There are demons everywhere. Look under your mattress, down that dark alley, in the butter. Hold on, that’s not right. There are elephants in the butter, not demons. Sorry moving on… I firmly believe we, as semi-functioning humans are our own worst enemies, because we allow others to create our own worst enemies out of nothing. I have definitely done this in the past and I’ve been influenced by a bullet point news article, engendering feelings of anger without thinking about the context behind those bullet points. I’ve nodded along and snarled when hearing the mis-informed opinions of others, whether the others are people in the public eye or friends and family.
It’s an easy trap to fall into; a big comedy hole covered by branches and leaves with spikes underneath, with a well loved coyote lurking somewhere nearby. I lived my life concerned with myself and didn’t look far beyond my own bubble and seemingly when I looked out I found enemies at the gate. It wasn’t until the lead up to a well storied event in 2015/2016 when I finally woke up to the manipulation that was occurring on a minute by minute basis. A lot of journalism was trying desperately to get me angry at someone else because of some spurious reason not backed up by statistics or facts. And it’s still happening. We’re still being led to anger and hate by those who are meant to simply spell out facts and inform us of what is happening outside of our bubbles. A great example happened recently.
So which is it? Is Didsbury a posh house-hunting hotspot or is it a no-go area where women are subjugated and white people are not welcome? Come on, tell me. Which is it? A utopia or dystopia?
I’ve actually been to Didsbury. It’s fucking lovely. And the people there were welcoming. These articles are twenty three days apart and I’m meant to believe that within twenty three days Didsbury has undergone this transformation? Those who write this shit don’t care. They know that twenty three days is enough time for those who read and believe this shit-rag to have forgotten what they’ve read before and will be led to a different view and rail against the new enemy presented to them. And I used to let them do this to me. I would help by not thinking for myself. And this shit sells.
My route out was quite quick once I let go of the anger about people and things that I had no real reason to be angry about. Now when I ingest news or the opinions of others I accept the information given to me, but I store it and look for other anecdotes to reinforce or statistics to back up opinions. I have to say though that there are some ‘organisations’ and ‘representatives’ where I have become sceptical about the information they dish out because I have found them to be untrustworthy, but this is a tiny minority. The enemies that I now face are usually contained within my PS5 and created without my help. Please don’t choose anger as your first emotion, because you have a choice not to be angry. And you alone get to choose your enemies.