Disruptions have become part of normal life now. The frequency and allure of disruptions started with the intrusion of social media in our lives in the 2000s and got more intense as the clever designers of the new platforms got us hooked.
When the coronavirus arrived in late 2019, it appeared that it would be a short-lived scare similar to SARS back in 2003. Until the politically inspired medical people and the media decided it was the greatest opportunity to sow fear and panic into populations all over the world since 911.
That opened up a whole new wave of disruptions that we are still living with a year later. Sadly, it appears many will be here for many months or permanently if the politicians get their way. Despite several attempts to get back to writing posts for this blog every week – and putting my head on the block by writing about that in my previous post – I am still finding distractions a constant challenge to resist.
How do we handle disruptions? How do we keep our lives normal, maintain our sanity and get on with living?
Disruptions From Media
The media – old, new, hardcopy, social, video shows, podcasts, broadcast, satellite, cable TV and radio milk every opportunity to capture our attention.
A few years ago, I cancelled all my satellite TV subscriptions. I can only receive 4 broadcast channels and rarely watch them. The Internet is both a blessing and a curse. I am grateful to have high-speed Internet on the farm where I live for my business. But it means I can watch streaming services – Netflix and Acorn. With no children in the house, it is relatively easy to keep the TV turned off. As a Boomer, it doesn’t feel right to watch TV series or movies on a computer – only at night on the TV. So that is not one of the big disruptions for me.
My downfall is alternate news sites on the Internet. I have to be very disciplined to restrict my viewing or reading of my favourite channels and websites to 30 minutes a day. It is just too easy to look for some information or check the stats on my own channels and then get seduced by a “must watch now” Headline.
Notifications are not a problem for me. I have them turned off.
Life and Business
Maybe it’s an age thing, perhaps the curse of a curious mind. It could be the way the world has evolved. I know that I am not alone in believing that life is more complicated than it was 20 years ago. Members of my sons’ generation tell me they find the same – and they were 20 year-olds then.
There is no question that the overreaction to the coronavirus by shutting down most of the world has aggravated the situation. Now in addition to the usual daily challenges we have to contend with an environment that has deliberately been made more complicated. Until recently we couldn’t just jump in the car to go and do our banking, buy a printer cartridge from our normal supplier, see our doctor or get a haircut. Even now, a year after the insanity started, most governments still insist on masks, limited occupancy of business premises and other restrictions.
In some cases, businesses force frail older people to stand outside in freezing temperatures, snow and rain the requisite 2m or 6′ apart. It goes without saying that should one of them get pneumonia and die, it will be recorded as another COVID death. Unless of course they had been vaccinated with one of the experimental drugs being forced on a gullible population, in which case the death could not possibly be from a reaction to the vaccine. This twisted logic being employed by politicians, some doctors and the mainstream media would make an excellent case study for a textbook on propaganda.
If we do succumb to the temptation to find out what is going on in the world, we get flooded with stories about how badly 50% of the population of the USA thought about their previous president, how badly the other 50% think of the current president. As a diversion, we are exposed to the latest outrage of an offended celebrity – or a wannabe celebrity with a large social media following – after discovering a harmless comment from 20 years ago that can be twisted into a career-ending weapon for the digital assassination of the chosen enemy of the day.
Cancel Culture
A new culture has emerged – Cancel Culture. It has become the religion of those so out of touch with reality that they demand not to be offended. From politicians and older, white, male executives, their targets now include moderate college professors both male and female, black conservatives, liberal politicians who speak the truth and any one not “woke” enough for their agenda.
It must be the supreme irony that after 4 years of demonising President Trump and excusing Black Lives Matter rioters, CNN is now being castigated for daring to concede that Florida’s governor may have managed the coronavirus issue better than governors in states controlled by Democrats. Even the media channel’s attempt to cast a negative spin on the success story did not spare them the condemnation of the mob.
Not all Disruptions are Bad
Despite highlighting the irritants above, it’s not all bad. We can avoid the bad disruptions if we plan our days and if we are disciplined. We can also plan to include activities that are good for us in our daily routine.
I have kept going with my daily walks, this morning was my 308th consecutive day of walking. Now that it has warmed up, I am back to walking at 5:40 am. I was spoiled for a week before the clocks were put forward and saw the promise of dawn as I got home. It won’t be long and I will be walking in the light again.
In earlier posts, I wrote about the Pendulum Theory from the book “Pendulum” by Roy Williams and Michael Drew. Published in 2012, it examined 2000 years of history and concluded that society swings between “me” and “we” excesses every 40 years. The authors predicted that society would get more restrictive and critical as it headed to the turning point in 2023. They were right about the direction, I hope they will be proved correct and that the pendulum will start its swing back to normality in two years’ time.
Despite all that is going on, I am managing to control the distractions most of the time. How are you doing?
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