Want to change the world? Take a look at yourself

It’s almost inescapable – the hysteria and misinformation and propaganda.  Andthe sad fact is that we’re no longer just on the receiving end, eyeballs glued to our screens eight hours a day, but now we’re broadcasting it via echo chambers of falsity, half-truths or outright idiocy – is it any wonder no one knows quite what to believe anymore? I sure as hell don’t. I no longer believe in democracy. I no longer believe in the establishment. I no longer believe what I’m told. I question everything to the extent of paranoia. Whatever it is, this misinformation-saturated world we’re existing in, it’s driving me actually mad. 

To have an opinion, however half-baked or ironic is to incite vicious attacks even from friends or relatives whose views don’t accord with your own. What horror show have we created for ourselves that we’re all so busy spouting off that we don’t notice that we’re causing harm to the ones we should care about the most? Whatever’s happening on the other side of the world, however abhorrent,  no amount of liking, sharing, petitioning or mouthing off against is actually going to make the blindest bit of difference. It’s time we all just stopped. Kept our opinions (based as they are on half facts, and whitewashed information) to ourselves, because the one thing we all probably are is wrong.  

There is really only one thing we can do – be kind to those we love, and accord others the same respect, and to try and walk in their shoes if you disagree with them. No one’s really mad or even all that bad if you could see the world through their eyes, so why are we getting so all up in each other’s faces with our own version of the truth? Perhaps because no one feels they’re being heard, so we shout all the louder. 

There’s so much more important stuff going on in our own backyards (those of us who are lucky enough to have them in these spatially-straightened times). And yet (and I’m as guilty of this as anyone) we’re all so glued to things that don’t really concern us we fail to notice the things that do. It’s insidious, the way our thoughts are controlled, and the fact that we’re choosing to control them ourselves. By shutting out those we disagree with at the touch of a button, we’re only getting more divided than ever in our own individual hall of mirrors. And ultimately whose interest is that in? The ones who are taking all the control.

Divide and conquer. It’s a classic battle strategy, and in the epic game of them (those in power) and us (those without), we’re blinkered enough to bask in our own thoughts bubbles in a sea of outrage and hatred that leaves most of us permanently angry or afraid.

What’s the solution? To switch off, obviously. Dare I say to stop caring about what doesn’t directly concern ourselves? Although inertia is its own evil that gently fans the flames of hell. But really what can any of us little people do to wrest back some control of those who are stealing our hearts and minds? I suppose we need to go to the crux of the issue, because it’s never the power you can see that is the strongest. Want to know who controls the world? ‘Cause it sure ain’t Trump or even Putin, or individual bankers, those that man the machine. It’s the Ftse 100 and the offshore elite who profit from it. But it’s also every single one of us who has benefited from contributed to or suffers from it, which we all do to s greater or lesser extent. 

So, hate capitalism? Don’t buy cigarettes or Coca-Cola, but recognise of those that do that breaking addictions to nicotine and sugar is nigh on impossible. In fact, don’t buy any of the well-known brands you get in your supermarket, or even the less well-known brands that are also owned by the same ten companies that run the world, and which set the agenda for policy along with oil interests and weapons manufacture. Stepping off the system that feeds and clothes our children is hard, but we could be savvier if he time was not so squeezed.

Hate environmental issues? Ride a bike and buy organic, although it’s hard to feed a world without GM and pesticides; eat less meat – but above all else, stop flying. And sad to say, but fewer babies  might help. Hate war? Don’t inadvertently fund it – those poppies you’re wearing shift responsibility away from governments for the welfare of ex-service people – and understand wars overseas are big business at home. Find out who owns the holding company of the Christmas trinkets and smells you buy with your hard earned cash, and where the profits are funnelled. A pyramid of obsfucation blinds people to the realities of what they’re actually purchasing, once you boil it down to the company that owns the company that owns the brand you think you’re buying into, you might actually be purchasing child labour, or worse casualties, obliviously with your perfume.  

Give blood, not money. Redistribute wealth through tax, though understand market forces create efficiency, as well as inequality. Hate injustice? Stop blaming people for their situations but understand that even narcissists can’t help it, although what that means for reigning them in is a question only society can ultimately answer. And if you’re in power, recognise that it can and will corrupt, and put in place measures to prevent it – answer not to shareholders but to customers and workers and look to long-term profit not short-term gain, don’t take advantage of people weaker than you, but recognise that individual success always comes from the efforts of others. Feel sick? The food we eat and the medication we take could be our own worst enemies, although we’re back to capitalism again for the causes of that, which solved hunger and replaced it with greed – the minotaur we feed with our hopes who offers up little but miseries. Want to fight sexism? Accept biologically driven priorities may sometimes override natural inclinations for certain roles but if we valued skills more equally, and judged behaviour more rationally, we’d all be better off. And in the absence of credible alternatives, understand that this may also be the best of all possible worlds.

But it’s too easy to say live and let live. Anger can be useful – where would we be if people weren’t angry about women’s rights or working conditions, slavery or racism? But individually, what we can each do about the big things is very little. And the useless, futile infighting on social media is actually just harming ourselves. The fact is, for all we feel so helpless – and we largely are – we ultimately get the world we deserve. So if you’re angry, the only thing you can change is yourself – and the hardest thing for anyone to do is admit they might be wrong; that and change someone else’s mind. Above all else, know who to be angry with, because it’s not your neighbour or your friend on Facebook, or the guy who votes differently from you. It’s not even Donald Trump. It’s all of us, and no one, because we tacitly agree to this world order with every tiny decision we make, but most we have little real choice in anyway.