Curiosidade do dia

Na revista The Economist do passado dia 12 de Maio, encontrei "To grasp Europe’s fragmentations, look to a 31- year treasure hunt". 

Descobri esta "treasure hunt" há anos no canal Travel. No entanto, o que me chamou a atenção no artigo foi o final do artigo:

"But the game’s fans in 1993 offered a foretaste of society in 2025. The owlers were among the first online communities anywhere in the world, connected by Minitel, a French precursor of the internet that ran online discussions on the chouette from 1993. Using pseudonymous handles—there were Gandalf and Argos, Météor and Neo49—the sleuths queried the gamemaster online (for a fee) years before others had ever heard of such forums. Later, internet groups emerged and rival owlers’ associations met in person to share their theories. Once Europeans lived in cohesive societies, with institutions such as churches, trade unions or political parties structuring public life. Owlers were in the vanguard of a trend towards something different: people disappearing into their own little clans, with their own rituals and networks. Jérôme Fourquet, a French political analyst, describes the “archipelagisation” of society, [Moi ici: Aquilo a que chamo de Mongo] a shift in recent decades from a unified national identity bound together by common experience to a collection of distinct and often disconnected groups with their own interests. We live side by side, but not entirely together. From watching the same evening news, we are all consuming our own corner of the web. From all voting for one of two or three political parties, more niche outfits have emerged—including, across Europe, populist ones that have benefited from the fraying of our bonds. We all dwell in bubbles of our own making these days, a wise old owl might conclude."

Este parágrafo final serve como metáfora para a transformação social dos últimos 30 anos. Usando a história dos owlers como alegoria, o autor sugere que a sociedade contemporânea perdeu as grandes estruturas colectivas que antes uniam as pessoas — como os partidos, a igreja, os sindicatos — e entrou numa era de “balkanização” social, onde pequenos grupos fragmentados seguem as suas próprias crenças, interesses e rituais. A caça à coruja foi uma prefiguração do mundo de hoje: conectado digitalmente, mas socialmente disperso.

Conclusão:

A chouette d’or não foi só uma caça ao tesouro — foi também uma premonição da “archipelagização” social de que hoje somos parte: vivemos lado a lado, mas cada vez menos juntos.