The pending evolution

What clever and precise was José Monleón when he entitled his warning-alert book in 2011: “Century XXI: the pending evolution”!  Because today, five years later, with the urgency that many processes, within the anthropocene (social, environmental…), can reach points of no return, which would be of intolerable and historical grievance to the future generations, we realize that it is necessary to implement the pending evolution without delay.

If there is no evolution there will be revolution. The difference, I never tire of repeating, is the "r" of "responsibility". It is essential to overcome the inertia -our main challenge- and dare to face the challenges of our time quietly but firmly, especially those that lead to leave to future generations a conceptual legacy of worse quality than the one we have received. We must remember, I like also to reiterate, the terrible phrase of Albert Camus: ""They were despised, because they could have done so much, yet dared to do so little." It is essential to invent tomorrow. Considering it, we must release ourselves from fear, as stated so lucidly in the preamble of the Declaration of Human Rights. It is urgent daring to know and be able to dare.

Due to digital technology, we can express ourselves today, we already know what happens and, therefore, being citizens of the world with a "global consciousness", we should behave in a reactive way with an attitude of firm resistance, resilience to avoid through a great multitudinous outcry "the complete abandonment of the political class to the economic powers." José Monleón emphasized then the "importance of the immense media power to diminish or even eliminate the popular reaction: we face the tireless Four Riders of the Apocalypse, capable of triggering the deepest regressions: fanaticism, ignorance, autocracy and manipulation of the information". The guarantee of the change and the evolution is the genuine democracy. Be "free and responsible" as enshrined in the UNESCO’s Constitution to well educated so that finally the reins of destiny are framed within the hands of "We, the peoples ...”.

During the eighties, neoliberalism marginalized the United Nations and were substituted by plutocratic groups (G6, G7, G8 ... G20), cooperation substituted by exploitation and sharing - which is the key to the new era- by accumulating. In order to achieve development that now becomes a genuine emergency, we must reject the peace of security for the safety of peace and justice.

From the present, it is essential to know well the past to invent the future. The fundament of hope is that future is yet to be written (el por-venir está por-hacer)). And the supreme gift that differentiates the human species is the faculty of creating.

Society will not accept becoming accustomed anymore and being a spectator rather than actor. It will begin to turn against those who expect, with a gigantic entertainment industry, keeping us frightened and inhibited.

From force to word. Only the evolution -in which the woman is the “cornerstone"-, according to President Nelson Mandela- will allow the transition from a culture of imposition, domination, violence and war to a culture of encounter, reconciliation, non-violence and peace, so that the "Si vis pacem para bellum" becomes "Si vis pacem para verbum", making possible the full emancipation of human beings, acting under their own decisions and never to anyone’s dictation.

Evolution in order that all pass from raised hands to given hands. An urgent evolution led by academic, scientific, artistic and intellectual communities that cannot be anymore impassive and silent without fully exercising the faculties that human species has exclusively.

Hopefully soon -I wrote in the book's foreword of José Monleón- tsunamis or great cataclysms will not be necessary to occur in order to feel the imperative need to acting, not to remain idle, inattentive, so we achieve the world not as it is but as it should be.

The state of uncertainty of the fulfilled society is approaching. The time of friendship, love, detachment, of permanent attitude of service, of permanent affiliation in favor of equal human dignity, harmonious coexistence is coming.

As quoted by Maria Novo, "it is necessary to display the ability to discern possible worlds where no one has to be born with hunger written in advance.”

Whether they recognize it or not, we are living authentic historical "leaps" that may soon position us under conditions that make a well reckoned evolution preserving what should be preserved and changing diligently what should be changed. To invent the future is the great challenge and the great unavoidable mission.

This year, at the initiative of the International Peace Bureau, an extremely active campaign of "disarmament for development" takes place, which would provide the necessary funds for the implementation of the agreements of the Paris Summit on Climate Change and ODS (Sustainable Development Goals), while security at global level is not affected. As the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates proclaimed in December, it would be enough 20% of the immense flows today dedicated to military and weapons expenditures in order that humanity could begin this new beginning that is absolutely unavoidable. The final meeting of "disarmament for development" will take place in Berlin in early October of this year. It must raise a great popular outcry, with a special mobilization led by the creators, intellectuals, in order that evolution prevents revolution.

Some years ago, Ernesto Sabato already warned us that "There is a way to contribute to change: not giving up". Let us carry out the pending evolution summoned by José Monleón. Let us place ourselves at the forefront of mobilization in order not to deserve the verses of Otto René Castillo who wrote in the 70s in his unforgettable book "Report of injustice": "One day / intellectuals / apolitical / of my country / will be questioned / by an average man / of our people. / They will be asked / about what they did / when / the country / was turning off / slowly / like a sweet fire, / small and alone”. Now is the world that is "off" precipitously. Let us act so we can say in a short time that we were able to carry out the pending evolution.