In the years of my youth I was closely linked to different leftist political parties in my country. Those were cold war times and for a boy like me the division of the world was extremely simplistic. On one side were the "good communists" of the USSR, Cuba and China, and on the other the "bad capitalists" of the USA and Europe.
At that time I was in very diverse groups, from the most extremist, people convinced of the need for armed struggle to achieve power, to groups that considered it necessary to take advantage of the advantages offered by the nascent Venezuelan democracy.
I devoted a lot of time and energy to these organizations, I went from one to another trying to find the one that best suited my temperament and interests.
However, there was something that I never quite understood; ideology was always put above people. The ultimate ends of the party were more important than the people, and the possibility of so-called "collateral damage" was always present, which in simpler language meant the possibility of harming human lives.
My difficulty in accepting the omnipotent presence of ideology made me a bad militant. I realized that in those groups there was no room for dissent. If I questioned "some orders" my remarks were not well received. There was no room for debate. Those groups seemed to be modeled on the military style, where people just obeyed what someone else had decided.
My lack of discipline to abide by "party lines" made me an undesirable guy, and in the end I had no choice but to resign from those militancies.
But that bad experience made me more clear on two very important issues: one, that the world's problems are much more complex than we can see at first glance. And two, that we must be very careful about the leaders we elect to represent us.
To alleviate these two problems I have mentioned, it is necessary to continue to insist on educating people. But that education must give more importance to essential issues such as respect for others and the search for solutions to the problems of coexistence.
I know that it is not easy to combine the technical knowledge needed in a technological society like ours with other knowledge, also necessary, and which would be aimed at improving day-to-day coexistence. But if we do not learn to tolerate each other, if we do not find a way to enhance the spirit of collaboration, it will be very difficult to solve all the problems that our species has created.
I must confess that it is not easy for me to imagine solutions to such complicated issues as migration, wars or climate change. These issues are way beyond me, they leave me speechless.
However, I am convinced that each one of us can contribute a lot to make the world a better place. If each one of us sets our minds to it, it is possible to make small changes that are within our reach, that will surely have an impact on our immediate environment, and that may even extend beyond our neighborhoods.
It would be enough, for example, to be kinder to our neighbors, to be more tolerant of those who think differently from us. If we learn to listen more and criticize less, we are likely to improve our relationships with those close to us.
Perhaps it is very necessary to change the way we have learned about how things work.
So far the vast majorities are convinced that it is the political leaders who are responsible for finding solutions to problems.
Perhaps that is true for global issues. But those leaders are not responsible for the relationships that we neighbors on my street have. It is my neighbors and I who are responsible for making our street a different place. We are the ones who can make that space a small oasis in the middle of the desert.
That possibility of transforming our environment should be enough to put us into action.
If each one of us takes a first step, it is likely that others will follow...
I am publishing this post motivated by the initiative proposed by my friend @ericvancewalton, Memoir Monday, in the week thirty-two. For more information click on the link.
Thank you for your time.
Images edited in Canva and Photoshop.
Logo creado por @themanualbot
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