To open the imagination of the world in which we live, we certainly constantly turn to science fiction as a genre that allows us to create new worlds, control it or get ahead of the facts. So it’s no wonder that both popular series or movies like Years and Years or Black Mirror and even Star Wars and so many others, the futuristic and distant world that comes along, seems increasingly real as the years go on and the network of technologies advances. But behind that lies nothing conspiratorial from some transnational company but a given context. What we see on screens are contemporary social and political problems as well as more complex ones, such as climate change or a pandemic.
Thus science fiction creates multiple supports of results that are the representations of the contemporary world or of our time, but we must also take into account the historical factors whether political, social and cultural that we go through. Understanding the above not only as science fiction, COVID-19 then becomes the parable of the world we are going through: a capitalism-neoliberal in a crisis that we do not yet know what its repercussions will be; accelerated evidence of climate change; the crisis of representative democracy; how globalization has been built; In short, COVID-19 invites us to seek solutions not only to the pandemic of course, but to the web of complexities that our civilization is going through.
The world is in suspense, and then what?
The world is in suspense
The development of coVID-19 has left everyone on a unseen suspense.
The global market and its network of interdependencies has brought down all world capitals and an already heralded global recession. All activities are paralyzed or are being developed by virtual social networks; raw materials are no longer extracted as they did a few months ago; or people turned their house into an office. All people are looking forward to what is coming for them, their families, friends, the country and humanity. There is a justified uncertainty of the future. Apparently the web of interdependencies that we had built in this <> was quite fragile and did not protect people.
And no one has the pan of the future in their hands, nor are we going to say that the capitalist-neoliberal system will be over during the pandemic; but if it puts us in exercise and no longer just to jog but to run, in the need to stop being in suspense and expectant to the world that is to come, or we would like to create. We must put a ring on the world we want, the world that differs from it.
Science fiction has taught us that it is not only the representation of our world but also the world we aspire to, which we seek to overcome. We cannot only continue to describe reality and assume its limits, we must go beyond suspense to the world in which we want to live. Let’s be the chapter of hope for this sci-fi chapter.
The world to come
Each continent and country will face the future differently within the web of interdependencies, some that are sent and others that do not. But if it has left the weaknesses and concerns of this way of organizing and that we can live differently and in other times. Same technology but at the service of social majorities; a State that is understood as a state of social law and not that favours the market. The world that is about to come is beginning to take shape now and we can move forward to take the necessary action.
How far we can crack the world we build, it must be seen. But that will not happen overnight or by the will alone, but will be a web of interdependencies that conspire towards it. As the best sci-fi series or movie, there’s a time when the main characters take the plot pan over their hands: this is the moment when organized citizens project and concrete the world that’s coming.
And I’ll take a line pointing to New York Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: “Be empowered. Take some room. Make yourself heard. Keep the door open and take others with you.” Let’s make this series have a good ending.
The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.
