Veil of Maya

The veil of Maya in the Vedic tradition represents illusion. Italy, and probably the whole of Europe, lived for entire decades in the illusory fairy tale that there are wars for peace, that our democratic system, questionable in itself, can and should be exported, that those we call tyrants really are tyrants and that it is right to overthrow them.

The reality is quite different. What has always moved armies and led to war, whether fought on the battlefield or hybrid, is interests. Once, interests were tied to individual nations; today they are mostly the interests of financial and power lobbies. As for the wellbeing of peoples, whether one's own or others', for the most part nobody cares.

Donald Trump's greatness is to make all of this finally explicit. The war in Ukraine is neither more just nor more wrong than the lightning one in Venezuela, but the result of conflicting, divergent interests. What will probably happen soon in both Iran and Taiwan is neither for nor against the people, whom nobody gives a damn about. Moreover, it is clear that most “peoples” are so fragmented and lacking in any sense of belonging that practically nobody gives a damn even about their neighbour.

The first step towards getting by, if we can, is at least to see things clearly and stop telling ourselves stories, and perhaps to start cultivating a sense of friendship with our neighbour again.

m.m.