I am the Aborigine of the 21st century.
The history and culture of the Australian Aborigines have got me since I read the first travel journal about them. After two years of research, only a few weeks ago I discovered how much they have in common with us - young adult Europeans - and how much we can learn from them.
As a person growing up in times when nothing can be assumed anymore, and the next day is like a lottery, it makes my personality, thinking, and reactions to things hypersensitive. There are moments when the next decision-making or answering the question "But why?" is a failure. Today, we no longer have patterns that we can follow. It seems like we have everything, but we get lost quickly unguided. Our book of moral principles is a mix of many online e-guides, articles, and YouTube videos published by others. In times of uncertainty, when those resources fail, we consult our loved ones, who again know as much as their experience has given them. What's more, and more disturbing, it turns out that it's not just me anymore. Reading about liquid modernity and observing the problems faced by my friends, I see that growing up outside my small inner circle.
Great romantics in the modern world, you’d better run!
I can boldly admit that I consider myself as one of those people, who still appreciate the beauty of the world. The ones who enjoy small moments, care about others and are sensitive to the changes in this world. Sometimes I feel like being from a different epoque. After a long day, it happens so often that I just end up laying on my bed and screaming: “What happened to the great romantics of this world?” It’s like we were put on the racetrack driven by the need to consume, constantly spurring to action, offers of a better life, and we forgot the simple things! Eventually, it led us to the fact that the journey and the goal of the race stopped being crucial. Instead, we chose to drug ourselves with the constant feeling of emotional refueling. So, we have got to the point of blindly circling, driven by endless stimuli. What happens with those, who can't keep up? They get lost somewhere along the way and irrelevantly, are trash out of the race. What if we want to stop to recharge, but it’s hard to find a place? We get crushed by others, seemingly stronger players of this world.
"We were put on the racetrack driven by the need to consume, the constant spur to action, the offers of a better life, which eventually led to the fact that the goal and journey of the race itself became less important. Instead, more important was the constant feeling of additional fueling emotions to keep going.”
During the day we meet and see people shine. They proudly parade at the front of the race, devouring the next goods of this world. They skillfully use the goods offered by the 21st century. They are fast, agile, and want to live in the moment. They don't have to think about the future because what matters is here and now. They do not want and do not need to form permanent bonds. They travel, earn money, enjoy life, and do not try to build any permanent connections. When something bad happens to them or they simply fail, they don't have to fix it and put in extra effort, because it's easier and better to replace it with something and someone new. They rush ahead. To live - they buy and use services while driving the merry-go-round of this world called consumption. Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes feel like one of them, so I get that. However, let’s remember, these are not the values that make our lives morally valuable. It doesn't bring us any closer to humanity, rather it takes us further away.
Let’s look at those people who know that but still somehow manage to stay in the race.
They face a great challenge. True, they quickly adapt to the norms and trends of the world, but they see that this is not the path to follow fully. Well, certain values, traditions, and permanent patterns such as family, care for nature, or religion have remained in their minds. They need and try to recreate the patterns that have been handed down to them by older generations. However, in liquid modernity, it is not so easy to find a group that thinks the same way. For example, let’s take Christmas. How many of us celebrate it fully in a traditional way? I met many who treat it just as a time off, a holiday. It is no longer about being magical and special. People with traditions and role models become a rarity – the individuals in the rushing marathon.
I feel it. It's harder for us. We fight with ourselves and try to adapt. We were born just like others, at the same time, but our values and perception of the world around us set us apart. We fight, but we get hit a lot more along the way, because we feel that we care, but we are a minority.
Australian Aborigines: it’s all about survival.
In this way, we are like those who have been defending their beliefs, traditions, and values continuously for hundreds of thousands of years. Being the oldest living people on earth, they continue to live in liquid modernity with us. I am talking here about Australian Aborigines.
Currently, they make up only two percent of the entire community inhabiting Australia. Like African tribes, Native American communities in North America, and the descendants of the Incas and Aztecs in South America, they are now seen as a remnant and somewhat of a living attraction. In addition to the tourist and cultural aspect, they are an invisible people to the rest of the world, bringing no value to anyone. For the neighbors behind the fence, one could even say colloquially - an obstacle to the development and expansion of new residential areas.
Despite a bloody history lasting for about two hundred years including even threatening, complete extermination, the Aborigines live to this day. They have survived and are trying to live with us in this modern world that is so different and so alien. Many of them abandoned the sense of fighting and surrendered to a passive lifestyle, because, as they explain, they do not want and cannot imagine passing on such valuable and unique knowledge of their ancestors to their children condemned to live in today's world. Others are trying to adapt by going to Australian schools and working in "white" places. There are also those who are still suspended between two worlds, struggling with a double identity whenever possible, they return to the bush to spend time with nature, like their ancestors.
Europeans - Aborigines: we are all the same.
As they do, we survive. Although our beliefs and moral values differ from those imposed by the fast pace of 21st-century life, we still wake up every morning hoping. For some, the struggle seems to last for centuries - for them, it has lasted for millennia. By all appearances, it might seem we are only a minority, those two percent of the whole continent, but when we look around and search more carefully, we conclude that there are much more of us. So, like the Aborigines, let’s not lose hope, and let’s remember, without us, our world is just an endlessly looped artificially created high state. We are the ones that make it beautiful and valuable. Our dreams, words, and empathy soon will be needed more than ever.
C.
