I just enjoyed a cup of cappuccino in front of a cafe not far from the campus that is still closed due to the pandemic. Efforts to complete assignments sometimes have to be completed by taking a break while enjoying a cup of drink so that my eyes stay open, my mind keeps moving, and my hands keep dancing nimbly on the keyboard. Even in the crowd, I feel like I have to find peace for that.
Towards noon this morning, people started to come here. A young woman wearing sunglasses, around her mid-30s, sat solemnly holding two cellphones, while occasionally smoking a cigarette that had not been finished since earlier. The smell of cigarettes began to be felt as one or two people came here after Eid. "Come here, my friend is here," said someone near me. For a moment, I tried to open Youtube to find a song that was nice to listen to this morning.
I met "Wind of Change" by Scorpion, a rock band from Germany. An old song, released in 1991, but revealing the hopes and wonders of a near future where children can dream beautifully, and we can all be closer like brothers: "...that we could be so close, like brothers." The winds of change are now also visible everywhere. Our children of the past have become today's leaders. In the midst of a circle of life linked to social media, many people must strategize in order to survive. The strategy of waiting for each other, even attacking each other, occurs in the virtual realm, in many cases.
We forget that now we are actually like brothers, or even already brothers. We are united by each unit, whether it is family, friendship, alumni, or by geography. However, the pleasure of attacking each other occurs, without any enthusiasm to learn. We prefer to hit first, think later. Tragic. Modern but barbaric again.
The winds of change show that phones have become smarter than their owners. The intelligence of using phones has increased greatly, but human wisdom has decreased drastically due to narcissistic desires and the desire to continue to update. Lack of deep thinking, what's important is: "like, just like, share, comment", "don't like, just unlike, don't spread, and bully."
I don't know what winds of change have made modernity like this. Modernity truly brings us to a higher, deeper level of reason, without forgetting our human side as humans.
We are taught to be critical, but we forget to practice criticism that doesn't embarrass ourselves plus civilized criticism. It's not popular, but the attitude of "not being embarrassed" and "civilized" is important to maintain our civilization as humans. Because, that is actually the essence of the height of human values.
I listened to Scorpion again. Even though Led Zeppelin, Bon Jovi, and Aerosmith couldn't wait to sing for me, starting from "stairway to heaven, always, to crazy", my heart is still attached to Scorpion. Not because a few days ago I just finished Mortal Kombat played by my favorite action actor, Hiroyuki Sanada, who played Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion, Bi-Han's enemy played by Joe Taslim.
"Take me to the magic of the moment on a glory night where the children of tomorrow dream away in the wind of change."
Our world has changed. Whether we realize it or not, many things have changed, starting from the increasingly damaged planet, which has the potential to threaten the survival of various species, and therefore demands that we be able to practice the "arts of living".
A group of concerned scientists then wrote together "Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet: Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene" (2017). The book edited by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, Nils Bubandt, Elaine Gan, Heather Anne Swanson, among others, offers a proposal on the importance of "collaborative survival" in facing various "ghost/monster" problems - including corona for the current context - that are present and threaten the existence of our species on this planet.
In the story of the struggle, we need collaboration. A dream and joint work to save our species from the possibility of extinction. Included there is the importance of us eliminating particular differences and fostering togetherness for our lives together, for all of us.
Anthropologist Tim Ingold, in The Life of Lines (2015) wrote that learning from babies, attachment is the first thing we do. All babies are attached to their mothers, then to other people in their community. All of us who are adults today are basically still attached to things around us, including this earth.
In the context of social relations, none of us can do anything alone. The rice that city people eat, for example, comes from the villages, and the fish served in luxury hotels comes from the work of fishermen. This means that we are all interconnected, interrelated, so it is important for us to get closer to each other, to work together on things that we agree on - for the common good - and start compromising on small things that can be reconciled.
If we are together, stability will be created. Togetherness is depicted by lines; relations between people, between communities, and between nations. Humans must bind themselves in such a way that even if there is tension in any season of change, the tension can be held back so that it does not separate us all. On the contrary, being interconnected will make us stronger, more stable, and able to face common enemies on this planet.
YANUARDI SYUKUR is an Indonesian writer who is also a lecturer, editor, researcher and speaker at various conferences and expert resource person on several Indonesian television stations and ministries. He has participated in various international programs in Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, the United States, as well as Ukraine. He is an anthropologist at Khairun University who is interested in various global issues. He is currently also active as Vice Chairman of the Islamic and Middle East Research Center (IMERC) of the University of Indonesia and is active in the Commission on Foreign Relations and International Cooperation of the Indonesian Ulama Council. E-mail: yanuardisyukur@gmail.com.
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