Not long time ago a handful of seniors entered some kindergartens in China with a wish to kill the children,and in so doing save them from a lifetime spent in our horrible era. Simultaneously,European countries face a time of limited community-based mental health services due to cuts to their public health budgets,as in Greece.
Nobody can hide from the social unrest present in many countries,the malady is not limited to Greece;people do not believe what governments say,are dragged left and right by political groups trying to win votes,and continue to look for answers with the clear feeling they will find few,or none. There are plenty of economic analyses where the explanation often coagulates around the word ‘corporation’;but there is also something else we could recall as people feel more and more alone;Das Narren Schiff (Ship of Fools) written by Sebastian Brant in 1494.
Notable for including the first commissioned work by artist-engraver Albrecht Dürer,the Ship of Fools is a collection of satires. Much of Brant’s work was critical of the current weaknesses and vices of his time,and today it turns up as a good example of critique against Governments,Churches and politicians.
Fools as we might feel today,and in spite of the digital revolution we witness,no satire can reach and hit any contemporary courts. In the mean time those who try to safe Europe,and Greece,report the raise of homeless people on the roads of Europe,and Athens. How not to recall that crazy people where confined into ships,and exiled from villages,in Medieval times? Certainly this is too absurd,and it will never be possible nowadays…Still,it might be the time to stop acting as coarse people do,look into the eyes of the fool we hide inside of us,and check our lonely truth:maybe we can do something before we become the seniors who hit the kindergartens.
Romana Turina is a lecturer in Communication at the University of Indianapolis. She works as screenwriter and research thematics concerning dramaturgy,memory studies,and animation as applied to the divulgation of knowledge.
