Espírito Tuga

País das maravilhas caídas do céu e dos grandes milagres que juntam mais pessoas do que muitas causas humanitárias. O lugar do negócio fácil e altamente lucrativo. Falcatruas, pequenos “desvios” de dinheiro, e ilegalidades e “pequenas” mentiras em praticamente todos os sectores da sociedade. O país do faz de conta. Carros topo-de-gama e casa própria, lado a lado com um saldo negativo que nem uma vida inteira de trabalho pode conseguir liquidar. Haverá outro senão Portugal? Bem, talvez sim, mas pelo menos Portugal, esse grande país de descobridores e da conquista do desconhecido é, de certo, um dos mais proeminentes.
Porém, ainda mais significativo é o discurso político. Tão próprio, tão característico. Tão nosso! O fado sem guitarra portuguesa, um mundo de lamentações e de sonhos heróicos de tempos que já lá vão (ou nunca foram). Um sebastianismo traçado com a crueldade da palavra saudade. Uma ambição que cresce na voz, mas que apenas se mantém nas gravações e em repetições televisivas.
E é neste mesmo país, em que todos se queixam de crises e crises; de faltas que qualificações espalhadas por toda a sociedade; neste pedaço de terra onde todos se queixam de inércia governamental (embora essa seja talvez a menor), e onde todos pedem mais dinâmica, dinamismo, maturidade - é neste mesmo país que pede jovens com essas características, que os forçamos a serem exactamente o contrário. Que os pais obrigam os filhos a concentrarem-se apenas na escola. A serem “doutores” porque isso lhes dará um estatuto mais elevado, e não porque os tornará mais conhecedores de si mesmos e do mundo à sua volta.

“É hora!”, dizia pessoa, a rematar a mensagem. Mas Portugal continua surdo.

What really drives us?

Life is a strange place where there’s little chance to find ourselves, or something that completely suits us. But yet we go on. Day by day. Month by month. Year by year. Always chasing something, fighting for it. And sometimes we are so concerned about our purposes that we even forget what made them so important to us in the first place. On the other hand, life can be hard, as hard as anything can be. And when that happens, few can resist - so we often chose the easiest way: giving up.
In some sense, life has everything to do with Science. Well, not with “Science” as a “theoretical” or “philosophical” entity, but with the “real” Science. The human Science. The only Science that we know. But why is that? Well, to begin with, Science is “made” by humans, so all the cultural, religious, or even “artistic” background is “always” present in any research. Secondly, Science - unfortunately - is often driven more by unconscious human “emotions” than it is by the more fundamental thing - which is the search for the unanswered questions. This may well be controversial, but truth is also classified that way.
So what’s the purpose around all this thing? Simply to state that even Science - which was suppose to be “above” the every-day world, in the sense that is should respect a couple of “higher” principles - is as human as it could be. And that has a huge importance. Mainly because it implies that the knowledge never evolves as it “should be”. Therefore, we can get periods of time where there’s no more that controversy and argues between the science community - just to know “who” do this or that - and others where single individuals, or even big teams, can show us a better picture of a particular part of the world. In the meantime, new ideas are always being created, but they are often destroyed almost before they are really born. What does this mean? It means that they are neglected before being tested with a real experiment - just because they contradict the knowledge that we accept as absolutely correct. And this gets even “truer” when we get to the fundamental research, something that has so much math and imagination, that often forgets that Science is about the world, not about Maths, Complexity and “mathematical beauty”.
Science has everything to do with life. That’s why it is so interesting, and yet - sometimes - so boring. That’s why it is often driven - in the first place - by a stupid or crazy idea, or even by an unexpected error. And that’s the reason why in Science, as much as in the ordinary life, we need revolutionaries - people that are among the field but are not afraid to raise their voices, and to say what the others simply don’t want to hear. Making them see that we cannot get passionate about the ideas that worked in the past, even when they look so “nice” and “beautiful”. Because if we do that, we will get lost from the real path that can give us the answers about the real world. Answers that we have been looking almost since we became human. And the answers about the real world are not the ones that our mind is expecting!
In the end, it doesn’t matter if those revolutionary men or women “achieve” something in life, in the ordinary meaning of it - because just for defying the system in which they are, exposing its problems and malfunctions, all of these people - along the human history - are real heroes. Some are considered eccentrics, others are seen as the materialization of the word arrogance, and others are hope and religious symbols. But they should all be considered as the engines of human progress and evolution.

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