The news keeps flowing and the brain cannot cope.   It’s just a buzzing now and hard to process, to discern patterns and work out what it all means.

How do I gain perspective?

If a minority view gets a lot of media coverage and is very loud, does that mean that the majority or the government should change policy / opinion?  Anti-vaccine mandate protests in Wellington are prolonged yet illegal.   Vaccine mandates are a tough part of the COVID response but have helped to control acute disease and unnecessary deaths so far.  If a disease is highly contagious but milder than the previous mutations should one allow it to spread without restrictions?  Being in a world where immediacy and knee-jerk reactions dominate is hard.  How do I retain perspective, how do I feel like a valid member of society if my opinion / voice is quieter than the minority’s?

Humanity has been in a fragile state for a number of decades now.   The domination of capitalism, making money at all costs and social media has meant that the definition of political and societal norms has changed.  Just because it has changed, does that mean that I should change too?  That I should remain quiet?  The peak of a COVID outbreak does not feel like a responsible time to counter-protest in person, emails seems weak and discussions with friends or peers doesn’t influence the world at large.  There is war in Europe, discontent and sickness at home and a feeling of disconnection from those back in the UK / Ireland.

I have an appetite to be informed and to keep up with the news.  But this feels harmful right now and the world keeps turning whether I am ‘informed’ or not.  Should I keep my world small – concentrate only on what is in front of me at home and at work?  The tools I use to keep balance have not been working of late as I feel disgruntled most of the time.  There does not seem to be a reasonable balance in the media about current events and what is good for people / the country / the world in the long-term.   It’s all about now and what individuals or small groups think is right or wrong,

If that is the new normal then where do the rest of us fit in?  It seems more questions than answers right now.  Perhaps that’ ok.   Maybe it’s time for the world to take a few spins without my obsessing about it.

Perhaps just living each day without being affected by outside events is ok for a few days.   One thing is for sure and that’s there will be new events by the day or hour.  Concentrating on your own solid base may be best way to approach what it is to come.

The noise started with the election of Donald Trump and was certainly building from when he announced his candidacy and then given a push to become audible by Brexit in 2016.

The façade of common decency and the expectation that norms would be observed fell away in earnest when those two events happened.  Other myths were exposed; America as the bastion of freedom and civility, the UK as a stable proponent of respect and democracy and that humanity in the 21st century could withstand the same horrors of the first half of the 20th century and then uphold the intent and desire for peace and equality.

In a way I’m glad that has happened as it is always good to face reality and not have hope in something that is not there.  Better to find hope in knowing what’s there and looking for the ways to change / improve it.

People look to social media and the breakdown of structure in our private lives to explain the change, but really the erosion of humanity has been due to our willingness to allow uber-capitalism, individualism and a distortion of freedom of speech to be become our new moral codes.

The politics of Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s gave rise to the unfettered development of the free-market economy, the rights of the individual over the common good and the explosion of consumerism.  Mass production of short-life goods did away with the expectation of quality and extending the life of goods through repair and good care. It doesn’t seem a stretch to conclude that after 40+ years of this, the same is happening with our relationship with facts and each other.

The legacy of the four years of Trump’s presidency has been the the disruption of political norms within democracy and the unleashing of any or all ‘truths’ because it is the individual’s right to express whatever they want.  This has raised the noise level and led to facts becoming redundant and the right of individuals to be able to carry on consuming goods and pleasure regardless of whatever crisis is going on all important.   Pandemic, war, climate change event or natural disaster, the loudest voices are those that dissent against any action that would stop them from having their latte, buying a new car or generally just having a comfortable life.

Beneath the noise is there still a silent majority?   Is there still the ability of humanity to look at the crises as long-term challenges to resolve not just short-term inconveniences to dodge and skim over?  Is my view of how we should deal with these things irrelevant and outdated?  Is the noise the winner?

The past five years have felt like an intellectual and emotional onslaught that has finally led me to doubt for real that humanity can rally and be resilient like it has proven to for the thousands of years it has existed for.  Writing these thoughts is the challenge to myself to find a middle ground for myself and taken a long-term perspective that things can still change for the better, because they always have before.