I think it is safe to say, the world is a mess.
Over the last few days I have talked to a few people about it and I get the sense that I am not the only one that feels that so much of what is going on now, is not for me - like I am born in the wrong time where who I am is not suited to the conditions, and evolution has left me behind.
This world is tiring. It is as if there is a constant battle raging just to survive the simplest of days and there is no good option- Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I'll be damned, regardless.
Perhaps this is not everyone's experience and I am surrounded by confirmation bias, but at least from what I see and hear - there is a despair in the hearts and eyes of many, a resignation that there is no upside, that the best one can hope for is to limit the down.
Why bother resisting, just give in. Fit in.
Be like everyone else.
Instead of pushing back, life is so much easier just to go along, to get along and do what is instructed. Jump on the bandwagon of mass social conformity in an attempt to avoid standing out and being cut down. It isn't a question of tall poppies, it is about not being a flower of society at all.
The parallels to the past and to the most restrictive regimes in the modern world are unparalleled, but to draw comparison is to draw the swords of new foe who just a moment earlier, was old friend. Relationships hang, not in the balance, but at the end of nooses knotted with fear, slung over the beams of polarized argument and weaponized social movements.
And the gallows are full. Seven billion people stand at the trapdoor awaiting their fall, screaming into the void with only an echo of their own voice back, if they had bothered to stay and listen. But, they are too busy to tarry, for if they stand to long to consider their position, they will be over taken and found wanting, the next hurdle to stay accepted uncleared and their ungraceful demise awaits, cheered on by those who are soon to stand in their place.
Do I sound cynical - Clinical?
Maybe - but in the days, weeks and months behind, the degradation has ramped up and with each hour minute and second ahead, it is increasing in velocity, gathering more mass and a gravity of its own, until it consumes and pulls into the darkness, all that it touches.
In the past, escape was an option. The resistance was alive and well, helping those it could to flee all they knew and owned via the hidden tunnels of city and state so that they wouldn't be captured, enslaved, controlled and disposed of. It is no longer an option, as the prison state is global, the policing inescapable, as neighbors name neighbors in a bid to score social points through digital stars and hearts. Signaling to the world their righteousness, as they follow or break the rules, depending on what is in their best interest at the time. Ethics and morality evaluated on number of followers and security and privilege granted on willingness to spread the good message.
A protection racket - pay your dues or lose your livelihood. Stay quiet on your beliefs and broadcast the official narrative, or face the judgement of the people to become an outcast, a lower caste, counted among the filthy and sick - spreaders of disease and mayhem. If only you would do what you were told and stand in line, your suffering would end.
Your body, our choice.
Decades of fighting for civil rights, human rights, personal rights - wiped away in the equivalent of moments to hail a return to the well-trodden ways of old - centralized control and strict enforcement. Step out of line and there will be no warning, only examples are made and they are made publicly, globally.
Fear.
If you aren't scared, you aren't paying attention. It is the only thing people now respond to and they respond predictably. Release the message, repeat the message, propel the message. Over and over until it is conditioned, indoctrinated, enforced by the individual on themselves - from the moment they awake, to the moment they sleep, keep it incessant to keep them fearful. Overwhelm their senses, drown out their thoughts. Erode their resolve.
Leave them all so tired and broken that when sleep does come, there is no energy left to dream of a better world, before the next day begins again.
There is no escape, this is global. There is no safe harbor, no pocket of the world that is spared, no one is coming to our rescue. We have done this to ourselves, by turning ally into enemy and incentivizing hostile activity, punishing anyone who speaks out and takes middleground, celebrating those on the extreme tails.
Tyranny.
We have created a world of tyrants at the granular level, with each individual the king and executioner - not realizing they are also upon a thousand chopping blocks awaiting judgement.
Perhaps it is weakness, maybe I am just too tired.
I am not belonged for this world.
While many seem quite at home.
Thriving on the suffering - even when it is their own.
Especially when it is their own.
Everyone loves a victim.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]