Elsa Punset: "We are going to a fluid way of life without races or genders"

The popularizer and daughter of Eduardo Punset publishes 'Strong, free and nomadic', a book with inspiring recipes to survive in these uncertain times, where she argues that it is necessary

Strong, free and nomadic? Those are the qualities of our ancestors, who survived thanks to them.

We are going to a fluid way of life without race or gender or age.

We are transcending gender and age.

They are concepts of the past and yet politicians

they keep dividing the world on those concepts, when they have to be those nomads of the 21st century.

In what way should they exercise?

The nomad of the 21st century travels light and does not need a nation or tribalism or physical or mental borders.

Politics still lives in very outdated ideologies.

A world without races or genders sounds very nice, but how difficult, right?

It's what we're going for.

We come from a deeply sexist and racist world, who would have told us women 50 years ago that today they would be defending certain rights?

Do you understand that Spain has had the most draconian confinement in Europe and is now a leader in contagion?

We need self-criticism and a serious and objective study of what is happening to us.

There are realities in our political system that we do not want to confront.

If we analyze the system, we are going to find uncomfortable answers, but we have to be brave.

What do you mean?

There has been a certain lack of coordination.

The first thing that citizens have to demand is a truthful analysis of the situation, which we do not yet have.

Why don't politicians rely on experts?

We will have to reassess what political class we have, why they have the power they have and what interests they defend.

We have to make sure that our political class puts the country ahead of the interests of its party.

But it is something that does not usually happen.

Your father already said that politics is the worst human invention.

I did not know, I did not know it.

They are very heavy institutions that provide stability, but are easily corrupted.

He also claimed that "unlearning most of the things we have been taught is more important than learning."

How is it done?

Revisiting your certainties.

This is why periods of uncertainty are so important to humans.

We are creatures of habit.

We tend to be very immobile and rigid.

We were living at 200 per hour and suddenly we had to stop.

Many people have discovered the quality of time and being able to focus on taking care of others.

We go to a society of the

.

It has given us time to discover that we have other needs, not just consuming and being comfortable.

This pandemic is like an electric shock and you can stop and say: What am I doing with my life?

We thought we were all powerful and we are vulnerable.

Harari says that humans are gods who don't know what they want.

There is something that I ask the reader: "If you could choose, in what time would you like to be born?"

Which one would you choose?

I and 99% of humanity, especially if they are women, homosexuals or belong to a vulnerable group, we would choose the 21st century.

There has never been so much talk about human rights and social equality.

There are more and more literate people, more vaccinated children and more families emerging from extreme poverty.

You vindicate optimism in these grim times of coronavirus.

We need an epidemic of optimism.

Why do optimistic people receive all kinds of benefits?

It is not goodness or looking at life with pink glasses, but an attitude and a discipline of life.

Faced with a problem, the pessimist complains, resigns and is quite passive, while the optimist acts.

The more difficult our circumstances are, the more important it is that we be optimistic.

The tails of hunger grow.

What reasons does a single woman, without a job and with five dependent children have to be optimistic?

The optimist instead of adding more complaints to his problems tries to do something.

Those who change the society around them are always the optimists.

Living is not easy.

You are always facing some kind of catastrophe.

If there is something good about this crisis, it is that thousands of people are eating thanks to the solidarity of others.

It is one of the revelations of this pandemic.

Our interrelationships and how we need each other.

We are putting the caregiving professions - doctors, nurses, social workers - at the center of our daily lives.

We had a society where consumption and unlimited growth reigned and now we are going to go through a society that is the opposite.

That is why I speak of the revolution of the

.

There are also many people paralyzed by fear.

It is logical.

What scares our brain the most is uncertainty, which is what we are immersed in right now.

Such people have to look for things that make them happy or curious.

Let them not think about the future, but about the present and enjoy the little things.

Let them look for hobbies that help them breathe.

You tell in the book that death is invisible in nature, as has happened with the coronavirus.

You don't see how nature renews itself because it does it silently.

Are we prepared for our loved ones to leave without being able to say goodbye?

It is very hard.

Optimism is not incompatible with feeling sad.

We have created a society where we do not talk about death or aging, and suddenly the pandemic reminds us that this world is difficult and that we are very fragile.

Man is a social animal, but this disease does not allow us to relate naturally.

It is true.

We miss touching each other so much.

It's very hard.

If I smile, you don't see me.

This forces us to make a greater effort of empathy.

Behind this mask, we are forced to listen more and look more in the eyes.

We do not look at species that are not like us.

We have placed ourselves as a moral center on earth and we mistreat other species because it seems that they are at our service.

We have to focus on the fact that all living things deserve respect.

In the play you insist that we have removed nature from our lives.

We have to recognize that our ancestors survived if they took shelter in nature.

One of our great mistakes has been to pretend that we are not part of nature.

In fact, we are removing viruses from their natural hosts, which were animals, and the new hosts are humans.

The WHO is announcing that we are going to experience more pandemics.

Humanity only changes when faced with great catastrophes.

We are at war with nature and we have to reconsider our relationship with it.

There is no one health for nature and another for humans.

We are one.

We are made of the same stuff.

The indigenous people in Bolivia say that we are a land that walks.

We have imprisoned ourselves in an artificial prison.

Your father died a year ago, how have you handled the grief?

I have imagined him in these months.

You carry your parents within you.

He was a very sociable person and he would have been very frustrated having to stop seeing people.

But he was a huge optimist.

When people asked him for advice, he would say, "Don't stop."

Have you betrayed the girl in you?

I think a lot about this girl.

I try to keep her alive and not fall prey to cynicism and resignation.

I try to continue infecting humanity and optimism, although you meet a lot of resistance.

It is the only energy that moves the world.

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