Liberal, Libertario, Libertino

Quanto mais vivo, mais percebo que a verdadeira humanidade está não em inteligência, raciocínio e conhecimento, mas sim em consciência, percepção, empatia. Em olhar pra uma pessoa e vê-la como pessoa. Em olhar pra água e dizer, isso é água.

Eu ainda não conhecia David Foster Wallace mas, depois do exercício sobre empatia, muitos leitores recomendaram o texto abaixo, um discurso de formatura que ele proferiu em Kenyon Collge: (versão completa em inglês, tradução pro português)

The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations. In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, it's not impossible that some of these people in SUV's have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive. Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he's trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he's in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way.

Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket's checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.

Again, please don't think that I'm giving you moral advice, or that I'm saying you are supposed to think this way, or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it. Because it's hard. It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won't be able to do it, or you just flat out won't want to.

But most days, if you're aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she's not usually like this. Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it's also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you're automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down. (...)

It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
"This is water."
"This is water."

It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out.

Também recomendo enfaticamente o conto "Good Old Neon", do livro Oblivion (trechos em português, em inglês no GoogleBooks).

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Confira a chamada para o primeiro exercício sobre empatia, Dar-se Conta.

Leia duas das primeiras respostas de leitores que abraçaram o experimento:

Exercício de empatia do LLL, por Alex Luna
Exercitando a Empatia, por Rita

E você? Não vai nem tentar?

Obras completas de Freud, de R$960 por R$299

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Aula de Empatia em Sete Lições:
1 - Dar-se Conta

a. Dar-se Conta

b. Sobre o Primeiro Exercício

c. David Foster Wallace e o Experimento de Empatia

d. Vale a Pena Tentar?

e. Primeiros Resultados

f. Reflexões dos Leitores

2 - Ver
3 - Extrapolar
4 - Ouvir
5 - Sentir
6 - Interagir
7 - Ser

Todos os textos da série Empatia. Design do botão por Tony Lopes.

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http://twitter.com/AlexCastroLLL