Oh Alex almost every encounter you had resonates with me (I'm currently based in Wilton, Wiltshire). It is mad, and sitting looking out on the River Nadder it's also beautiful and I can't think of living anywhere else. And there is this sense of the two roads, but constantly I'm wondering how connecting the two is possible so there's passage between the two - or at least through to the human and more-than-human? Few answers, but thanks for the sharing... we are not alone!
I think there will always be a passage between them, even from the most off-grid communities. I mean this in practical, social and energetic terms, from people still using smart phones to providing an example of an alternative to the mainstream. It will work out but we have to do the working-out ...
Lovely bit of writing, sooooo true, it’s madness. The fork in the road is so true too. People need to know there’s ana fork and be shown how to take the sane option. My concern is the media keep people so stressed they end up unable to reflect from there frontal cortex and instead constantly get thrown into functioning partially or completely from the primitive brain – anger, anxiety and depression – and this is the biggest disempowerment. People need low stress levels to make informed, healthy decisions. Great the way you write about this.
You are quite right. You work at the de-stressing end; I work at the creating awareness end! Both have to happen for us to move forward in a healthy way, but finding the balance is a huge challenge. Penny Kelly is an exemplar of that for me. She's a seer and a farmer!
We are living in a very strange World at the moment. When I use a car park, which is rare, I see people trying to pay with their phones? They can be stood there for 5 or so minutes trying to work out how to do it? I always use cash so i just pay & am on my way while they are still standing there getting very flustered. I know some car parks wont accept cash now so i would never use those, i would just move on. I see them doing the same thing at the checkout in supermarkets? Going through multiple manoeuvres on their phone, it's so much easier to flash the cash! I have refused to use self checkouts since the day they brought them in, each machine is a persons job. I was stood in a que at a checkout the other day & an assistant came over & said the self checkouts are free, I said no thankyou, I find those monitors staring at me close up very dystopian, she just smiled & walked away. I see Sports Direct now have facial recognition on entering the store!? Another shop I won't be going in to again. My Sister went to buy a pasty in a very small local shop, she handed the lady a £5 note to pay & the lady said she didn't have change for a £5 note? Welcome back to Britain!
I refuse all those things too. So many are mesmerised by the twin narrative of Convenience and Inevitability. The second only becomes true if we make it true, and you and I and many others won't. The first is patently false - the corporate use of digital technology is making more and more demands on people. Hassle not convenience!
This is such an absolutely beautiful piece! It has touch my heart… in more ways than one… you see… I feel increasingly the same sense of a changed Britain and not for a better way. So much has happened and is because these people (psychopaths in power and/or paid to carry out this crazy narrative) are doing an amazing job of damaging this country and it’s people, mentally, economically and emotionally, that one doesn’t know weather to run or hide. However, I agree that the splitting of our society is on the making right now. Those that will hide their head “under the carpet” and those that will create a new togetherness based on the love of the land, their ethics and sovereignty of health and soul. Thank you.
What you write here would be the starting point of a long conversation, if we were ever to meet. I moved abroad from Canada to Asia in 2007 for what was to be a few years of life experience before returning. I have tried to return three times, finding each time worse in terms similar to yours. In one bout, I spent five years of filling out hundreds of online forms to find work, re-typing my resume into each system, one cut-and-paste section at a time, just to get a 2-week temp job, that, if you get one six months down the road, doesn't turn out to be the foot-in-the-door it was hoped to be. Rents spike, wages stagnate, temp agencies promise gigs that never turn up. Then you find out the agencies are hired by massive HR departments to do the work the HR department was created to do, and if you get a yes after six months of interviews with questions related more to a personality quiz than a skills assessment, an HR person at the hiring company says "no." Instead of paying $30 an hour to an employee, they pay that to the agency, which pays the employee $12 for a short stint, then begin the cycle all over again. Do this for 3 years and it all begins to appear like technocracy rigged for the elite.
I have taken refuge back in Asia. Well-paying work is abundant and easy to get in the place where I'm situated, and cost of living matches incomes. Moreover, the society has every modern convenience without being plagued by the absurd catch-22s that push those without the right connections (electronic or otherwise) down the social ladder. Despite my good fortune, I feel like a refugee and I long to just be in the environment that is embedded in my spirit.
I sense you went back to the UK because home has a special meaning, even when plagued with hardships. Despite the tales you tell, I somewhat envy you for having the courage and ability to play with the cards your society has dealt.
Your experiences with the world of employment sound very familiar. I noticed a shift for the worse in Britain in 2008-10 and by the end of that year had decided full-time self-employment was the only way.
Yes, I did come back largely because I felt a call to do so. What makes things bearable is the perspective that we are at a special time, a time of choosing, and that lots of things are at play. If it got to the point that I felt the wrong choice had been made and still had the health and means to do so, I would leave again.
I have heard that Asia is booming ... and that Eastern European countries are having none, or least very little, of the nonsense. It does seem that it's primarily the western countries who have lost their moorings.
Things are getting this way here in the USA, the Land of the Free, but we're not as far along as you Brits (yet).
Last week I accompanied a friend to her usual grocery store, and when she found they'd just installed some self-checkout machines, she decided to try one to save time. Seeing that one of the machines had an OUT OF ORDER sign should have been a warning. The supposedly working machine my friend was using kept refusing to recognize her payment card, requiring help from an employee. That took ten minutes of repeated failures while the queue behind grew ever longer.
I see this kind of failure everywhere now. The shops have to employ people to help customers use finicky machines that took away checkers' jobs.
Yes, the convenience argument is not true ... I see glitches, failures and risks everywhere in this headlong rush to adopt new technology. Governments and companies have clear interests in pushing the public into automated and digital systems but it's clearly not the path to resilience either on a personal or a national level. I do think it's up to us to see beyond the 'sell' narratives and make choices for the good in the longterm. I never use the automated options in shops now and am preparing to stop shopping at supermarkets entirely.
Wow, it sounds uncomfortably like the U.S., though with less loud complaining and more quiet desperation, as you Brits have a wont to do. Glad to see you speaking (or writing) out about this and bringing it to Light. I might add only that as people withdraw from the system, we must also re-establish community because none of us can do everything alone. We need each other, and that is actually how we will survive what's coming, in my opinion.
Your experiences are what one would expect from an uncaring, inhumane and incompetent administration, regardless of political stance. It will only get worse. It's becoming increasingly difficult to visit cities or even use paid car parks without risk of a fine. This is, I feel, a form of zero tolerant, summary justice. Is it any surprise that fearful, frustrated and even angry people are taking it out on unfortunate front line staff, in supermarkets or the NHS, for example?
You're right; it will get worse, especially in cities. But there's a saving grace in the fact that humans generally prefer to have a nice time. More and more of us will turn away from the places and organisations where this is rife and develop pleasanter ways of meeting our needs. In so doing, we're both withdrawing our custom and creating something new.
Agreed; one can only hope that enough people will turn away from "negative" organisations so such organisations will change their ways. Although I don't use smart technology, social media or have a TV licence (I don't use TV), I could do more.
What a lovely piece of writing, Alex. I am glad I have found you on here (I used to follow you on Twitter before I got chucked off).
I recognise everyhing you depict so accurately. My response has been, somewhat selfishly, to run away to South America. Same push to technocracy here, but less musn't-grumble compliance. When these people realise their cars are in the firing line there's going to be trouble.
My Spanish now encompasses explaining the anicent Chinese curse of living in interesting times...
Running away to south American is an option that remains on the cards for me if it just gets too unliveable here! At the moment it's interesting here as well as frustrating and a little frightening. I want to see where things go over the next few years. Attitudes in Eastern Europe are also very different I think.
Oh Alex almost every encounter you had resonates with me (I'm currently based in Wilton, Wiltshire). It is mad, and sitting looking out on the River Nadder it's also beautiful and I can't think of living anywhere else. And there is this sense of the two roads, but constantly I'm wondering how connecting the two is possible so there's passage between the two - or at least through to the human and more-than-human? Few answers, but thanks for the sharing... we are not alone!
I think there will always be a passage between them, even from the most off-grid communities. I mean this in practical, social and energetic terms, from people still using smart phones to providing an example of an alternative to the mainstream. It will work out but we have to do the working-out ...
Lovely bit of writing, sooooo true, it’s madness. The fork in the road is so true too. People need to know there’s ana fork and be shown how to take the sane option. My concern is the media keep people so stressed they end up unable to reflect from there frontal cortex and instead constantly get thrown into functioning partially or completely from the primitive brain – anger, anxiety and depression – and this is the biggest disempowerment. People need low stress levels to make informed, healthy decisions. Great the way you write about this.
You are quite right. You work at the de-stressing end; I work at the creating awareness end! Both have to happen for us to move forward in a healthy way, but finding the balance is a huge challenge. Penny Kelly is an exemplar of that for me. She's a seer and a farmer!
We are living in a very strange World at the moment. When I use a car park, which is rare, I see people trying to pay with their phones? They can be stood there for 5 or so minutes trying to work out how to do it? I always use cash so i just pay & am on my way while they are still standing there getting very flustered. I know some car parks wont accept cash now so i would never use those, i would just move on. I see them doing the same thing at the checkout in supermarkets? Going through multiple manoeuvres on their phone, it's so much easier to flash the cash! I have refused to use self checkouts since the day they brought them in, each machine is a persons job. I was stood in a que at a checkout the other day & an assistant came over & said the self checkouts are free, I said no thankyou, I find those monitors staring at me close up very dystopian, she just smiled & walked away. I see Sports Direct now have facial recognition on entering the store!? Another shop I won't be going in to again. My Sister went to buy a pasty in a very small local shop, she handed the lady a £5 note to pay & the lady said she didn't have change for a £5 note? Welcome back to Britain!
I refuse all those things too. So many are mesmerised by the twin narrative of Convenience and Inevitability. The second only becomes true if we make it true, and you and I and many others won't. The first is patently false - the corporate use of digital technology is making more and more demands on people. Hassle not convenience!
Totally agree, we need both 😊
This is such an absolutely beautiful piece! It has touch my heart… in more ways than one… you see… I feel increasingly the same sense of a changed Britain and not for a better way. So much has happened and is because these people (psychopaths in power and/or paid to carry out this crazy narrative) are doing an amazing job of damaging this country and it’s people, mentally, economically and emotionally, that one doesn’t know weather to run or hide. However, I agree that the splitting of our society is on the making right now. Those that will hide their head “under the carpet” and those that will create a new togetherness based on the love of the land, their ethics and sovereignty of health and soul. Thank you.
What you write here would be the starting point of a long conversation, if we were ever to meet. I moved abroad from Canada to Asia in 2007 for what was to be a few years of life experience before returning. I have tried to return three times, finding each time worse in terms similar to yours. In one bout, I spent five years of filling out hundreds of online forms to find work, re-typing my resume into each system, one cut-and-paste section at a time, just to get a 2-week temp job, that, if you get one six months down the road, doesn't turn out to be the foot-in-the-door it was hoped to be. Rents spike, wages stagnate, temp agencies promise gigs that never turn up. Then you find out the agencies are hired by massive HR departments to do the work the HR department was created to do, and if you get a yes after six months of interviews with questions related more to a personality quiz than a skills assessment, an HR person at the hiring company says "no." Instead of paying $30 an hour to an employee, they pay that to the agency, which pays the employee $12 for a short stint, then begin the cycle all over again. Do this for 3 years and it all begins to appear like technocracy rigged for the elite.
I have taken refuge back in Asia. Well-paying work is abundant and easy to get in the place where I'm situated, and cost of living matches incomes. Moreover, the society has every modern convenience without being plagued by the absurd catch-22s that push those without the right connections (electronic or otherwise) down the social ladder. Despite my good fortune, I feel like a refugee and I long to just be in the environment that is embedded in my spirit.
I sense you went back to the UK because home has a special meaning, even when plagued with hardships. Despite the tales you tell, I somewhat envy you for having the courage and ability to play with the cards your society has dealt.
Your experiences with the world of employment sound very familiar. I noticed a shift for the worse in Britain in 2008-10 and by the end of that year had decided full-time self-employment was the only way.
Yes, I did come back largely because I felt a call to do so. What makes things bearable is the perspective that we are at a special time, a time of choosing, and that lots of things are at play. If it got to the point that I felt the wrong choice had been made and still had the health and means to do so, I would leave again.
I have heard that Asia is booming ... and that Eastern European countries are having none, or least very little, of the nonsense. It does seem that it's primarily the western countries who have lost their moorings.
Things are getting this way here in the USA, the Land of the Free, but we're not as far along as you Brits (yet).
Last week I accompanied a friend to her usual grocery store, and when she found they'd just installed some self-checkout machines, she decided to try one to save time. Seeing that one of the machines had an OUT OF ORDER sign should have been a warning. The supposedly working machine my friend was using kept refusing to recognize her payment card, requiring help from an employee. That took ten minutes of repeated failures while the queue behind grew ever longer.
I see this kind of failure everywhere now. The shops have to employ people to help customers use finicky machines that took away checkers' jobs.
Yes, the convenience argument is not true ... I see glitches, failures and risks everywhere in this headlong rush to adopt new technology. Governments and companies have clear interests in pushing the public into automated and digital systems but it's clearly not the path to resilience either on a personal or a national level. I do think it's up to us to see beyond the 'sell' narratives and make choices for the good in the longterm. I never use the automated options in shops now and am preparing to stop shopping at supermarkets entirely.
Wow, it sounds uncomfortably like the U.S., though with less loud complaining and more quiet desperation, as you Brits have a wont to do. Glad to see you speaking (or writing) out about this and bringing it to Light. I might add only that as people withdraw from the system, we must also re-establish community because none of us can do everything alone. We need each other, and that is actually how we will survive what's coming, in my opinion.
Your experiences are what one would expect from an uncaring, inhumane and incompetent administration, regardless of political stance. It will only get worse. It's becoming increasingly difficult to visit cities or even use paid car parks without risk of a fine. This is, I feel, a form of zero tolerant, summary justice. Is it any surprise that fearful, frustrated and even angry people are taking it out on unfortunate front line staff, in supermarkets or the NHS, for example?
You're right; it will get worse, especially in cities. But there's a saving grace in the fact that humans generally prefer to have a nice time. More and more of us will turn away from the places and organisations where this is rife and develop pleasanter ways of meeting our needs. In so doing, we're both withdrawing our custom and creating something new.
Agreed; one can only hope that enough people will turn away from "negative" organisations so such organisations will change their ways. Although I don't use smart technology, social media or have a TV licence (I don't use TV), I could do more.
What a lovely piece of writing, Alex. I am glad I have found you on here (I used to follow you on Twitter before I got chucked off).
I recognise everyhing you depict so accurately. My response has been, somewhat selfishly, to run away to South America. Same push to technocracy here, but less musn't-grumble compliance. When these people realise their cars are in the firing line there's going to be trouble.
My Spanish now encompasses explaining the anicent Chinese curse of living in interesting times...
Running away to south American is an option that remains on the cards for me if it just gets too unliveable here! At the moment it's interesting here as well as frustrating and a little frightening. I want to see where things go over the next few years. Attitudes in Eastern Europe are also very different I think.