Ball of Confusion.

 I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m suffering from an information burnout and overload, we are living in a constant stream of news (fake or true, who knows) that gets us outraged, angry or makes us even more apathetic toward a society that seems to have not only lost its way, but also has no idea of the GPS location we’re supposed to be heading to.

You would think that the Corona/Covid19 plague would bring us together, after all it is non partisan, neither left or right, not communist or fascist, neither ‘boomer’ or ‘snowflake', it’s gender neutral and non racist. So hell yeah we could at last all come together and show that human solidarity, ingenuity and science can defeat anything, right?. 

Wrong again! 

Here we are a year after we first heard of it, and we are all raging against one another either in the streets or in the cess pool that social media has become. There are the deniers (some of whom have since died of the illness, or from Karma), the ‘deep state’ takeover believers, the anti vaccination groups, ‘herd immunity anti mask wearers’ etc etc etc . Some of this confusion is encouraged or even started by mysterious algorithm-groups like Q-anon where insanity is the norm or one of the tens of other conspiracist nut job self help groups. 

In short it is hard to find a way around the fake news/real news dilemma and get to the bottom of what’s going on with regard to the virus. 

Meanwhile people’s futures are at stake, the economy is teetering on the edge (or not, depending on your news source) and we are all struggling just to get on with daily life which has turned into some sort of dystopian nightmare or badly written Netflix drama.

If Corona isn’t enough for your insatiable ‘end of times’ outlook there are plenty more threats to get you reaching for the anti depressants, like the  ‘Mad Muslim’ fanatics chopping off the heads of anybody who dares mention the prophets name (it’s Kevin btw) or right wing white supremacists eager to start a race war -looking at some of the demonstrators a diet or war on carbs might be better- supremacists never look like what they are proclaiming. Oh, and did I mention yet that the climate is heading for a literal ‘melt down’? and that mass food production is poisoning us and the environment? What about Donald Trump? Chinese interference with our economy? Putin rigging elections and referendums? Brexit? Social media controlling and poisoning our children’s behaviour and minds? Enough? Because we’ve yet to discuss gender issues.

Meanwhile I’m sat here trying to get to grips with my insecurity about our collective future, I have sound silencing headphones on because someone has decided to start digging up the street outside, the air purifier is humming away in its endless futile fight against the over polluted Antwerp air(can we even still call it that?) and my activity app tells me I really should go and get some exercise. In the background the radio plays that old Billy Joel song ‘We Didn’t start the fire’ and I’m thinking ‘well, we might not have started it, but we should stop throwing flammable or even inflammable (yes there is a difference between the two) stuff into the flames. 

Time for coffee, fair trade of course.