On the road of desires and temptations

On the road of desires and temptations

Editor's letter Lara Lychagina
Lara Lychagina Editor's letter

In today’s world, as modern reality strives to eliminate mystery, wanting everything to be made totally obvious and transparent, we wish like never before not to be ordinary people, susceptible as they are to temptation. Every day we set new goals for ourselves, pose new challenges to each other and ourselves, avoid tempting situations, driving us deeper into increasingly more rigid constraints. We dabble in the latest iterations of bread, derive milk from soybeans, refrain from alcohol, spend time at the gym instead of making love, all in the name of a supposedly healthy lifestyle. Having spent so many years wrapped up in discussion about the problem of machines’ superiority to man, we sometimes fail to notice how we ourselves are increasingly coming to resemble impervious biorobots rather than humans. We are proud of our strengths and imperfections, our ability to solve problems and create new inventions, our new rhythm of life, the ability to control time and space, so we don’t lag behind others in the daily marathon towards success, stability, fame.

Even the longest marathon, though, cannot stretch on to infinity. The road, paved with yellow brick, eventually leads to the Emerald City. Arriving at our destination, we realise that the Emerald City is only ever desired thanks to the wiles of the Wizard, who, in crafting spectacles with lenses of green, transforms glass into precious stone. In the end, the wizard is no wizard at all, but just a weary showman, tangled up in his own illusions. And the best road is, in truth, the road home, the one that brings you back to yourself.

Yet the old man Heidegger was right in that nothing can surpass the brilliance of that precious and unpretentious road, with its simple, enduring truths that are always with us and in us, but that we judge too plain to devote the great marathon of life to. But, just maybe, the simplest of desires are the main ones, the ones worth living for. To be close to those you love, those close to you by blood, spirit, or fate. Not to miss out on important moments because you lack the time or energy. To have people you want to communicate with, not via the «empty seduction of language,» as Jean Baudrillard sardonically called the telephone, but eye to eye. And for the world – the one that we don’t live on, but run on – not to build Maslow’s pyramid, but to recall Jacob’s ladder. And then, maybe, if we manage at least for a short while to keep up our pace running around the circle, we can try to hear each other and finally understand our desires, and maybe then see that there’s no better temptation than the temptation not to be afraid. Don’t be afraid to love, or to wish, or to live. Meanwhile, though, don’t be afraid of the simpler road. Because that’s the main one.

Lara Lychagina

Editor-in-Chief