Martín Caparrós, Those days. study on the Presentand, trans. Maria Szafranska-Brandt, Literary Publishing home 2025
We should effort to realize those times. We all know why they're at the centre of interest. We discuss them a lot, but we frequently miss their basic image. Therefore, so that they could be decently analysed and presented in general outlines without going into detail, I was asked to draw up a textbook in which the planet would be restored and shown a century ago, in the 3rd decade of the 21st century.
Martín Caparrós is simply a writer and writer from Argentina, author of a monumental report-eseju HungerSo we know his heart and his head is on his left. The communicative procedure that he is utilizing this time – as you may have known – is to look at our times from the point of view of past written in a 100 years. As you can see, in the future past textbooks will be written little academically – living, simple language, utilizing data, but not overloading them with text, not avoiding grades, not even sharp ones – it was shameful!, ironic and not hiding the surprise that 1 could live like this at all.
The list of discussed issues is long – from regular life descriptions to global and structural problems, and each chapter is accompanied by a human history. And these are very different résumés: average people from different parts of the world, specified as a Bangladeshi seamstress, celebrated characters specified as Putin, Trump or Xi Jinping, or a mediocre Dominican boy who was celebrated for 1 day (15 November 2022), due to the fact that he was considered an eight-billion-dollar resident of the Earth. From our point of view, is the author sometimes wrong? Maybe, but it's hard to blame her erstwhile she's not even born yet. Besides, if you're a resident of a widely understood left-wing bubble, you'll be surprised. So what is the general outline of the present report?
It seems to us that we live in the end times – it will be worse, or possibly even so bad, that it is not worth having children anymore. It is easier to imagine the end of the planet than the end of capitalism (the historian gives no sources of quotes, But I think it's Zižek.). We're more depressed and desperate than hope, we're traumatized by the pandemic, we're obsessed with climate change. Besides, we're afraid there's besides many people, and they're migrating. And that they will replace us with robots and enslave AI. Is that right? No, due to the fact that I don't think the end of the planet will come, but a certain era is truly ending.
The antiquity ended in 476 erstwhile the Germanic tribes captured Rome, the Turks' capture of Constantinople in 1453 ended the mediate Ages, and the modern era of the French Revolution (1789) or the emergence of the United States of America (1776). What followed is what we call modernity, and the historian of the Western era, which means not a geographical place, but planet influences and spreads of the economical model and Western customs. In this case, it is hard to indicate a spectacular event that would become a symbol of the end of this era, but there is simply a proposal that the end of 2021, erstwhile it was announced that China was richer than the United States (of course it is not about the per capita wealth).
Does this mean that China will be a planet hegemon in a 100 years? Not necessarily. The author of the textbook frequently concludes her arguments with a statement: we know how it ended, but we do not know, and we would like to. That's why I was paying attention to all the tiniest clues that would let me to figure out what had happened in those 100 years and what this fresh planet looks like. Is it not excluded that something violent, serious war, revolution happened? The book is so fresh that the author takes into account the war in Ukraine (he stands on the good side of power, although he besides lists how much and who earns from it), as the first real war after a long period of comparative peace. And it seems that this is not the last war.
For the world's main problem, how about the author Hunger It's no wonder that increasing inequality is recognised, a group of oligarchs and billionaires, large corporations that politicians don't control. The main division is the rich planet and the mediocre world, in which billion people are inactive susceptible to hunger. We know which countries belong, but in these rich are besides people belonging to the planet of the Poor, and in those poorer rich elites. Looks like this problem will be solved in a 100 years.
By the way, there's any biting remarks about identity policies. woke (self-handling your own group) and... environmental movements. The word “save the planet” is so pointless that the planet is safe, it will be for a long time, but it is crucial that we all live on it safely and decently. And this is primarily a task for the Rich World, which must change its bloated consumption habits, quit quite a few unnecessary and frequently even harmful products, halt shifting its weights, garbage and contamination to the mediocre World. That's degrowth! And it's full.
Western democracy is surely no longer working. Governments depend on rich people and will not change the existing order. Politicians, egotistical and corrupt, are 1 of the worst rated groups Social.
"On the basis of the preserved documentation, we see that politicians were very elegant peoples who spoke rarely, utilizing about a 100 very long words written in a conviction that clearly said nothing should be said explicitly. (...) Through their actions, politicians have made citizens believe that politics is simply a combination of pacts, agreements and arrangements, secret plans that political leaders game in corners, in the midst of luxury.” The belief that politics is simply a cesspool causes social demobilization. "And if citizens voted, many did not know precisely what and for whom and made decisions according to absurd criteria." A 100 years from now, they're all expected to be working side by side to accomplish common goals.
Development is besides hampered by nationalisms, religions and various superstitions – this will end.
Finally, the most future issues – technological progress, the Internet, artificial intelligence, virtuality. Algorithms that govern us and dangers associated with surveillance and control, and on the another hand colossal possibilities. And here, based on the faint grounds, let me speculate what the planet of the author of the textbook looks like. We know that there is simply a Central head in it that could have written specified a textbook on its own, but it was commissioned by man. erstwhile asked why, he gives an ambiguous answer, something about sensitivity and the way he looks – “open, empty talk”. I think we've heard that from Chat before.
However, I was most afraid by the way in which our regular customs are described, as if they were absolutely exotic and in a fresh incomprehensible reality. A 100 years is not specified a long position – 3 generations, 1 very long life, so the change had to be colossal. For example, the author of the textbook wonders how we live in multifamily blocks. The thought of surviving half a metre above the heads of others and half a metre below someone's feet seems absurd, as does sleeping on flat rectangular bags filled with foam and placed on racks. And that people don't walk naked, but they pull up 2 tubes called pants or 1 called skirt.
There are quite a few these things, and clearly, I realize that this look of a Martian or an astounded anthropologist is intended to denaturalize our planet and is entertaining, and so attractive to the reader. However, remembering the crucial category for the author of the manual is "virtuality", I have a disturbing imagination – in a 100 years everything will be handled by robots and we will live like in Matrix: bodies in cocoons, and we in the virtual world. Although possibly that's not the worst thought at all, as long as the Central head someway programs the planet well.
