CHRIS AURET

I will start by simply stating that we cannot carry on in this world as we are currently living. It’s something I’ve discussed with many people and I’m sure you will agree with the statement but the question is, what are you going to do about it? I am so disappointed to see the ways in which we are brought up in a society which places its emphasis on material objects, money and procreation. The idea of the celebrity. The idea of advertising. The idea that we are but a cog in one big machine and we have only to worry about our own life and block out the rest. Block out the starving people on our very own continent. Block out the fact that wars between countries are still going on. Block out the fact that we CAN actually make a difference and not think it’s beyond our control. After all, life is less than 100 years, who cares about what happens after that? I will no longer entertain the thought that life is as meaningless as this. 

I believe we have all been brought into this world to change it or add to it in a positive way. Wether you go on to become a journalist, singer, farmer, plumber, art director, etc, we can all be a part of a society which aims to create a better world. I believe it is up to our generation to create this change. We have been lucky to be a part of the transcendence from a world without internet and crazy technology into a world where a phone can show you the constellations in the sky and communication has no boundaries. This minor fact has had a big impact with how I see the future. The way children interact with each other nowadays via Facebook or phones isn’t healthy but they know no different. It then becomes a matter of responsibility on our behalf to educate them and provide an example of technologies benefits and pit falls.

If you look into the past, we can easily see where people have disconnected themselves from the realm of the “real world” as they were dissatisfied with the way it worked. The 60’s were a good example of this. People got to together and actually stood for something. I remember being in a lecture at Vega where the lecturer (Tilla), was showing us slides of things which previous worldly beings have left on this planet. Stone Hinge, the Pyramids, artistic and cultural movements, etc, were just a few. And she then proceeded to ask us what are WE going to leave behind? That question really effected me. Because the more I thought about it, the more I realised I’m currently a part of a society I would be ashamed of when looking at the things we will leave behind at our current rate of living. Things like mounds of pollution spring to mind. A history of selfish acts and murder over religion. Reality TV. Or what we don’t leave behind for that matter. Like no more trees in the forrests. No more tigers in the wild. No more natural resources. We are milking the globe of all it’s worth as the we won’t be around to see the effects.

But the world is able to overcome these negative aspects quite easily if we all worked together for change. We’ve come very far from the Apartheid days where even then people fighting for change would have doubted the fact that change was possible, yet they stood for their beliefs, died for them even, to get us to where we are today. And it’s this action of standing for something which I want to try enforce in my everyday life from this point forward. And it can start small, by not throwing cigarette butts in the ocean for example, and it can end up bigger than anything we’ve ever dreamed. 

The one thing I can see now, more than ever, is that there are already so many people out there who share this belief and are doing something about it. It would be easy to just drop off the map, resigned to the fact the world is a harsh place and if that’s the way it is, then why not just leave it and create your own world of existence where you are content. But nothing will change if we do this. The cycle will carry on and on until there’s nothing left. If we all started to question everything, re-look at the answers we’ve been taught and start over and stand for the idea of World Peace (as cheesy as that sounds) then I believe it’s possible. If it isn’t then at least we tried and the world would have at least been a better place for those few years where we did. That would go down in history and I would be proud to have left that kind of mark on the earth. 

Look, I’m still coming to terms with all of this stuff going on in my head and I have no answers yet to where I see myself and what I will be doing to ensure I will create some kind of change. This is also just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I really want to say. But I can tell you this, I’m on a mission to figure out my role in this world. The saying “those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, often do” comes to mind. I’m a true believer in we are the masters of our own destiny and that the world will not end on 21 December but a school of thought will. You will have the decision of which side you are on and I think deep down, you will know where you stand even if you pretend otherwise. Something in me made me write this for you to read and if I have made you think a little more, then I have already begun my quest for a better existence. We have power beyond our imagination and it’s waiting to be harnessed. Now you know where I’m currently at. I am open to any ideas of how to move forward from here. I hope to have started a conversation. And I will leave you with two quotes I’ve recently recorded from books read:

“There are always people who dare to seek on the margin of society, who are not dependent on social acceptance, not dependent on social routine, and prefer a kind of free-floating existence under a state of risk. And among these people, if they are faithful to their own calling, to their own vocation and to their own message from “God”, communication on the deepest level is possible. And the deepest level of communication is not communication, but communion. It is wordless. It is beyond words and it is beyond speech and it is beyond concept.” – Thomas Merton

“Many labour under the illusion that the only war is evil and that if it could be averted, man could go on peacefully to create paradise on earth. What is forgotten is that in both the state of war and peace, man is waging incessant war upon nature” – Seyyed Hosseinnasr

We can change the world.