I QUIT

Today is only the second day that I’ve refused to read any of the news, any of the online commentary or anything related to so-called “news” and especially, anything related to politics, religion, or the state of the world. I already know what the state of the world is and where it’s going, nothing is going to change that.

In a deep conversation with my wife, I expressed my extreme disgust and frustration with the complete garbage (propaganda) being passed off as “news” from virtually all of the major websites and television networks throughout the world. I do not watch TV news, except for online clips that might have been produced by TV network and put on Youtube, but these outlets are just as bad as what can be found online.

It is ALL completely and utterly worthless.

When I consider the tens of thousands of hours I’ve spent watching screens, digging for information, checking the news, searching for real facts and relevant tidbits to what is unfolding in the world, I can only shake my head at the pure folly of it all. What a joke this has been. This is my folly – and theirs too (especially), the producers of mass propaganda and disinformation.

I’ve wasted irreplaceable years of my life trying to surf the news, laughing at the incessant lies and the constant deceptions, the asinine opinion pieces pretending to be news, growing increasingly frustrated at the efforts to manipulate people and watching in horror at the online “audience” for no longer being able to discern facts from constant stream of fiction and fabrication being beamed directly into their minds.

The representation of lost life, lost time, and lost ambition is staggeringly HUGE and irreplaceable – these elements of living just once on this planet are absolutely priceless and can never be recovered.

The media is complete and utter garbage, absolutely worthless now in all its many forms, whether news outlets, channels, forums and especially “social” media. Virtually nothing being said, promoted, pampered or predicted has anything at all to do with my life and what I do here, day to day. But it has deeply affected my mindset and my ability to think clearly.

The so-called “news” is an addiction platform that can consume your life, gobbling it away year after year, decade after decade. You think you’re informed, but you’re just another one of their manipulated meat puppets, being tossed about by the vagaries of the vogue and whims of that winds blowing about. Let’s be honest – when has anything that’s being shoved into our faces by these dishonest peddlers of lies and deceit done any of us any good at all? You’re “informed” but so what? How has that changed anything at all?

It’s a rare day in a descending hell when the online world of news reporting has actually done a good turn, and even when it has, it almost never has anything at all to do with me or the life that I am living, and furthermore and perhaps most importantly – there is nothing I can do about it anyway. I’m totally powerless to do anything more then bitch and complain. I’ve never fallen for the lies that protesting or letter writing or organizing or petitioning or marching actually works. These agitated people are seeking a change by responding to their own levels of being influenced by propaganda. Such outlets of free expression are generally tolerated – and generally useless.

Yet, we all still live in the same world as before, the power structures are never toppled, the lies never stop and the deceptions never end. But we waste years of our irreplaceable lives pretending that we’re making a difference by engaging with the news and expressing our collective frustrations, never realizing that this isn’t the pathway to real change which has to begin within yourself. Don’t be another sock puppet, stupidly mouthing the latest propaganda piece and let other strangers do your thinking for you, you’re just another tool in their hands.

This is exactly what is wrong with the political and even religious landscape in the world today. Nobody thinks for themselves, everybody is responding to their curated programming and inputs they’ve willingly connedsumed [sic]. It’s a con-job, every bit of it and we need to wake the hell up and walk away from it all.

What fkn’ difference does it really make when we read about the latest outrage? The latest scandal? The latest lie and manipulation? Can YOU do anything about it?

No – you can’t, but your headspace can be deeply affected by constant assault. 99.999% of what is going on in the world is completely, irrevocably and totally out of my control, there is NOTHING I can actually do about any of it. My “world” as it were is pretty small in reality, and so is my sphere of influence. It does no good to me or anyone else to be constantly outraged or disgusted or angry or dwelling on all the utter shit going on in the world. I CAN’T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT. But it does affect my quality of life, right here and right now.

What if our real power is to just QUIT? Stop engaging? Stop participating? I’m under no illusions whatsoever that this will change the outcome (anywhere), but it will for YOU. I think that freeing yourself from their clutches can only be a very good thing.

As the world worsens, we’ve lost out ability to be shocked because our senses have been literally assaulted non-stop. We’ve also lost our compassion. We don’t really even understand what is going on, because we’re being bombarded with propaganda and deception about every story all of the time. It’s downright difficult now to even get the whole truth about anything and that’s by design. It’s no accident, they’re keeping us all stirred up, distrustful and angry. Deep down, most of us understand that we’re being lied to but still go right back to the addiction of news connedsumption. Why do we keep doing this?

Years ago, I lived during the time when there was no Internet, no cellphones, no instantly available up-to-the-second sources of information on anything. You had to either listen to a radio or read a newspaper or god forbid, go to the library and look something up. You had to actually know how to use the Dewey Decimal System. Life was far simpler, more tranquil and much less stressful this way (we even got bored). People actually engaged with one another in real life. You also got out of the house and off the couch and actually moved. Imagine the novelty of that now! This complicated constantly swirling disaster we euphemistically call ‘civilization’ was far easier to navigate, we didn’t need to be plugged in to instant information. Our lives were quite different then they are now.

The promises of cell phones and computers and the Internet was supposed to make life easier, and yes, in some ways it has, but it’s also far, far easier to manipulate people and make them stampede now like mindless herds – or keep them milling about, angry, confused and corrupted, ready-in-waiting soldiers for the next coup attempt. Corrupt politicians and manipulative advertisers discovered they could easily manipulate billions of people to support their political / brand ideology by constantly shoving their brand of bullshit into our faces.

The digital tether became a noose and a surveillance device and a mind control machine all at the same time. Nobody really seemed to notice except a very few, brand-conscious connedsumers became willing accomplices and participants to the crimes being inflicted on everyone else. The Digital Age had fully arrived and the world is far worse off then before. Nothing changed, things only got worse.

Now, they’ve weaponized this power to encompass and fully encircle the lives of billions, encroaching upon our very thoughts and activities. Entire nations are now surrounded by this digital fortress of disinformation and manipulation. Even the loneliest hermit in the world has been given a cell phone. Back when phones were actually phones and supported actually talking to other people, this wasn’t so bad. But phones are now tethering devices to the modern world of consumption and control through constant emotional manipulation.

As a teen, I trapped, hunted, fished, hike, rode and raced bicycles, motorcycles and explored the world around me. My life was actually quite adventurous, a far cry from what it is today. I’ve done a lot more I suspect then today’s generation of teens will ever get to do. The experiences I had were rich, full and varied, spent largely in the outdoors, learning all kinds of skills. I built my own fishing rods, tied my own flies, caught and cleaned my own fish and game, learned how to fix or repair almost anything and became competent in everything that I tried to do. I was able to take care of myself and didn’t rely upon anyone else. The lack of a cell phone and the Internet never made any difference at all. If I didn’t know how to do it, I would figure it out.

That’s all changed, and much of this is now all gone. We’ve become extremely dependent upon our tether. Our next “fix”. The next story or the next outrage, addicted to screens. Those screens are now absolutely everywhere, in our bathrooms, on our wrists, in multiple rooms of the house, in our office, even in our cars. And they’re always on, ready to keep up “informed” and outraged. The only thing still missing is the brain port to our cerebral cortex and they’re working on that now.

We’ve become their automatons, caricatures of our own selves, living the lives they prescribe, eating what they promote, traveling where they advertise, supporting their candidates, and pretending faux outrage at what they push. That’s the behavior of a collectively INSANE society. We’ve utterly lost the plot about life and living and what this is all about.

I’m addicted, just like everyone else, but no more. I’ve actually got things to do still with my life. I don’t want to experience the world through bits and bytes and the pixels on a screen, the artificial-yet-real distant representation of what’s actually “out there”. I especially don’t want to be a part of the propaganda army of fools that act like meat puppets for the politicians and advertisers. I know what’s coming, that’s definitely one thing this online journey and “staying informed” did for me (after wading through billions of lies). But in the end, I cannot do anything about it anyway. Now properly informed and having spent decades of wasted time, I want to live my life without the influence of this digital tethering and mass manipulation.

I’ll still be here – this is not a blog announcement that I’m quitting the blog, I’m not. I’m just giving up on the endless bullshit that has consumed so much of life. I’m at least going to try to give it up, addictions are hard to kick. I’ll still be using the Internet but I’m going to deliberately avoid the bullshit and the excessive screen time. When I need answers, I’ll look them up because it’s just easier (and the library is far away and out-of-date). I’m going to read more books, do more things and enjoy more life while I still can.

Nothing I’ve said here changes how I feel, or what I believe about our collective future. We’re all fucked, seriously. Everybody is and you’d better enjoy what you have while you have it. My decades spent online did teach me these facts, but it also consumed too much of my life. It’s time to quit this life-suck and go live more fully, more engaged and do some of the things I want to do. I’ll be back with more posts, but I’m going to avoid the politics and the lies and the propaganda that has poisoned so many people today.