Living in a World in Uproar...

*Picture courtesy of Pixabay

I think this about sums up most of us lately

From Facebook to real life, from my author newsletter to Steem, there are waves of despair that cross oceans and continents. The world is a bitter place nowadays. We grab at moments of happiness like a starving woman that has found a single grain of bread, we cling to it, and try to nurture it, but then, it blows away in the wind.

My friends and family feel it, people I talk to on a variety of platforms feel it, they just don't seem to realize that this feeling is now universal. Each person thinks it is only them, that they are the only ones that are having nightmares, that they are the only ones having troubles and woes, that it is them alone that feels the weight of futility on their shoulders.

I don't know if each one is so locked into their own troubles that they cannot see that others are also feeling this pain, or if they are just oblivious to the fact that what is making them so emotionally ill, is in fact, the never-ending ability to communicate your each and every thought at a moment's notice. One friend drowns their sorrows in alcohol, another in cocaine, others in food, while others hide it until it manifests itself as a physical illness.

The truth is, we are not meant to live as we do today, we cannot function in a world that is so vastly different from that we grew up in. By we, I obviously mean those of us born before 1990. We could cope with Ataris, we could cope with cell phones, but smart phones, constant surveillance, and the inability to escape the constant bombardment of advertising/fraud/knowledge and growth without a shred of privacy makes us want to hide. At least it does me. And the people I talk to.

There are the few, the ones that trot out the "if you have nothing to hide" idiocy, the ones that feel safe now that they can't use their own national forest for its intended purpose, but the rest of us just sit here going what the hell happened, on a daily basis. We try to adapt, we try to fit in, we try to hide the fact that all we want to do is find a cave and be a hermit. Regression is never a good thing, though, is it? Besides, we'd probably need a permit to take up residence, another permit to build a fire in it, another one to build a doorway, yet another for waste removal, another one to get an address, and then, we'd inevitably need another for the Internet. Because we just can't live without it. It is now the drug of the masses. The internet has truly replaced religion as the drug that fulfills our every need and gives us...well, a need for more, not peace.

My solution to most of the problem has been to disconnect as much as I can. Impossible in my line of work, I will never be able to run my business without the use of the information highway, but I have started to disconnect. I visit Facebook rarely. There's too much defeat there, on either side of the political spectrum. I see the pain, the anger, the absolute hate of some, and the pure anguish of others, and know that if I tell them...disconnect...go to the park, go the library, lose yourself in a book, that the only response would be, "I don't have time", or that's just silly. I'd be told I don't understand, that I'm minimizing the issue. That I just don't get the problem, man. But, I do, I really do. The problem is huge, it seems insurmountable, but it's not. It really isn't. Also, no, you aren't the only one. We all feel it, all of us. I'm sorry if that makes anyone feel less unique, but that's the truth of it. This is mass despair on a the grandest scale ever seen!

You see? I do get it, I do understand, I am a very observant person, sometimes too observant. I notice the words between the lines, I notice the words used, the repetition of words, the same expression of grief, over and over again. This despair is, it really is, universal.

How do we stop it? Stop eating up the advertisements, stop reading the hate, stop buying into the "somebody has what you want, only they cheated to get it" lie. Turn off the television. Turn off the radio, because guess what those are for? To sell you something else, to sell you a dream that you will never reach out for because, though you may want it, The Walking Dead comes on at 9 and you have to see it. You can't miss it, if you do, someone will spoil it for you, and that would just be the end of the world.

But, the world is ending around you, civilization is crumbling, piece by piece, and what are you doing to stop it? Nothing, because you are the only person with these worries, you are alone in your hunt for money for your next meal, for a new tire, or, apparently, for an avocado.

The best thing you can do, the absolute best thing you can do, is walk away as much as you can. Instead of playing at the game of life online for three hours, go out and volunteer somewhere. Help is always needed at animal shelters. Find a program that helps children learn new skills, any of them, there are tons of programs! There are a million things that can be done to change the world, they don't all have to be huge. Writing a novel is not the height of success, earning a medal for some deed isn't either. Sometimes, turning off the television/computer/tablet is the bravest thing you can do. And in the future, maybe it will be those that unplugged that saved the world. Leave the world of 10111001 to those that know how to navigate it properly.

Find your own peace, it's the only way. Waiting on a pill to bring you happiness, or an app, is not going to get you anywhere unless you make changes on your own. Unless YOU make an effort. Sitting on the couch, holding that sucker down, will ensure that in five years you've worn a hole in that couch and nothing else. This is not living, it's existence. We were not meant to merely exist, we were meant to live. Do it. Just say no...and see what life is really about.