I last seriously managed my blog two weeks ago (don’t be shocked but sometimes I post by autopilot and/or approve comments in haste). Two weeks is unconscionably long by modern standards but not rare for me. I won’t go into details. I had shit to do and chose not to burn time keeping up with the world at large.
Now, having accomplished some of the things that needed doing, I’m of two minds. On one hand, I want to get back on the internet. I’d like to check my blog and I’ve the normal human desire to find out what society has been doing in my absence. On the other hand, I already know what society has been up to; the same shit it’s been doing for ages. A few rational actors have watched in horror as lunatics en masse caterwaul like little bitches. Emotionally stunted, otherwise unemployable, loons cavort about; demanding respect they haven’t earned. Having done nothing (possibly because they’ve done nothing), nutcases demand the keys to the world. Ironically, the ability to control lies unnoticed at their feet. Build the world, expand and improve it, and you’ll find your hands on the tiller by default. But true accomplishment is very hard. So much easier to seize authority and drive what already exists into a ditch.
Am I wrong? Was there an outbreak of kindness and rationality? Everyone just chilled out and decided to stick to their own knitting? I’m betting “No”. I’d love to be wrong.
So I sit here, relaxing on a day off, avoiding my laptop. There it is, inert, stuffed in my travel luggage, totally hamstrung. Powered on, it’ll be linked to the largest, most powerful human emotion generation machine ever devised. The internet (and social media) lies in wait, ready to do its thing. It’s poised to mock my beliefs, shovel propaganda, spew information leavened with bullshit, and dole out little dopamine hits of irrelevance. The internet whispers its siren song “post about how completely you comply with the required narrative and I’ll give you ‘likes'”. It’s all about compliance. I could get on Facebook and tell everyone I bought a new Apple product. They’d treat me like a hero. Or I could use the same soapbox to tell everyone I went hunting. I’d be treated like I’d committed a war crime. The media is there too; ready to keep me agitated. It cajoles with inflammatory crap about which I’d never otherwise be aware; “A tattooed, pierced, gender amorphous wingnut you’ve never met checked onto a commercial airline with an ’emotional support animal’. It was a pelican. The pelican was died blue, infected with Ebola, has gender issues, shit all over, and disrupted the flight. The plane was diverted to Detroit where it landed amid a gang war. The pelican owner is suing everyone in the time zone for being racist.” I’m supposed to read that shit and get angry. That’s its purpose.
Nothing is so stupid and weird that it’s not useful for manipulation. We all know (in general) that stupid shit’s going down, but the media seeks out the obscene and pipes it to our living-room. Right now, some politician is singling out “people like X” as “not who we are”. The politician doesn’t want my vote and will never get it. Yet I fear I look like X. I’ve seen this movie before. It’s the forever and ratcheting run up to “up against the wall” or “burn the witch”. It’s slow coming and ideally it never arrives. Is it wise to let media roll out the red carpet for every step? In my house? Why give headspace to such crap?
The same shit’s been going on since the first caveman learned incitement is easier than getting his hands dirty doing work. He got his tribe to dogpile “others” and put him in charge. They all died the next winter.
Ah, the irony of it all. I have at my command the greatest database in human existence; the sum total of human knowledge. Yet, I’m reluctant to turn it on. I’ll have to sift shit to find the gems and I’m not in the shit business today. For every delightful nugget of knowledge there’s an angry cat lady bitching about how the world would be better if she were in charge of… well in charge of ME. That’s all they want, to boss other people around. I’m part of “other people”. You are too. Remember this:
Nobody wants a position of power to better manage their own affairs.
Meanwhile I’ve got a real problem. I hauled firewood to the house but didn’t bring kindling. Whoops. (Notice I didn’t blame anyone for my oversight? It never occurs to me that my failures are someone else’s problem. This is why I’m not a politician.)
My current, front and center problem is how to coax a warm fire from big hunks of wood without the requisite little hunks of wood. I have a choice; go through the snow to the woodshed and drag back an armload of kindling or get creative with some junk mail and a match. It’s very cold out.
My problem is minor, immediate, and solvable. The electronic shitstorm we mainline into our cerebrum focuses on the massive, distant, unsolvable, and almost exclusively contrived. I’ll eventually get my woodstove going. I won’t “solve” Syrian foreign policy. You won’t either. Likely Syria is unsolvable and the people there might resent being “solved” by outside forces anyway.
Incidentally, this is how you know I’m out of the loop. Syria was in the news when I checked out. Two weeks is longer than the lifespan of a modern topic. For all I know it’s forgotten by now. Likely the new issue is unrelated. What’s the new topic? Another reason why the election of 2016 didn’t happen? Surprise at California burning itself to the ground again? Tide pod eaters have taken to pissing on spark plugs?
I won’t know until I fire up the laptop. Right now, I’m using a brick-solid, dumb as rocks, Neo2 word processor. I’m almost done typing. Soon I’ll tentatively nudge into the least stupid online neighborhood possible. I hear Emporium Outdoors has an new ATV. That’s a good start. Emporium Outdoors won’t set the world on fire with deep oration, but watching a man and his dog rest by a campfire is good for the soul. It never fails to amuse and everyone loves the dog.
Yeah, that’s the ticket. I’m going to wade in the shallows and, if I don’t get mental Ebola from a bunch of hyperactive lemmings, I’ll gradually get around to checking the news. If not, this text will live on my Neo2 while I withdraw again.
In the meantime, I’ve got important issues to address. I have kindling to split.
A.C.