The Little World and the Rest of the World E-Book

Carla Ricci

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Japan is the place where the author carries out her research, the results of which go way beyond the Japanese borders and resonate powerfully with a global audience. The book shines a spotlight on crucial issues such as hikikomori, child suicides, and new forms of youth isolation, but its main theme is something else that will engage the reader from the very first pages. It's a riveting exploration of the weakening of our innate human sensitivity with implications and consequences that affect us all, as they arise from causes and contexts that are common to everybody. The most vulnerable are children, adolescents, and young people who are increasingly immersed in the virtual world and alienated from the creative complexity of true reality which is the only reality in which innate sensitivity can truly thrive and fulfill its formative role. The author takes the reader on a captivating journey offering insights and awarenesses that will encourage, inspire and motivate.

Leseprobe

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title

Copyright

Foreword

PART ONEThe innate sensitivity with which to rebuild existence

PART TWOInstinctive forces left alone are fragile or confused

About the Author

Landmarks

Cover

Carla Ricci

THE LITTLE WORLDAND THE REST OF THE WORLD

When this awareness is broken, sensitivity disperses and becoming fully-fledged human beings is no longer a given

Title | The Little World and the Rest of the World

Author | Carla Ricci

ISBN: 9791224012481

© 2025 - All rights reserved to the Author

This work is published directly by the Author through the Youcanprint self-publishing platform and the Author exclusively holds all rights thereto. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

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Made by human

The terms man and men used frequently in the text obviously refer to every human being without distinction of gender.

The cover image is taken from a work by the artist Ryou Aoki who has kindly granted its free use.

FOREWORD

These pages were not only created to document the results of my research related to psychosocial suffering, but also to narrate something that goes beyond them and concerns everyone. A reality whose existence I have always known the importance of, but without ever having focused on it enough to understand its unlimited scope and to intuit what happens when its presence begins to fade. It's called sensitivity. It took me a few years to understand and demonstrate what its weakening can cause to every human being, regardless of their choices and their life path. It is like a shadow that obscures the indispensable light that makes the ability to 'know how to feel' shine, which is inevitably linked to 'knowing how to act' in the broadest meanings that these terms intend. I have dedicated myself to this investigation and if I was able to do so with all the commitment that it demanded of me, I owe it to the precious presence of a traveling companion who never tired of being so. Our fruitful dialogues, uncompromising comparisons and continuous insights have been crucial to proceed along a path that often seemed impassable due to insidious entanglements. Passion and dedication have led the way so that we could draw new knowledge from the obstacles and create a synergy that, I believe, has allowed every single intuition to be fully fertilized and to find confirmation in the evidence of reality.

I dedicate this book to all those who are wary of the entanglements and do not want to lose their way. These pages can become a zealous but also unusual guide to their journey because they will change the name of every landscape encountered, thus showing what the small world is and allowing the rest of the world to be discovered along with the power that it implies. Whether one is immediately fully aware of it or only has a not yet fully disclosed perception is not fundamental because, in any case, what it releases will not crumble quickly but when the time is right it will flourish and will be able to support, motivate and direct.

Thank you.

C.R.

PART ONE

THE INNATE SENSITIVITY WITH WHICH TO REBUILD EXISTENCE

It is repeatedly and boldly claimed that contemporary civilization is an evolved civilization. As far as I'm concerned, it is difficult for me to accept this assertion; of course, if by evolution we mean a scientifically advanced world, more comfortable and that substantially facilitates the practical life of men by simplifying their way of thinking, if we mean a world in which the presence of a digital light in the hands is enough to feel less alone and still alive, then yes the world has evolved. But if the genitive 'of man' is added to the noun evolution, things change substantially. In fact, I have no doubt in stating that he who lives in the contemporary world is neither better nor happier than his predecessors. He finds himself living in the society in which he was born, from which he learns the values that constitute it and on which he structures his existence, but he does not become better because his reality creates circumstances and benefits that facilitate him or because he can move about in comfortable ways rather than relying solely on his legs, or because he uses a screen to read and write instead of juggling paper. It is not the fact of being able to be continuously informed about what is happening in the world and its many ugliness that makes him wiser, and the wars he claims to hate are not only present in many places on earth but also in his life. Indeed, there is no existence that is immune to some form of arrogance or injustice, whether inflicted or suffered, and none of them can, therefore, speak of peace but must also come to terms with the word conflict which, in reality, regardless of its form, is part of man and cannot be overcome by ignoring or denying it. So it happens that the sense of aversion that he feels in the face of the many brutalities in the world is not enough to make that sensible coherence prevail that would not allow him to be an accomplice, that is, to also be the perpetrator of forms of arrogance that, even if they may not be as fierce, still perpetuate those aggressive and violent values that make him so indignant.

Human evolution, understood as an ethical and moral emancipation that redefines the concept of being human and is capable of freeing us from the incessant demands of our ego in its many disturbing expressions, has never been achieved by man and, even if there have been indications of it, no sufficiently consistent evidence has ever come to light. Although the idea of an evolution of this kind, capable of creating new foundations with which to forge all of humanity, is a magnificent thought and it is important to keep it in our hearts and fight for it, I consider it utopian because man does not possess the tools. He is shaped by being born and living in a certain historical context, of which he becomes a part and participates in its course and changes. It is, therefore, the world that exists when he exists that guides him in his experience of existence and it is from this that his thoughts and actions unfold. Different civilizations, therefore, that follow one another supported by different principles, different laws and different systems that have their own course and then change again. Ideals, truths and values also suffer the same fate, they too are not unique and forever and, therefore, are not universal but conform to different cultural and social moments. One example is the concept of justice and the many different influences that its meaning has taken on over time.

So, the idea of being guided by unchangeable and absolute ideas and models is unattainable, even if it has always been a human aspiration, and it is probably from this that powerful words such as freedom, happiness, wisdom, love, beauty, justice and virtue have taken shape. In other words, terms that may have arisen precisely from the yearning to be able to grasp the essence of eternal concepts that are known to exist by trying to implement them. An intention that is, however, unattainable. It is similar to what might happen to an artist who is certain of the existence of a certain color even though he has never actually seen it. Indeed, it is not to be found on earth, but when his mind is still and inspired, he knows it exists or sometimes he catches glimpses and shades of it in his dreams. Although this happens to him, when he finds himself with the brush in his hands, that bright flash he had caught becomes so weak that it is impossible to give it real form. Even if he knows that the color exists, the more he thinks about it, the more it changes shape and, despite his remarkable artistic dexterity, when he tries to transfer it to the canvas, what he achieves is a color that may be seductive and rich in captivating tones, but it will never be the color that exists in his heart. It will never be because, on earth among men, it is invisible and therefore unrepeatable. This is what happens to the virtuous words I mentioned, which men have shaped with the intention, perhaps, of giving life to something they feel exists in the depths of their hearts, something they would like to experience but whose true essence is elusive to them and they adapt by settling for what remains.

The world that human beings build with their own existence, with which they form themselves and to which they dedicate themselves, is therefore a world that is relative to the moment in which it exists. For this reason, it can be argued that its consistency is illusory, not because it is not tangible and can be experienced, but because the reality that forms it is fleeting and changeable, making everything that happens in it and comprises it of the same nature. Even the perception that men have of their own lives is equally precarious, since their thoughts and actions are acclimatized to this fragile reality and it is as if they were floating in it. Thus, even what is fully realized is also destined to slip away or change, as is the case with everything around them. This is also the fate of one's emotional world, which is never the same. The passion and emotions that have sustained them for a certain period of time change in accordance with the new contexts that are created, so that what was there at the beginning disperses or turns into different feelings. Even the memory of what has been is therefore fallacious, for it is impossible to relive the joy or despair experienced at the time in the same way, since what is now taking shape is the outcome of the present man and the present moment. All that has been before slips away and only the fleeting 'now' remains, despite being linked to the events that have occurred, to the actions and to the existence lived up to that moment.

This precariousness of situations, feelings, emotions and perceptions that follow one another relentlessly contribute to making every man vulnerable and lost. No intact past to rely on, no real substance, no known future, but a continuous unknown that requires him to devote himself to the present as if he were born now, in a reality made up of constant becoming. He thus proceeds immersed in the social world in which he lives, which represents the sense of reality to which he knows he must adhere. Regardless of how he does it, it is this reality that is his only point of reference and it is from within it that his whole existence is motivated. This is true even when it does not seem so, as in cases of social maladjustment, where the first seed does not germinate from the difficulties of having to adapt to society. In other words, its primary source is not represented by such difficulties but usually stems from something very different that can be defined as unconditional adherence to this social reality, namely total immersion in the systems and values that support it. An adherence that, in one way or another, is common to every individual but which, for various reasons, not everyone is capable of carrying out well. This means that not succeeding, not feeling up to it or not having enough drive, strength or passion to follow the path one wants or needs to follow, can lead to an unbearable sense of failure. So, my thinking is that the most fertile ground from which maladjustment matures is, in many cases, a strong attachment to society and not an unconscious or conscious form of rebellion against it. This is because, if there were not such a strong adherence, what happens to cause suffering, while involving it intensely, would not prostrate it definitively because other awarenesses and moods would come into play that would tame this maladjustment and somehow transform it. Of course, this does not mean, as I will explain later, that the cure is to live cheerfully as an asocial person, far from it!