Ernestine Comvalius: ‘Shared reality: a term born out of despair, I suspect’

The more than 100 editors-in-chief, directors, board members, researchers, regulators, and journalists who participated in the second edition of Media for Democracy were welcomed with a spoken-word performance by writer and speaker Ernestine Comvalius, who is also a member of SDM’s supervisory board. She put herself in the attendees’ shoes and challenged them to step away from their daily work for a moment.

Text: Ernestine Comvalius

Shared Reality

Here I am, standing before the crème de la crème of journalism
For a moment—just a moment—I put myself in your shoes.
For the duration of this story, which was already too long:
acute panic attacks, migraines, and constipation

The earth rolled down my back and settled on my shoulders
I was standing in front of Fort Democracy. You know the kind—those forts.
The Netherlands excelled at building forts that all
form a Pentagon. In Ambon, Paramaribo, Fort Elmina in Ghana
I was recently at the Cape of Good Hope in Cape Town. Impressive.

I stepped into your shoes and felt like Atlas from ancient times
, with the vault of heaven resting on his shoulders.
No, I felt like one of the Caryatids. You know the legend.
Women who were captured and enslaved after the Greco-Persian War
They now adorn the columns of the Acropolis and, as punishment, bear an eternal burden.

In Southeast Amsterdam, where I live, we have our own caryatid monument.

Anyway, I won’t dwell on the past, because writer Bezemer mentions “old media”
and warns them
against following in the footsteps of classical music.

I just want to raise a question:
Aren’t our expectations of journalism
set at such lofty heights that journalism is doomed
to disappoint, become the talk of the town, fail, and fall, and
to carry on, battered and flawed?

I mean, let’s be honest, distinguished guests.
After all, you’re just
human beings, too.
With your own struggles, traumas, blind spots
gaps in your education, untold stories, false pride.
Baggage. Baggage. About heroes who turn out to be oppressors
About people who are worth less if they don’t look like US
US?

We expect too much: Objective journalism
Neutral reporting, room for diverse perspectives
But in the newsrooms of the creators and decision-makers
of the news
You won’t find a colorful palette of voices
singing in harmony or in counterpoint

I now know how difficult it is to be in your shoes.
And today, as I’ve heard,
you’re searching for a shared reality
A term born of despair, I suspect
Hope. It strikes me as a discordant note in these times.
A dissonance.

But we might as well give it a try
Finding a consonant
Follow me in your mind.
We’re going to rise above the level we’re at now
You are the gatekeepers of democracy

The key figures, facing a supernatural challenge today.
Rise with us and bring your imagination along
Leave behind your status, your entrenched preconceptions
And as you rise, something else falls away from you
Your political affiliation. Your class status. Your religion.
Your three-piece suit or dress shoes—you can leave those behind, too
Because somewhere up there, at meta-altitude, when all the trappings
and the restrictive pressures of work, the drive to compete, and the unhealthy part
of your ego have slipped away from you

At that dizzying height, you might be willing to ponder those fundamental
ontological questions:
What is our shared reality? Where do we stand? Who knows—perhaps there are lessons beyond our
field of vision, beyond our continent? What do we need now: universal thinking
or pluriversality?

Step confidently into the unknown
That’s my advice

And don’t forget to always keep the past in mind, because you are our memory.
Every current event—be it an upheaval, a disappointment, or a crisis—stems from the past.
And we consumers need context. We often suffer from amnesia.

I once put it something like this:

The past never sleeps
It slumbers with one eye open
It guards the chronicles
of our conscience
It preserves the treasure trove
of our civilizations

Doesn’t turn a blind eye
Is merciless
honest

The past never sleeps
speaks in tongues and visions
tangibly crosses swords
is not afraid
is patient
does not grow old
does grow wiser

The past never sleeps. Does
roll out the carpet of the future
for us?

Hold on a second
—I can hear the down-to-earth Frederieke Geerdink shouting
—listen up, listen up
—all journalism is activism

And I’m back in the here and now—
, here with you

And today, you’ll start weaving
this carpet of the future

Good luck with that.

–

Thanks to zestien:negen for editing and subtitling the video. You can also watch Sean Illing and Marjan Slob’s contributions to Media for Democracy here.