the destiny of the humanity, and so that the spokesmen of the wrath of God announce the end of the world and general chaos, while the time continues, very silently with its long walk throughout the eternity and the mystery.

The truth rules, no one that resists to ask in a date like this, anyyone feels the temptation to ask itself how it will be the time that will be. And no one knows how it will really be. We have a unique certainty: in century twenty-one, we will all be people of the past century and, even worse, we will be people of the past millenium.

Although we cannot guess the time that will be, we have the right, at least, to imagine how we want it to be. In 1948 and 1976, the United Nations proclaimed extensive lists of human rights; but the immense majority of the humanity does not have more rights than to see, to hear and to be silent. What so if we began to exert our never proclaimed right to dream? What so if we are delirious, just for a moment? We are going to put our eyes beyond infamia, to guess another possible world:

the air will be clean of all poison that does not come from the human fears and the human passions;

in the streets, the automobiles will be squashed by the dogs;

people will not be handled by the automobile, neither will be programmed by the computer, nor will be bought by the supermarket, nor will be watched by the television;

the television will stop being the most important member of the family, and will be treated as the plate or the washing machine;

people will work to live, instead of to live to work;

the crime of stupidity will be incorporated to all panalty codes, which is committed by those who live to have or to win, instead of just living, as the bird that sings without knowing it, or as the child plays;

in no country the boys who refuse military service will be imprisioned, that imprisioned ones will be those that want to do it;

the economists will not call consumption level "standard of life", nor will call "quality of life" to the amount of things;

the cooks will not think that to the lobsters like to be boiled alive;

the historians will not think that countries love to be invaded;

the politicians will not think that poor people love to eat their promises;

the solemnity will no longer be considered a virtue, and nobody will take in serious those who can't laugh about themselves;

death and money will lose their magical powers, and neither death nor fortune will make a evil person become a virtuous person;

nobody will be considered a hero nor a fool for doing what we thinks is right instead of doing what is better for himself;

the world will no longer be in war against the poor, but against the poverty, and the war industry will not have more remedy than to declare bankrupt;

the food will not be merchandise, nor the communication a business, because the food and the communication are both human rights;

nobody will die of hunger, because nobody will die of indigestion;

the children of the street will not be treated as if they were trash, because there will be no children on the streets;

the rich children will not be treated as if they were money, because there will be no rich children;

the education will not be the privilege of those who can pay it;

the police will not be the curse of those who cannot buy it;

justice and the freedom, siamese brothers condemned to live separated, will return to join themselves, back against back;

a black woman will be president of Brazil and another black woman, will be president of the United States of America; an aboriginal woman will govern Guatemala and another one, Peru;

in Argentina, the crazy people of Place of May will be an example of mental health, because they refused to forget in the times of obligatory amnesia;

our holy mother: Church, will correct the errata of the 10 commandments, and the sixth one will order to celebrate the body;

the Church also will dictate another commandment, that was forgotten by God: “You will love the nature, from which you are part”;

the deserts of the world and the deserts of the soul will be reforested;

the lost ones will be found, because they are the ones that are hopeless of waiting and those that got lost looking for something;

we will be contemporary compatriots of all who have the will of justice and will of beauty, not taking in account where they have been born or where they live, knowing that borders on the map or on the time doesn't count;

the perfection will continue being the boring privilege of the Gods; and in this unfair and fucked world, every night will be lived as if was our last one and every day as if was our first one.

Then I will give you some amazing phrases by this writer:

Now the tortures are called illegal pressures. The treason is called realism. Opportunism is called pragmatism. Imperialism is called globalization. And the victims of imperialism are called developing countries.

We are in the heat of the culture of the package. The marriage contract matters more than the love, the funeral more than the dead, the clothes more than the body and the mass more than God.

Utopia is in the horizon. If I approach two steps, she moves away two steps. If I approach ten steps, she moves away ten steps. No matter how much I walk, I will never reach it. Then, what is the purpose of utopia? For that: it serves to walk

I can't manage to sleep. I have a woman crossed between the eyelids. If it could, it would tell her to go away; but I have a woman crossed between my throat.

World-wide economy is the most efficient expression of organized crime. The international organisms that control the currency, the commerce and the credit practice the terrorism against the poor countries, and the poor people of all the countries, with a professional coldness and impunity that humiliate even the best killers... The gunmen who rent themselves to kill make the same task that fulfills the work of generals congratulated by crimes that rise to the category of military glories... The rapists who ferociously violate the nature and the human rights, never go imprisoned. They have the keys of all the jails. In this upside down world, the countries that guard universal peace are those that make more weapons and those that sell more weapons to the other countries; the most prestigious banks are those than more narco-dollars use and those that keep more robbed money; the most successful industries are those than they poison the planet more; and the salvation of the environment is the most shining business of the companies that annihilate it. Those who kill more people in less time, or gain more money with smaller work, or exterminate the greatest amount of nature at the smallest cost, are the ones worthy of impunity and greetings...

Thank you for taking the time to read!

 

interesting, he makes some great points that if you dont take the time to read can miss. we need more minds like his.

 

For anyone who just skipped over the piece and read the following comments - GO BACK AND READ IT! You may not necessarily agree but it will certainly make you think.

 

really great and interesting text!!! true quote about utopia in the end, I liked it!

but for it`s the curse of all long texts, no matter how interesting they may be, that people scan them and don`t read them thouroughly, I can only agree with the previous speaker in pleading everybody to take the time and read this text!

a lot of good ideas!