Everything
that was once considered normal is now wrong. Well, maybe not
everything but quite a lot.
Language.
Perceptions. Thinking. All have been modified; all are still changing
at such a rate it's hard to know where you stand if you say a thing,
anything,
or think such and such, irrespective of whether you then voice it in
terms to try not to offend or deliberately do otherwise; or keep your
counsel and only confide in others who you know think like you.
I
could give examples of the ways in which language, perceptions and
thinking have been, are being tampered with to cause friction, to
create animosity but why go into that? What good will that do?
Because it's not new, just something we are again living through.
A
generational divide, where the language used is not the same, where
opinions aren't crouched the same or shared. Neither is how time is
spent and resources utilised.
I
hesitated over the use of that term: generational divide, because I
don't believe it – but how else do you express it? A sociological
change? - since if that's the case I should side (is there a side?)
with my own and I don't, nor am I, it seems, in total agreement with
those the other side, age-wise, of me. They've gone ahead, moved with
these changing times, and I've stayed behind, in a different age.
A
age that somehow seems for all its technological ineptness less
complicated. Slower, true, but not as slow as days gone past; still,
nothing could have stopped that tide from advancing, and from
advancing still for it has yet to slow its pace.
Am
I coming across as a bit of a sourpuss? I'm not. I like where I am (I
don't begrudge those that have adapted) but why, in making way for
change, should my position get harder to maintain, or for my views on
certain issues to be tolerated?
By
issues I mean our ideas on progress, human rights, feminism,
isolationism, protectionism and democracy. Is what we consider
forward-thinking taking us backwards? Discuss. No don't, this is not
the time, nor place.
Globalisation
and interconnectedness is a fallacy (homogenisation is not however);
we each live in our bubble. Which, yes, may include communicating
with peoples in other countries and knowing their news, but it's
still a bubble. Oh, we can be moved but that bubble still exists. And
actually, being more knowledgeable about world events can do the
opposite: leave you feeling unmoved. As well as also wondering why?
Racking your brains, even: is it just me?? Have I grown that
hard-hearted; have the roads of the world grown dark?
All
this emotionality. On tap. To what end, to what purpose? To bestir or
to numb? Are you outraged; are you a victim; do you not care.
There's
an accepted mainstream view, an accepted (and expected) reaction,
whether that be an outpouring of jubilation, sympathy or rage. Unity.
As a nation. And if you differ, well, you might be cast-off, set
adrift.
Except
it's never as clear-cut as that: human beings are not simple beasts,
nor immortal gods. Our emotions are complex and mixed. Yet, while
this is played on, played with in media or channels of that nature,
man in his or her natural state cannot now be inconstant. Moods
provoked by sensationalism or personal crises understood; moods with
no obvious causes not. Even those influenced by hormonal surges come
under fire, when at certain life stages (and if not too unmanageable)
they merely accompany a process. But there's a line of thinking that
says: a mood that fluctuates in any way needs pills, those prescribed
or otherwise obtained. To stabilise, to heighten, to drop, to
flat-line. Moods are bad and need taming. What they should not do is
fluctuate in response to the day, nor be experienced for their own
sake. A reason as to their cause should be found and they should be
helped, at least so as they don't impede or influence the nature of
behaviour or thought, even in a good way.
What
a thing to imagine, what a thing to say! I'm not without compassion
if there's grounds for a case, and it's not, as it so often seems,
just another added to the drugging of the masses. Suffering the waves
and wars (of life) is very much a human journey.
Picture credit: The Wave, Erte (source: WikiArt).
All posts published this year were penned during the last.
