What do the words 'look', 'understand' and 'person' mean?
Isn't it a sign of pride to look at the people in front of me as if they weren't people? Yes, of course yes. But how can we expect others to understand? Understand, observe, look. Does wanting to understand others not require this proud attitude? Knowing what it is to be a person, I need you to understand me, but if it were a person I would already know him.
So, before we understand others as non-people, shouldn't we consider myself as a person? To say what others are, to express them, I have to know my identity. They, we, I… Who are they? Who are we? Who am I? Am I the person who understands people as if they were non-people? So, me in front of them and them in front of me? And what about us and ours? What does it mean to be “us”? What defines us? Otherness or equality, that is, that we people are against them, against people, or that we are all people. In the latter case, what would it matter if all of us were people or non-people, would not do the same, would not be the same? Isn't that the important thing, that we're all the same, that no one is different?
The problem, on the other hand, does not have us (who are we?) I left them quiet. People and not people, what's the difference? Isn't it the same to say that we're all people to say we're non-people? No, it is not. We, the people, are not them, we are not people. I, person, I'm not him, I'm not person. We, not people, are not them, we are not people. I'm not a person, I'm not a person. What is this mess? How many of me, how many of us, how many of them… I will put the question again, who are we? Who is that “I”? If we are people, and I am also within that, I know what I am, that is, “person,” “prosopon,” actor, mask holder, a fixed identity, a secure identity. On the contrary, what does it mean to be non-person? I don't know ... I am a person… Attention! Not so soon, am I really a person? Many times it is the only certainty I have and I always fear that my mask will break, that my personality, my fragile self, will not be called into question. Apparently, I'm not what I thought, I'm not a person, not a person, because I'm not my personality for longer, I'm my fears, my doubts, my wounds and my cracks.
Are you sure you're a person? The next time you go out into the street, where will you look around you, how will you understand it? What does this word mean, understand it, maybe it's synonymous with looking?
And the one I'm a part of, that group of people I'm a part of, what's going to be about them? I am no longer part of them, now we have become ourselves. Are they, then, what they, me and ours were before? Beware, we go fast, maybe because we see that our identity is threatened... They, from the beginning, were not people, but I, person. We have just recognized, or I already have, I don’t know… My personality, my personality, that person, that is, I’ve always been non-person, we’ve always been us, I’ve always been part of them. Have we turned the problem around? Is it possible that we know who we are? We are not people, they, people. However, this leaves us in a situation of departure, against them, not against people, the sense of the struggle does not matter. In any case, when people were looking at us proudly, when they were trying to understand, to inquire about them, what were they looking for in us? Wouldn't you be looking for your identity? Trying to understand their personality?
To finish, to end this mess and to stop once and for all those coming and going, the writer, from his pride, wants to tell him, dear reader: behind all those questions and among those absurdities, there is a real reflection (trust me and us)... If you've read it all, ask yourself why you've done it. Why have you tried to understand my jokes and see these lines? Are you sure you're a person? The next time you go out into the street, where will you look around you, how will you understand it? What does this word mean, understand it, maybe it's synonymous with looking? How do you look at it, how do you understand it? Reading isn't looking, isn't it trying to understand you? And writing, isn't it asking and investigating my doubts and wounds, of you, of us and of them? So, I want to apologize, dear reader, because all of this has been a self-research job of a person who believed that he was a person.
Andoni Tamayo Arrizabalaga, philosopher
Bidali zure iritzi artikuluak iritzia@argia.eus helbide elektronikora
ARGIAk ez du zertan bat etorri artikuluen edukiarekin. Idatzien gehienezko luzera 4.500 karakterekoa da (espazioak barne). Idazkera aldetik gutxieneko zuzentasun bat beharrezkoa da: batetik, ARGIAk ezin du hartu zuzenketa sakona egiteko lanik; bestetik, egitekotan edukia nahi gabe aldatzeko arriskua dago. ARGIAk azaleko zuzenketak edo moldaketak egingo dizkie artikuluei, behar izanez gero.
On 5 December last, pp presented in the Parliament of Navarra a proposal for a law to decouple the processes of functionalization of the Secretariat and Intervention positions of the local entities of Navarra. If this were to happen, about 30 people would achieve well-deserved... [+]
This year marks the 51st anniversary of the United Nations proclamation of International Human Rights Day on 10 December. This date has become important in Euskal Herria and the Human Rights Observatory of Euskal Herria wants to offer some elements of reflection.
Progress on... [+]
Once upon a time the people became a repository of culture. Over time, the restrictive measures taken by the world authorities against any form of cultural expression were extinguishing the flame, creativity and imagination of peoples, as a candle gradually. However, a small but... [+]
The presence of Elon Musk in the media advances like a rocket after landing in the garden of the White House. Other powers, apparently, have been altered by the power and influence it is acquiring, and to reduce its influence, have charged the X network. In recent weeks, media... [+]
Our rights, our future, now! Under the motto, the International Day of Human Rights commemorates the legacy of 76 years. The aim of the day is to promote the construction of a more peaceful, egalitarian and sustainable world. However, while progress is being made, we are faced... [+]
The Council of Euskalgintza is warning of the linguistic emergency we have been experiencing in recent weeks. Several years have passed since the beginning of describing the situation of the process of revitalization of the Basque country at the crossing, at the roundabout, at... [+]
On November 25, International Day against Male Violence, the Steilas Feminist Union Feminist Secretariat has published a poster: Our body is a battlefield, and all the schools in Hego Euskal Herria have received it. We wish to denounce the violence suffered by women and children... [+]
We live in a context in which anti-feminist and racist hate speech at the global level is on the rise. Far-right narratives are inserted throughout the world by
social networks and political agendas. Racism and anti-feminism have become two great discursive axes that adapt to... [+]
Many times, after looking at the brumas from my house, it has occurred to me not to catch umbrellas, even though I know I will just soak up. Why will it be? Maybe you don't want to catch the umbrella? Maybe in the hope that I don't get wet? Nevertheless, the conclusion has always... [+]
I remember when I was 16 years old, the Ertzaintza first identified me in a concentration in favor of the Basque Country before the Bergara courts. We believed that in Euskal Herria it was legitimate to cry for the Euskaldunization of the courts, but then there would also be a... [+]
The disaster caused by the cold drop in Valencia has left us dramatic images, both because of the immediate consequences it has had, and because the future awaiting us has brought us forward: that this type of extreme climate phenomena will be increasingly numerous and serious... [+]
The update of the Navarra Energy Plan goes unnoticed. The Government of Navarre made this public and, at the end of the period for the submission of claims, no government official has explained to us what their proposals are to the citizens.
The reading of the documentation... [+]
Since the disappearance of the Soviet Union, rusophobia has been growing. The concept of security of the UN Security Council of 2002 is very clear and indicates that the security and stability of the planet must depend on the states that do not intend to challenge the United... [+]
Andoni Urrestarazu Landazabal was born in the village of Araia on 16 July 1902 and died in Vitoria on 21 November 1993. It is now 31 years old and I think it is time to recognize his name and be, because the legacy he left is not well known. Umandi used the name of a mountain in... [+]
Autobiography writing is, they say, the most effective tool for personal development, the most liberating. Pulling things away from the past and remembering them, it seems that it helps unleash the knots of the present. Yes, it helps to understand the present and to draw a... [+]