Edition #17
Rio de Janeiro, 2011
“DKANDLE weaves swirling multi-colored vibrant unearthly soundscapes, blending fuzzy and reverberating Shoegaze textures, mesmerizing Dream Pop meditations, sludgy Grungey tones and moody Post-punk strains, heightened with soul-stirring lyricism and pensive emotive vocalizations”
We are in the middle of a crowd hurrying past us. Around us, there are several tall buildings. The noise of car horns and people talking blends with different kinds of music coming from various directions. Where are we? Who are these people? What are they doing here?
These were the questions my alien friend asked me. Disguised as a human, he had accepted my invitation to take a walk through Largo da Carioca, in downtown Rio de Janeiro, and was eager to understand this place, so exotic to his eyes.
Several people hurried past, barely noticing our presence. "Where are they rushing off to?" he asked me. "Well, everyone has their own reasons, but most of them are here because of their jobs. There are also students heading to their schools, people who came here to shop, or people passing through on their way to another place."
Suddenly, someone handed me a little flyer. My intergalactic friend took it from my hand and asked what it said (he can't read Portuguese; we communicate through some kind of automatic translator). "It's an advertisement for a sex shop. That person is working; they are paid by the sex shop to hand out these flyers on the streets." "Sex shop? What's that?" "It's a store that sells erotic products. Many people have fetishes and sexual fantasies, and they find accessories, magazines, erotic videos, and special clothing in such stores." "Special clothing? Is anyone here dressed like that?" "No," I replied, laughing. "It's not common for people to wear those clothes in public. We humans live in what you could call a 'republic of eyes,' where people behave and dress in ways that seek the approval of others, so most people usually dress according to the dress code of their environment." "Funny, on my planet, no one wears clothes."
I began to explain that until about 500 years ago, for thousands of years, the inhabitants who lived here used to walk around naked, only adorning their bodies with decorative paintings, until a group of people arrived from far away and declared themselves the owners of these lands, taking possession of them by force because they considered themselves more evolved and developed. These people imposed their customs on the locals, including the practice of wearing clothes to cover their 'shame.'
He asked me what those so-called "shames" were. Just as I was about to explain, we were interrupted by the shouting of a man with a spotlight who seemed quite upset. We got closer and could better understand what he was saying. "Repent of your sins! Only Jesus Saves! You will burn in the fires of hell if you do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your only savior!" Another man was handing out flyers. "Repent and convert, brothers!" he said, giving us a pamphlet that repeated more or less what the man with the spotlight was saying. My friend looked annoyed by the shouting and pulled me away. "What an unpleasant noise! I’m glad we moved away. But tell me, why is he so agitated? Who is Jesus Christ? And what did they mean by repent? I didn’t understand any of it!"
I invited my alien friend to sit on a bench because to help him understand, I had to go back in time.
“Well, what happens is that we humans originally lived in trees, and gradually we started coming down more often and living on the ground. We discovered how to manipulate fire, and this created a sense of community and humanity. Over time, we began to form family and community groups. We started growing our own food, some animals were domesticated, and as a result, humans began to have more free time, which led to boredom, and then we started occupying our minds with diversions. We began to mumble words that were pleasant to hear. We learned to make rhythmic sounds with wood, and music emerged, which, like speech, arose as a form of entertainment where sounds were used to identify objects.
Over time, words began to express actions and feelings as well, which eventually led to the development of language. Questions about who we are and where we come from arose. Humans were very frightened by the sounds of thunder and lightning, imagining in their ignorance that these were manifestations of the anger of some superior being, or a god. From the feeling of fear also came a feeling of reverence, recognizing that there must be some superior force. From there, they began to formulate theories about gods, the survival of the soul after death, invisible worlds, and so on. When they dreamed of a dead relative, they thought it was their spirit communicating from the world of the dead. Ancient people obeyed the gods they themselves had imagined because they feared being punished after death if they disobeyed their fictitious laws, which were actually formulated by the priests of their religions.
Then, a few thousand years ago, a religion arose from escaped slaves from Egypt, whose god was described as vengeful, resentful, and merciless because he was a product of their resentment against the subjugation they had suffered for many years. From this resentment of the slaves, thousands of years later, the Christian religion emerged, worshiping and still worshiping Jesus Christ, a preacher who supposedly lived about 2,000 years ago, and whose followers inherited this resentful religiosity that began to see the body as an obstacle to the post-death Paradise in which they believe. Among them, there is a belief that we must renounce worldly pleasures and repent for seeking pleasure, because for them, our body is despicable, the planet is a place of atonement, and Paradise will only come after death. As they have always been slaves—they still are today—they need to believe in something better for their miserable lives. These people are urged to live according to the laws invented by their religion to be saved from the destruction that, they say, God will bring to the planet, destroying everyone who does not worship Him or follow His laws, sending them to Hell, a place of eternal suffering.”
My alien friend seemed completely incredulous. "You mean they believe we were created by a Creator who will destroy those who do not serve him?" "That’s right," I replied. "I don’t know anything about our origin," he continued, "but if we were created, as they say, then we didn’t exist before, we had no consciousness, and we never asked to exist, right? Someone created us out of nothing, without any desire on our part. We exist by the will of this creative force. And then, created without our will, this creator established laws for us to follow, and if we do not follow these laws… we will be destroyed? That makes no sense! This Creator could not destroy his own creation because He Himself is the original cause of the consequences of that creation. How could there be justice in Him destroying a being that never asked to exist, that only exists because He created it? In the end, it would all be His fault. So, either everyone is saved or no one is!"
I agreed and added, "It’s like the Christian God is a sports team coach who forces players onto the field ‘of their own free will,’ expecting them to enjoy being there, and anyone who doesn’t like the game will be burned alive. Total nonsense!"
“Exactly!” he replied. “Let’s go tell them that!”
“No, forget it,” I said. “They are convinced they have the Truth and interpret anything that goes against what they say as evil. If we go there and talk to them, they won’t want to listen and might even insult and curse us. It’s no use talking to them.”
A small device started beeping, and my friend said he had to leave because the ship was about to depart. And so we ended our brief tour of Largo da Carioca.
Will he want to visit us again?…
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