In case every other media system hasn't got you panicked,
PANIC!!!!
or, as it's the 42nd anniversary of Hitchikers guide to the Galaxy, with the large friendly letters on the cover -
We may be undergoing the End Times/Zombie-apocalypse/Corona-virus-flu-zapalooza, true.
And our political system seems irreparably skewed to the control of kleptocrat authoritarians.
Ok yes I will grant you that.
Ah yes and the climate might be up the creek.
But other than Worldwide Pandemic, Political Looting and Carpet-baggery, the destruction of the ecosystem, what have the Romans ever done for us?
It's taking us a little time, collectively, to work out that the words we have around us, the things we pay attention to, shape us in ways we may not fully be aware of.
It's still early days in the development of the online collective mind, and we're still learning to filter.
We get told we're weak, that we can't effect change, we're told to fear, to fear other people, to consume, to envy.
I mean Fear Of Missing Out has its own acronym (FOMO) and is a regular part of marketing discussions.
Really?
Magicians rely on our human blindspots. Social media does too.
The main stream press has become reliant on Clickbait and easy-to-swallow headlines that don't have to be true, because who cares, right?
Nothing's true, it's all fake news, it's all fake truths.
Except for gravity.
Nope, that still works. My coffee cup does not float off my table because someone has a differing opinion.
We're finding out what happens when the old 20th century structures finally collapse. oops. Looks messy.
I'm liking what Sacha Baron Cohen is doing about holding Facebook accountable. Takes a comedian to tell the truth sometimes huh?
As a result of the 20th-century-gold-rush to the internet & the turn-of-the-21st-Century Attention Wars, once again, Truth was the casualty.
It's up to us, individually, to start listening to that smaller voice inside us that chimes up when the news is too pat, too perfect, too click-baity.
We have so much information available to us it's hard to shut the noise out.
That requires a more mature viewpoint.
Perhaps, over time, our natural inclination will be towards less freaking out and panic, and as a result, our news services will start to phrase things in facts rather than appealing tidbits, and we'll start to once again agree that facts are facts, and gravity is not subject to speculation without consequence, or assertion without proof.
After two weeks back from tour, I am enjoying not doing things. It's blissful. My tea cup runneth over and the local sour dough is still the bomb.
Planes, trains and venues empty, for the end times are upon us.
When I ran out of milk for my tea, I had to risk a journey outside.
Brave are the few who leave the house now, flocks of armed women struggle for the last 4 ply toilet paper in Chullora.
The Cops actually said 'it's not mad max'
I mean really?
This is how Australia goes Road Warrior? First it's the loo paper, next thing we're all pieced nippled and shotgun toting wasteland warriors??
Don't get me wrong, as a fan of Mencken's (paraphrased) thought 'there comes a time when even civilised men must hoist the black flag' and having been raised on Mad Max, I for one welcome the new Australian post-apocalyptic music scene as I think it will be more open to original songs.
It surprised me greatly when buying a loaf of bread and some milk proved Zombie Free, Mad Max Free and I still had to pay with my EFTPOS card rather than with the blood of my enemies or tanks of gas, shotgun shells or antibiotics.
Rule of law has not yet broken down beyond its present state, which may be secretly acknowledged as merely a continues of business as usual since 1788.
Due to the current panic I even got a spot at that cool cafe place for breakfast on a Saturday.
A Saturday?? Can you imagine it?
End times? Goood times I say, good times.