The Common Good

2025 was always going to be chaotic, even if last year’s election had gone differently, though that would have led to other sorts of chaos.

Humanity has got itself into a fever pitch of angst that it desperately wants to express.

Individuals discharge their fury in a whole variety of ways. I used to throw things and while I weaned off oxycodone a plastic bin got thrashed 🙂

But in earlier times, my anger festered, devouring my guts and feeding on itself.

Anger needs to out.

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Harmless violence was enough to calm me down, but there were times when my temper frightened me as it seemed to turn me into a different person. The real anger I’ve seen expressed by ordinary people in daily activity has sometimes been alarming.

Anger can make you lose your reason. The source of mine was frustration. On the surface there were other causes, but deep down it was my inability to cope, or to change a deeply unpleasant situation.

Injustice also infuriates me.

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While even in a black rage, I was never going to *hurt anyone, or do anything really dangerous, what scared me was the realisation of how easily one can lose control.

*Confession: as a statement, I once applied a foot to a well-deserving ass, but the only harm it caused was to his dignity – as intended.

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With the addition of drugs and/or alcohol, you have a potentially lethal situation.

That, in a single individual. Groups of angry people, stirred by political propaganda or racial hatred and religious fanaticism, even an unpopular sports result – now you’ve got a riot.

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The vast majority of humanity plods along trying to make a living and hoping for a little pleasure now and then. Largely, they haven’t time to properly inform themselves, accepting whatever is fed to them from sources they believe to be reliable.

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In this day and age, given the easy access to every source of information, there should be no excuse for being clueless, but we have been taught to distrust almost everything and everyone and there are many who are so busy trying to survive, they simply haven’t time to even consider what or who to believe. They trust who they always trusted, or who their parents and friends trust.

And of course social media gives everyone the ability to spread falsehoods and hate.

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When suddenly the foundations of our society are unstable, everyone becomes on edge, worrying about an uncertain future.

Like individuals who become antsy, humanity as a whole becomes enervated.

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And just as individuals dispel anger in a fist fight, or bashing a plastic rubbish bin, humanity dispels its angst in wars. The Second World War had a seriously de-fusing and sobering effect for a very long time, albeit with constant pockets of outrage, but I sense sobriety has worn off.

Must there be another major punch-up to settle humanity back down again?

A major natural disaster might be a deterrent. Even people who dislike each other pull together for the Common Good. How is it that we so quickly forget what that is?

Politicians and their propaganda. Right.

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This is a deeply pessimistic view, I acknowledge and I do not dwell on it since there is very little I can do to change even my own life, never mind anything else.

Which is why I moved away from cities and people to be with animals and to spend time enjoying the beauty of the natural world that is constantly amazing and forever changing.

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