Perception and Reason

Perception and Reason

We have come to live in peculiar and perilous times. I feel fortunate to be nearly at the three score years and ten of predictable life spans as we reach these turbulent times of profound change for several reasons.

I was fortunate to have been born in a simpler time – before television – certainly before the devices we all require to function in life these days – if we wish to be a part of the world. In the outback – timeless – somewhat wild and free – where after a morning raid on the underground cellar for jelly crystals and condensed mild – one could take off for the day in any direction – for hours – being lost in one’s imagination – building self sufficiency and an awareness of where one fits in the world.

The world was a secure and stable place – families lived and grew together – despite their difficulties – there are always difficulties in human interaction after all – and for some this was a difficult reality – the limitations on women in particular about their choices and opportunities. It was normal and the life we lived and it provided enormous stability and predictability for life – despite its own issues. Jobs were secure – well paid and for as long as you wanted really.

Social relationships were worked out in the playground – once we arrived in a colder place, having left the bush for the farm – face to face – yes there were the same issues of bullies and exclusion of difference that exist today – however the face to face interaction meant people learned social cues and social moderation by such cues and it was a far more considerate world.

I am a boomer – at the later stage end – but one of that generation who changed every life cycle we approached. We re-energised the feminist movement and rallied against the horror of Vietnam. We stormed glass ceilings and worked long hours – we were the first generation to have children and keep working – on mass. And in terms of the impact of that on the generation following – in retrospect – in some ways – it was the beginning of the rot.

It led to a generation of the latch key children really – those who were left to raise themselves in busy households and coming home to empty houses to feed themselves. It was the first dissembling of the family unit in some ways. For these children, in response to that pain, became helicopter parents – where everyone wins a prize and no one is allowed to be hurt. And I am not sure what we have now – the woke kingdom of the soft fascism of the thought police and all its horrors – and the medically interfered with alphabet children – but it has led to the highest level of childhood anxiety, depression, self harm and suicide the world has ever known.

Re the alphabet children – I don’t give a toss about who you are or what you want to be – go for it. However it is worth noting that clinical research demonstrates that if gender disorientation in children – is allowed to be explored and played with – but not interfered with – over 90% of cases [read that again slowly] – by age 25 – have returned to the gender orientation they were born in and are happy to do so. But yeah let’s start giving 12 year-olds medications to stunt their growth and slice off bits of their flesh before they are legally adults.

I am not talking about the coming shift of the ages here. That is coming come hell or high water or both lol. And before anyone wants to have a woke crack here – I am simply reflecting my own opinions. And anyone who knows me personally knows I am – at heart – a relatively kind and caring human – to whomever is sitting in front of me – irrespective of circumstances. I am reflecting on the humans on the edge of that collapse – and having watched human’s ability to cope with life – with being an adult member who can function well in the society of which we are a part – steadily deteriorate over several generations now.

I am not talking about the bell curve – there will always be people at either end of the spectrum and in an adult society they are cared for either way – ours does not do that at all well by the way. I am watching a society collapse – as much under the weight of its’ own personality adaptations – just as much as from under the bastardry of those pretending to be in charge.

Humans flourished as a species by being able to accomplish two things. The ability to focus on a longer term goal and the ability to delay gratification in order to gain it. Being able to endure collecting pocket money all year to buy a cricket bat. To save up and buy a car – a house – back in the day when it was possible. To focus on working hard to get a degree, then a masters or PhD – in a world where it was valued and led to something. Being able to bring tens of thousands of migrants out to build the snowy river scheme for the benefit of all.

Look around treasures. There is no delayed gratification – everyone wants the prize and they want it now – debt will do. There is no ability to focus – everyone is lost in their little screens – and people do not multi-task – studies in absorption demonstrate quite powerfully the lowering of both understanding and productivity when attempting to do many things at once – all that happens is that nothing gets done well. So the two things that took us out of the trees to form societies I have watched collapse in my lifetime.

We have gone from a world where everyone was cut off from their feelings to a world where feelings have replaced reason and logic. If I feel terrible then something terrible is happening kind of thing. No that tiny spider on your ceiling in the spare bedroom will not bring about the end of life as you know it. And everyone but the person having the feeling then becomes responsible – for them having that feeling – and in some insane and truly bizarre way – it becomes the other persons job to fix what is arising within the person who is feeling it.

This has led to the woke soft fascism of the thought police – truly mad. Get some bloody therapy people and heal it and until then put a bloody cork in it. The loss of reason is the most terrifying thing. If I feel it – it must be so. No it does not work like that. And in the world of echo chambers, fake news, isolation and alienation – people can now go down the path of some extraordinary non reasonable paths – sometimes forever to be lost in there.

Reason matters – for it is what allows for discussion – which allows for the expansion of awareness – you know – in the same way that reading books does. And no – google is not a substitute. Without reason we condemn ourselves to an infantile approach to all life bowing before the shadows on the cave wall. Without conversations we cannot discover what we do not know or consider a difference of opinion. And there truly is a great deal that we do not know that we do not know. But yeah sure – you – in this far removed speck of a 13 billion year old universe – at least according to current theory lol – on this 4 billion year old planet – part of a species that has been here for half a million years – as one tiny dust speck of the current 8 billion specks of it – with a life span of under a hundred years – of which you have probably only lived half of if you are reading this – you – you know what it is all about and have become righteous in that knowing. Really.

Yes huge changes are coming for all. But in the meantime – as we dwell in clearly different realities while having a cup of tea with someone – be aware – you don’t know it all. Personally as I approach my latter years – I am increasingly aware I know diddly squat about anything really and that is ok. It is liberating in fact – because I have no opinion that I need to righteously defend to the death – I am not attached to drama of the need to do that – yes I can have my rants – but that is my emotional body being tweaked – and it is always a relief when the rant is done – the emotion is processed – it has not been inflicted on anyone along the way – and reason returns.

So dear ones connect with other humans – share opinions and ideas – especially with people you disagree with – for that is how compromise is reached and extremism lessoned and reason is what is needed for that to happen.

“Become the fire and summon the wind” said a wise stoic once xx

The fires are still off up here on the mountain – so good – everyone I am talking to lately is wanting to hunker down – to not go outside – as the big Solar Eclipse in Scorpio approaches for next Tuesday night. So what ever you are up to on this beautiful day – be kind – be generous – be empathic – and stop engaging the drama queens and nutbags of the world – they only get away with it when they are given fuel – so don’t lol xxx