THE PROGRESS

 

THE PROGRESS

In the past, not even in dreams existed

So many bridges over rivers

No asphalt on the roads

We used four or five bells

To bring the pantaneiros

At the cattle rodeo...

Born in the waters of Santa Bárbara, in the state of São Paulo, Elias Costa, known as Índio Vago, wrote, together with Nonô Basílio, one of the most beautiful pages of our sertanejo songbook. Mágoas de Boiadeiro talks about the advancement of progress over things in the sertão, where yesterday's man no longer has a place in the new world that presents itself. The country man has two paths... either he updates himself or he simply disappears into the mists of time. The herdsman in the song fondly remembers his travels cutting the road, driving cattle with his companions, crossing rivers, camping on the side of the roads, running after the cattle when it strays from the group, flirting with the caboclas during their walk... .

We can say that this song talks much more than about the forced retired cowboy, although this is the first perception we have when listening to it. In fact, it talks about the difficulty we have, at first, to accept the changes that occur all the time around us. Yes, because the dynamics of the world do not allow it to stand still, there is always a change taking place around us, no matter in which niche we are inserted. Professions are born and disappear all the time and those who cannot reinvent themselves on this journey end up lost, with no direction to follow. Every second that passes, a function that we thought was primordial for society is extinguished, without the slightest shame, because it suddenly becomes obsolete. Examples? We have many around us. Today we already have bank branches that do not have any physical servers to serve customers in basic services, such as paying bills, withdrawing money or depositing money... supermarkets, buses... services that extinguished the figure of the cashier who welcomed customers and made the collection... in the factories, machines that came to replace the labor of five, ten people... and even in the countryside, where until some time ago it was thought impossible for machines to replace human labor, that It is happening with frightening speed. Yesterday most of the productive farms had real villages of workers in their perimeter, today only one or two technicians to keep the machines operating...

Yes, the future is moving in leaps and bounds. With each passing day, human labor is discarded in most functions. Even in transport, the figure of the operator is already unnecessary. There are already (in small numbers and still being tested) self-sufficient vehicles that dispense with the driver, as they are already able to recognize the path they must follow to complete their journey...

Yes, we are living, even on a small scale, the brave new world of Aldous Huxley, where man is just a decorative appendage in an increasingly cybernetic society... we are already living in 1986, the world of George Orwell, where everyone the citizens' steps are controlled by Big Brother... the worst thing is that we still pay, and dearly, for them to watch over us every second of our lives. Social networks are nothing but a control over us. But can we live without accessing them? I myself can't go a day without accessing my profile, seeing who accessed it, keeping track of what was funny or sad... in other words, it's the new way of interacting with your peers these days. Some people criticize others for having their eyes glued to their smartphone screens all the time. But they don't realize that, until very recently, people were "tied" to reading magazines or newspapers, walking down the street completely distracted, hypnotized as they were when reading their favorite subjects. It's no different from today, only the support has changed, the custom remains the same....

The big problem with progress is that it comes at such a speed that we cannot predict what will happen tomorrow... for now the only thing we can glimpse is mass unemployment and the number of idle people increasing in an unwanted way . "But that's good, there will be more time for people to devote to leisure"... yes, a small number will have that privilege. The majority? I hope I'm wrong, but the most likely fate of this group is hunger, at first... and I don't even want to think about what the moments that will follow will consist of...

It's 7:32 am on this cloudy Thursday morning, we're at 21°C right now. It can warm up during the day, but it can also remain a cold day, if the forecast of rain comes true. May God help and enlighten us, and lead us always along the path of righteousness.

God willing, tomorrow I will be here with you again. May He bless us all, and grant us the best Thursday we've ever had in our lives...