Being human in strange times

I’ve lost count of the number of times people have said to me,

“It must be great to be the Mindset guy, not having all the same hangups as the rest of us”

or something similar.

But that’s so far from the reality that I’m just a human like everyone else

(although I do have my doubts about some of you)

And to be honest, right now I’m having some difficulty dealing with what’s going on in the world.

I value freedom, it’s one of my strongest core values.

Perhaps growing up on a small island that was occupied during the Second world war,

hearing stories from my grandparents’ generation of hardships they endured for 5 years,

with reminders all around us in the form of concrete fortifications and bunkers, to this day,

has given me an unusual appreciation of what freedom is.

I don’t know…

But I do know that I find lack of freedom stressful.

We’ve been lucky here so far with a minimal lockdown, but at the same time half our life actually happens at our place in France,

and we haven’t been able to get there in a year.

Earlier this year one of my oldest friends died in France, and I wasn’t able to say goodbye.

That’s been painful.

Then I look at the people around me.

Some of them are terrified, recoiling in horror if you get anywhere near their 2m exclusion zone,

there’s the awkward moments we’re all having about whether it’s ok to hug someone, or shake hands.

Is it ok to put your arm around someone who’s crying these days? I don’t know.

We’re certainly not allowed to sing, for fear of “killing our granny”.

The rapid destruction of our social norms makes me sad.

Then I look at the wider population.

There are people dying in care homes who haven’t seen relatives in 6 months. Many of these people have dementia and must feel like they’ve been abandoned by their loved ones.

How are we supposed to feel about that?

People are suffering and dying right now because they’re not getting access to healthcare, either because they can’t get appointments or because they;re too scared to go to a hospital.

While at the same time almost no-one is actually dying from the virus.

And there’s nothing you or I can do about it.

Nobody seems to care.

Small Businesses everywhere are falling. People who have poured their heart and soul, and everything they own, into building a way to support themselves have had it all taken away.

We lost thousands of our own income from our local business being forcibly closed, but at least we survived, many weren’t so lucky.

It’s heartbreaking.

I’ve seen videos recently of people in the UK being physically harmed by police officers just because they refused to obey rules they didn’t agree with.

Part of Australia have become a “Soviet Police State”, with government officials resigning, while at the same time recording the lowest cases.

Isn’t it normal to feel anger or at least discomfort at such draconian measures?

We’ve also seen the death of something important to me.

Rational, intelligent debate.

Now, if you don’t follow the prescribed narrative,

and so much as ask a question,

you’re not holding an alternative viewpoint, you’re a conspiracy theorist.

How did we get to that?

I’ve actually held back from publicly posting my views because I was concerned I would be branded a nutter.

I’m a researcher by nature, I love data and seeking out patterns, it’s part of what makes me so good at helping people.

And when you look properly, the data tells a different story to the one that is being publicly handed out.

It’s hidden in plain sight.

The actions taken by governments around the world were totally disproportionate to the threat. Pandemics are nothing new, they’re part of our natural world, but the arrogance of human beings who think they can control everything turned this one into the biggest human, business and social disaster we have ever seen.

Right now, as we’ve become aware that the cure is worse than the disease, we should be rebuilding, but instead we’re continuing down the path of destruction.

I just can’t understand why, and it plays on my mind.

Science is dead and I mourn for it.

There are thousands of scientists, doctors, researchers and generally intelligent people around the world who disagree with the mainstream and are trying to be heard,

they’re respectable people who know what they’re talking about, but instead of being one side of a debate they are being silenced.

They’re not being given equal airtime to the mainstream narrative.

They’re being branded as conspiracy theorists, which is used as a derogatory term.

A few companies in Silicon Valley, who are not specialists, now determine that things are “real” or “fake”, with no oversight to check on the “fact checkers”.

Who knows what their agenda is, but certainly it’s going to be mostly about making money,

and people generally accept what they’re told if you tell them enough times.

Everything great about our society and culture seems to be being whittled away,

lives are being destroyed,

people are suffering,

people are being killed,

for fear of a red spiky ball that wants to kill us all

(which, by the way, is actually too small to reflect light and have colour)

based on “tests” that the creator, Nobel Prize winner Kary Mullins, is on video saying they should not be used for diagnosis.

All of this, and yet, according to Worldometer

8 Million people died of hunger this year.

797 Million people don’t have access to clean drinking water.

846 million people don’t have enough food

6 million deaths caused by Cancer

And on,

and on,

and on.

I am ashamed of myself for allowing all this,

I am ashamed of you for allowing all this,

Our World is sick, maybe terminally,

and I don’t know what to do.

I feel despair for what is happening.

So, if you ever look at me and think I must have my shit together.

Now you know

I’m just human.