The history always takes an unexpected turn. Seventy thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was a meaningless creature minding its own business somewhere in a remote corner of Africa. Throughout the following millennia, he has grown into the ruler of the planet and the tyrant of its ecosystem. He has cut down forests, drained wetlands, dammed rivers, flooded fields, laid millions of miles of railways and roads and built up cities towering over the land. The nature is suffering and animal species are quickly becoming extinct. We have replaced canoes with ships, steamers and spaceships, but nobody knows where we’re heading. We have power but do not know how to wield it. On top of that, our behaviour is irresponsible. We are turning our planet into a shopping mall made out of concrete and plastic. Homo sapiens has conquered the world. The catastrophic prophecies, which speak of the depletion of resources and permanent damage of the planetary ecosystem, are justified. The wounded nature poses a threat to the survival of Homo sapiens. We are killing the nature and its beasts. Are we heading towards an ecological disaster or a technological paradise? Everything is possible.

 

Trade and capitalism, science and technology, planetary communication and geopolitical awareness have all connected the world into a global village. As we are transforming the nature, our own bodies and minds, families and societies, what price are willing to pay for welfare and consumerism? To what extent are the worldly faiths such as humanism or gender equality a mark of human progress? Are we standing on the verge of paradise or hell? Everything is possible.

 

We care about acknowledging the principal equality of all people, but at the same time we’re standing on the verge of a society where no equality can really survive. Maybe we’re nearing another breaking point, where all our meaningful concepts, such as me, you, woman, man, love and hate, will be stripped of their meaning. Once we break down the prison walls and break free, we will discover that we merely escaped right into a bigger courtyard of an even bigger prison. Just as two different tones played at once create a completely new composition, the disharmony of our values forces us to reflect, criticize and observe things from a different angle. Inner consistency is only a mark of deficient reflection.

 

 

The history of the world and humanity is a history of dead (J. Patočka). Falls and disasters don’t lead to the end of history, but rather to shifts and transformations of history. The ship is swimming on restless waters and it will sink only to emerge once again. The situation we are finding ourselves in today is similar to the one at the beginning of all history. What previously seemed like a path now resembles a crossroads. The nature of being is moving further and further away from true knowledge. Life supports itself. In the 21st century, consumerism, self-awe, the worship of power, competitiveness and the constant transformations entitled liquidity all boiled down into: WOW!.

Jozef Vlk and Dáša Čiripová

 

Smoke is rising from the rubble of the last bright future on the horizon. And past is once again recycled according to the newest orders of the rat-catchers. Homo sapiens got stuck in the snare of the present which is slowly being taken over by clowns, whether it concerns daily lives, art or politics. However, these clowns are just clumsy and ludicrous entertainers of the audience. They are evil, malicious and unpredictable. In a world where god (maybe just temporarily) refrained from watching over the world, pop culture made the clown into the most contemporary incarnation of the devil.

 

We don't always notice that his kind smile turned into a mocking grin. These clowns prosper in the carnival of neoliberal capitalism. They are on a roll. Only recently have we stopped being bold enough to distinguish truth from lies. To rely on the facts. However, in the reality of these clowns, barely anyone is brave enough to distinguish truth from lies. We have found ourselves in a post-factual reality. In a world of the entropy of values. Facts have become unreliable, non-patriotic, incomprehensible. Elaborate and spontaneous lies dominate the media. At the twilight of the age of reason, Homo sapiens is once again forced to adapt. And to be ready to put on the mask of a clown, just in case... just to be able to inconspicuously participate in this triumphant goodbye to truth and objectivity... The most powerful clown is convinced that "Truth is only a loser's crutch..."

Eugen Gindl