By Sonila Meço
Only tragedies wake us up, keep us awake for three days, and on the fourth we start again to “dream” of the other’s abyss. Fewer and fewer see their work, fewer and fewer enrich their day beyond the “reels” of social networks, even fewer find motivation in their abilities when the lek no longer respects merit or talent and even fewer at all , a handful manage to feed the sleepless hours of life with spiritual satisfaction.
Consumption, consumption, consumption, the commercialization of existence down to the most private details, the exhibitionism of unbridled luxury, the sensationalization of the banal, we have all had a daily menu along with the goodies of the network, but virally attracted mostly by scandalousness, perplexity, violence.
Endless followers, like consumers dazzled and drunk after the viral, without a sip of empathy, without a soul, without a heart, but only with a “stomach” hungry for noise, advertising, fame, money, idols. But more zealous are the “haters”, the haters, those who, even if they are right when they criticize and disagree with someone, are not enough. They want to dismantle, destroy, curse, insult, denigrate, stain, wall, stone, trample, whip, tear the other with the infinite “freedom” guaranteed by the network, anonymity, the means of distribution, the uncontrollable knee of a society with institutions tired, collapsed. And here it is not only the “infinite freedom” of the network, which causes victims, but the dirty human essence, which misuses freedom even if it has a droplet.
A 41-year-old mother of four kills herself, bullied on TikTok by anonymous address. Horror!
But there is no way that the society before Bedrie’s suicide and another after it could be different.
Whoever is now scandalized by the event (and rightfully so) had strong motives to be scandalized even before it. With the same passion, with the same moral code, with the same passion.
Because there, from the same “mejdan”, that crucified Bedrien, a whole society, old people without pensions, is fed every day and more insatiably; children without parental control; teenagers under hormonal pressure; spouses, lying back to back and flirting each on their own account until dawn; mothers desperate for success at the expense of others; fathers demoralized by “men” capable of enjoying life (on TikTok); young people in identity crisis from the abundance of “jobs” with the blessings of their peers in the network; divorcées disillusioned by their inability to support Instagram-sugared families; professionals discouraged by the monetization of the unemployed challenges on TikTok; parents surrendered to the models of “success” from which their sons and daughters are inspired; students encouraged to discredit teachers who still ask for homework; women and men immersed in the psychic stream of “challenges”, routines and selfie videos; maniacs excited by “generous” and “generous” images bordering on pornography without any restrictions; jealous and angry stimulated by any form of anonymity and last but not least, artificial intelligence ready to dismantle and desecrate the images of those who “eat the soul” of netizens without right…
They were all yesterday, an hour after Bedrie’s suicide, and they will be there.
So asking the government today to stop tik-tok as the culprit of the suicide of a bullied mother is like the story of Xanthes of ancient Greece, who promised to drink the sea while drunk making a bet with the captain of the guards. But when the drink came out, he realized what he had done, he asked Aesop for help to get rid of the promise that he would drink the sea if he lost. And Aesop suggested him to declare that he had indeed promised, that he would drink the sea, but not the water of rivers, rain, or waterfalls that flow into it. “Separate and stop them and I will drink the sea”, finally declared Xanthi.
How to separate the sea (tik-tok) from its feeders, from the “sellers” of everything but fame to the media, who worship the scum. That he should not go “behind bars” here
tik-tok, but the whole system, which keeps alive the threatening, murderous, raping part of it. Tik-tok also has beautiful things, dirty advice, political reaction, anti-censorship zeal, as it is at the same time a tool and a favorable platform for spiritual, moral and human destruction for millions of other women and men who are potential victims. But the “lymph” that feeds this circle, that which keeps it alive, is not the avatar, the algorithm, but the society, which follows the means of the square in order not to feel excluded, to conform, to fill the deficiencies of real life, to be confirmed even without talent, to win even without merit, to triumph even without sweat, to be respected even without values, to “kill” anyone you hate with and without reason was never convicted.
This scandalization, which is sometimes preceded by a need for protagonism, these protests, which are sometimes preceded by a need to “wash” the conscience, had just as much reason to exist even before Bedrie’s suicide, but after three days they will dissolve again between the effort for “monetization” and attention.
This is what belongs to the command response and apart from the tragedy.
As for poor Bedrie, who left 4 orphans and for all the potential victims of the network, I want to remind them that technology is challenging every human spirit, that with Artificial Intelligence, not original videos, but fabricated ones, we have victims today.
You can wake up one morning and see yourself as the protagonist of dirty viral videos that you had nothing to do with. You can appear as perverts, criminals, maniacs, pornographic actors, thieves, sadomasochists and strippers without ever being like that, but only in the fantasy of masquerades, who want to harm them.
Therefore, this inhumane battle imposed by technological development has no limits. We are all seriously endangered by diabolical minds, the jealous, the enemies of the unknown, who simply do not want to see you well.
But neither closing tik-tok nor being scandalized by the same network where profits and privileges are planted can stop it.
This story begins and ends with education, with awareness, with the cultivation of humanity, more than ever, with the strengthening of the state and institutions, the rule of law, with the wisdom and maturity of society, the resistance with flesh and soul against the value and moral chaos. from which no one is immune.
So I reinforce it more than ever, beware of command scandalization for the wrong reasons, because it produces evil as murderous as the crime itself, but mind the permanent reaction to the destructive patterns of a virtual society with real vices.
