I can't help but feel surprised whenever I come across someone who's talking about the idea of doing something "when the world returns to normal."
Normal???
What is this "normal," of which you speak?
Down to a sunless sea...
Color me cynical, but I don't think there's much of a chance we'll ever return to "normal"... or whatever you might call the state of the world in — let's say — late 2019. A year ago.
If anything, I think we're just in the middle of a great big re-set of some kind.
To be honest, though, I am not sure I want to go back to where things were a year ago. I'd much rather head towards something "new and improved" if such a thing were possible.
And therein lies the infamous "rub", of course. Odds seem very high that we are simply headed towards something different that's not necessarily better.
Sunflower and prayer flags
Still, maybe it's a requirement of the human psyche to fill ourselves with some kind of hope — however futile — that better things are somewhere out ahead. Alas, I have grown increasingly skeptical in my old age... the only thing I feel reasonably assured of is that "things" are ahead. And, most likely, they will be no improvement on what we currently call the "status quo."
To wit, in a couple of weeks there will be a Presidential election in the US of A. Yup, it's just two weeks ahead, and I feel slightly ashamed and sad to admit that I have never cared less about politics than I do, right now.
Regardless of who gets elected, chances are that we'll be dealing with a munted shitshow for the next four years, and beyond.
Deep purple cornflower in our meadow...
"Politics" is a strange fish, at the best of times.
You can talk to people about politics, and what their "party affiliation" or "political leanings" might be, but if you start to drill down into why — or why not — something is actually a good idea when functionally applied, you are often met with blank looks.
So much of the time, we vote for things or throw our energy and enthusiasm behind them for little more reason than they SOUND good but there's very little substantive thinking that goes into how people arrive at their beliefs.
And so often? So often such closely held beliefs are misguided and not actually based in applied reality but instead in the need to feel like "we're behind a movement."
Calendula
Liberal? Conservative? Anarchist? Libertarian? Communist? Socialist? Oligarchist? Imperialist? Nationalist? Monarchist? Fascist?
Why is any one of these "-isms" good for YOU, and why is a world where a majority thinks like you do a good thing? And how is what you purport to stand behind bad for some, and how bad will it be, for them? "To the victor goes all the spoils" the old truism goes... but what is ultimately the net effect on the losers in that equation? Or is their "lot" ultimately reduced to needing to "snap into lie or perish" in a totalitarian sort of way?
Do you even understand what the -ism you stand for means, in a practical sense? People love to throw political terms around — often as incendiary insults — without actually knowing what the term they are using truly means. For example, Cuba is a "Socialist" country, Sweden is not. The USA is a Federal Democratic Republic. So is Germany.
Roses in our garden
When I was five or six years old I pretty much decided that the world was not a nice place and now that I'm past sixty, I still feel that the world is not a nice place.
That thought doesn't make very happy and it also doesn't make me very hopeful, even as I accept that it seems to be the pervasive reality we must all live with.
But would I call it "normal?" Undecided, on that one...
Thanks for reading, and I hope you're all having a good week!
How about YOU? Do you think we'll ever return to "normal?" Is "normal" even a real thing, or just a figment of our imaginations? Or is all we have merely "the next thing," whatever it may be? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20201020 22:58 PDT
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