Je Suis Charlie juste pur aujourd’hui

Let’s just begin by saying that what happened last week in Paris couldn’t be justified by anything. Period. It makes me sick to the core to hear some people saying they were asking for it. It’s just like saying that a woman in a short dress is looking to get raped. Nothing can justify the murder of innocent people. Regardless if their work was crude or offensive. Democracy and the right of free speech do not mean that we protect only the popular messages; the unpopular ones should get the same opportunity to be heard. And religion, like all other beliefs, should be subject to criticism.

Of course unpopular messages will stir controversy. But no one can argue that the people behind them are not brave. If it weren’t for brave people in general, I would still be living in a communist country, with no access to the free world. So to honor the people from my country, who died 25 years ago so I’ll be able to freely express myself today, and brave people everywhere in the world, I will be a Charlie for a day. I will write down some of my thoughts that have proven to be quite unpopular to the people I know. If the biggest cautious, people-pleaser person like myself can do this for a day, then anybody could exercise the right of free speech.

Here it goes, few of my ideas for which some our readers will hate me and others will consider me crazy:

1. I do believe that religion has brought people equally hope and tragedy. If not more on the tragedy side. Not ever has a belief been behind so many dreadful wars and deaths. Today it’s the extremist Islam, but let’s not forget that Christianity took its share of victims in the Middle Ages. The number of the horrid executions of the Spanish Inquisition only, varies a lot in different sources, but most of them agree on tens of thousands. And up to this day, I have only met a handful of religious people who truly live in the spirit of their religion, which most of the times refers to love, understanding, kindness and forgiveness. On the contrary, most of the religious practitioners I’ve met are the most judgmental and prejudicial people, for whom religion resumes to a list of practices they do every day.

2. I believe that most of the people under 25 years old should not yet become parents. I’ve seen enough traumatized and unhappy children to realize that a person who has not yet established a clear sense of him/her self cannot properly guide into the world another human being. Some of the latest psychology books even extend adolescence to the age of 25, one more reason to believe that the personality is still developing, not to mention the life experience, which is just in the beginning of accumulating enough stories and events to learn from.

3. Scientifically, altruism does not exist. It is just a notion fabricated by society to describe the acts that seem more oriented towards the others. In fact, all people are, at the core of the decision making process, only focusing on themselves. I would not call that selfishness, but self-centrism.

Which basically makes identical the process by which somebody makes a sacrifice for a cause and somebody else steals. Both actions have a ‘selfish’ reason, although different, but nevertheless, very self oriented. Person A will save a human life, ultimately for a very personal reason, animated by a personal value and not because of the human life itself. That is just the trigger in the decision making process. It works like this: I see a person in danger. Then MY system of values comes into action. What is more important for ME? MY basic survival needs (which tell me that being a hero is the most stupid thing I could do) or MY self-fulfilling needs (which tell that being a hero is the ultimate value)? Depending on MY answer and MY needs, I will take action to intervene or not. Same with stealing.

4. I believe that we all have a public personality, a private one and a secret one. We all have unrevealed thoughts, desires, and needs. If we were able to read each other’s minds I think in most cases we’d consider ourselves a bunch of monsters and we’d live solitary, in caves. If there is a God up there, he did good not allowing that.

5. I’ve just had it with people who always feel the need to oppose a mainstream idea, just for the sake of being against it. Every time a big idea emerges, I can just immediately predict who will be against it, sometimes with childish or no arguments. People, wake up! First of all, you are not unique. You are just as well part of another category, another box – the ‘anti’ box. Second of all, please think for a minute before saying something. Not all mainstream ideas are bad. And you know what? Coming up with an anti-idea is not so difficult. Developing THE IDEA is. You should try this sometimes… (And no, I would never shoot down any of you 🙂 )

I am the first to confess that I hastily judged the Ice Bucket Challenge, which I considered the most frivolous, relevance-lacking type of action, to which most people participated just for a moment of fame, without even knowing what amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is. But the results speak for themselves. In 2014 the ALS received $98.2m, compared with $2.7m donated during the same period last year.

6. This should make you smile (even if for the reason of seeing me institutionalized). I believe aliens exist, as in other civilizations. With the size of the Universe yet unknown and the observable universe with dimensions that my mind cannot even comprehend (like a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years) I cannot imagine how life would not be possible in other galaxies.

I’ll stop here, not claiming more than looking at my opinions as different perspectives of the same reality. The most important thing is to remember that not only freedom of speech was attacked last week, but freedom in general, as not only Christian journalists died, but also Jews and Muslims.