©DR

SOCIETY RETURNS TO ITS PRIMITIVE CONDITION WHEN A NEW YEAR IS ON THE CORNER

By my Macbook calculations, only 67 minutes separate my “2012-self” from my “2013-self”. After these time coordinates, look again to the previous statement and see if you discover the difference between my “last year’s self” and my “new year’s self”. Nothing? Well, figures…

Every year, there’s this fuss about tearing apart the old, yellowish, rugged calendar page and rising a new, fresh, plain white one remarking the start of something original, that never existed before. It is true: we only get a 2013 once in a lifetime. Still, that’s about it. It always was about it, a mere ephemeris to remember.

Society imposes to itself a monotonous ritual that doesn’t change a comma every single year in the week following Christmas. People unfold themselves in greetings to love ones or basic acquaintances and start rambling about resolutions that, most likely, will not be achieved - I have to be honest, I too used to engage in these empty promises.

Let’s face it, the start of a new year is just the rise of another day. None has changed - maybe the weather from yesterday. The World didn’t reset, and certainly people remained just the same. At midnight, the Earth continues its journey around the Sun while calmly spinning on itself. It didn’t stop or rewinded. The oxygen is the same, the visual presentation of cities is the same, wars and deaths are the same. Even the calendar leaf doesn’t go back in time. Actually, it goes straightforward to another day, with a different number on its title.

So, what does really resets in the new year? It’s simple: people. Does this mean “a new life”, a “new hope”? No, it means reset to exactly the same thing they were yesterday, only that this time their head might be heavier.

This is the real set back in new years. The reenact of the primitive state of humans, as they continuously repeat the same ruts as always.

Twelve minutes to midnight. I’m not holding my breath for something original. I’ve seen this before, on my “2012-self”.

If you’d like to share your resolutions with the whole world, tryout the Google Resolutions Map.