December 27, 2024 Books
In my opinion we have not become blind, in my opinion we are.
Blind people who see.
Blind people who see but do not see.
Blindness. A savage humanity, incapable of seeing things rationally
Perhaps Saramago wanted to warn humanity about the elites’ shady hidden agendas…
At an unspecified time and place, the entire population suddenly loses their sight due to an unexplained epidemic.
Those affected are enveloped in a milky cloud.
The psychological reactions are devastating, there is an unstoppable explosion of terror and gratuitous violence, and the effects of the disease on social coexistence are dramatic.
Blindness erases all forms of mercy and plunges humanity into barbarism, unleashing a brutal survival instinct.
A savage humanity, incapable of seeing things rationally.
Destruction, cruelty, degradation, indifference, selfishness, power, overpowering.
A war of all against all.
A harsh denunciation of the darkness of reason.
Although in the end there is a glimmer of light and salvation.
You are the guilty, you, only you.
“Josè Saramago – Seeing”
Later, Jose Saramago wrote “Seeing“, a sequel to “Blindness“.
And so I repeat the (rhetorical) question from before: perhaps he wanted to warn humanity of the shady and hidden (but not too much) plans of the elites ?
In a non-place, the capital of a hypothetical contemporary country, a totally unexpected fact happens once again.
Seventy percent of the citizens cast a blank ballot.
Therefore, the government of the country decides to have the police spy on the citizens and hold new elections.
However, the police do not discover anything new.
The government cannot find any subversive organizations.
And the new election brings an even more surprising result.
83 percent of the citizens cast a blank ballot.
Four years earlier, another momentous and inexplicable event had occurred: a collective blindness.
In order to solve this “electoral problem”, the rulers decided to take drastic measures typical of dictatorial processes: from the state of siege of the capital to the centralization of power in the hands of an increasingly small group of politicians.
The revolutionary results of the elections were branded as terrorism.
Although the country’s constitution provides for secret voting, blank or void ballots and abstention, the rulers completely ignore this possibility.
Of course, the rulers and the President of the Republic do not even entertain the idea that the election result could be the logical consequence of their reckless political management…
