The Dystopian Times, 4. Intelligence Would Be Nice.
We've met the Caribbean, and it's wet.
Today, the rain has been with us all day, replaced by fog late this afternoon. It's a result of the jet stream bringing us an air mass straight from the Caribbean, wet and humid. All day, the southwest wind has dumped water on us.
An ugly day, it is. It's a strange day, when your mind latches onto a thought, and it stays with you all day. The weather is supposed to be similar all week, with maybe a break or two in the middle days. Still, we shouldn't complain. We needed the rain, and it's just one week out of the summer.
What we should complain about is how some people seem to have only one working neuron. The protest yesterday afternoon in Madrid is a taste of things to come, I fear. The far right here seems to have learned from Trump's America. Pit one Spaniard against the other. Claim your freedoms are being taken away. Call out all the conspiracies to control the population.
One protestor had a sign saying, "Las mascarillas matan. El confinamiento mata. La pobreza mata. Las vacunas matan. La tecnología militar 5G mata. Los políticos criminales matan." (Masks kill. Confinement kills. Poverty kills. Vaccines kill. Military 5G technology kills. Criminal politicians kill.) I would add something to that: Ignorance kills. La ignorancia mata.
And the place was ripe with ignorance. The people who called for the protest wanted a million people to congregate from all over Spain. They got anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000. A bit far from the expected numbers, but still too high for complacency from everybody else. The local government promised to crack down on all the offenders not wearing a mask. The police complained that they were overwhelmed, and could only fine thirty people. Um. If those who congregated had been calling for the king to leave, the police would have cracked down hard and dispersed everbody to the four corners of the city. In fact, there was a march calling for Spain to become a republic earlier in the month, and the police were quite rough with a few protestors.
But yesterday, the protestors were rough with the journalists covering them. Protestors kept interrupting, and one even spat at one cameraman. Again, a page was taken from Trump's manual on dealing with the media, and the reporters were called "fake news" more than once. The journalists were surrounded, taunted, and almost not allowed to do their job.
I wonder if those protesting were among the same people to come to their balconies and applaud the doctors and nurses, and other healthcare workers in the forefront of the battle against the virus this past spring. Yeah, clapping your hands is easy to do, but adjusting your life style to do your part in helping is an impingement on your freedom.
Karma needs to do her job.
Life continues.
Maria,
ReplyDeleteThere are benefits in being a man of 77 years, with Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, hypertrophy of the left ventricle & an aortic aneurysm. Some of the benefits are patience, satisfaction with one's lot & most importantly, an understanding that true freedom is the willingness to accept the consequences of one's thought. words & actions. It's the underlying freedom upon which all other freedoms are founded.
You are free to do whatever you want; there is no freedom without consequences. Choose for yourself what you want to happen next; choose your mood. The art of communication, of writing, is not what you want to say, but what you want to happen next; then the words flow. Rely upon yourself, not others. Learn the skills you need to better your situation. Success is not a destination; it's a journey. It's about getting back on your feet, more times than you are knocked down. The motto of the US Marines is Semper Fidelis, but it could equally be: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going".
I am sure you will be familiar with Max Ehrmann's "Desiderata". Some may consider it trite, but no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Best wishes,
Perry
Yes, though before "Desiderata" came Polonius' advice to Laertes.
DeleteOf course we are all free to do what we want. What we have to be is aware of the consequences of our actions. These people seem to think that freedom comes without consequences of any kind.
BTW, the advantage of the English language, Karma is neuter!
ReplyDeleten. The totality of a person's actions and conduct during successive incarnations, regarded as causally influencing his or her destiny.
n. The law or principle through which such influence is believed to operate.
True, karma is an idea, a concept. But I see it as a woman, ready to remind us of our follies, much like our mothers used to do.
Delete