Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

– Marcus Aurelius

Is humanity spiraling out of control?

Tonight there was an attempted military coup in Turkey, before that a truck plowed through a crowd in France, before that we had sdvd everal shootings in the US, before that…well, you know the drill. Terrorist attacks, mass murders, gang rapes, civil wars, persecution, hate crime – the list goes on and on.

Every time I turn on the news it seems to be getting worse.

Once I felt that it was every citizen’s duty to stay informed about current events, both locally and globally. Now, I’m not so sure any more. With the unceasing flow of information that eaves over is every minute of every day, how can we truly stay on top of things?

Where before we had a few news channels and a handful of magazines, today we have hundreds of news outlets.

Many of those put their own twist on things, reporting of creating the news according to their own agenda, and people are increasingly picky in where they get their news from. This results secs d in us being fed only or own flavour of the truth, whatever brand of ideology we ascribe to finding the cacophony down to whatever chunks will go down the easiest or those which are distracted to get stuck in our throat.

The flow of information we choose is designed to stroke our ego and incite our rage.

Is that really something we benefit from, as individuals or as a species? Is it really necessary for us to take on the challenge of filtering out the truth from this flood of raw sewage that rises around us?

Do we really need to take the weight of the world on our shoulders?

I’m not so sure. Information is power, but only when it is applied and understood. The average consumer of information doesex we dz not have the time, tools, or even the inclination to mine the data stream for useful information and then verify it. Instead we rely on the media to do that for us, trusting them to know and career to our best interests. But they won’t. Those who interpret and select the news for us serve their own interests, not ours. They want to create emotion and reaction from their consumers by enhancing beliefs, pinions and emotions we already have – good and bad alike – thus creating a vicious circle, bringing us deeper and deeper into a cesspool of violence, hatred, grief and passion.

We put our faith in self serving oracles, letting their words rule our hearts and minds.

We serve false gods, swallowing the words of their prophets and demagogues as if it was the Gospel truth. As with any religion, the more they claim to speak the Truth the more critical should we be.

There is always a spin to the news, and more often than not it just brings us deeper on this downward spiral.

I don’t know what to say.

The world is a cruel and unforgiving place even at the best of times, and these are far from the best – or so it seems. Hate, prejudice and most of all fear have their grip on so many humans of today and direct their words, actions and views.

Fear has a taken a strong hold on people all over the world.

We’ve had several cases in the past week where cops have shot low- or non-threat suspects, motivated by fear, with subsequent retaliations only masking a bad situation worse.

We’ve seen British people vote for something many did not understand fully, and the subsequent reactions of hate and regret.

For years we’ve seen the rise of right wing nationalist and neo-fascist tendencies all over the western world, fuelled by fears real and imagined.

We’ve seen a violent and misofynistic cult of mascuöinity rise as a counter to equality and feminism.

We’ve seen the rise of conspiracy theories ranging from the plausible to the ludicrous, fuelled by a deep mistrust of government, science and authority.

We think we live in a modern, enlightened society, yet again and again we fall back on ancient tribal behaviours.

Again and again we fall back on an ‘us be them’ mentality where we vilify and fear those who are different. Where one we stood united as nations we are now seemingly dividing into smaller and smaller groups, using the modern tools of media and communication to find new tribes that can span over the entire globe.

People and organizations are constantly preying on our fears and weaknesses, using false information and exaggerate claims to manipulate us into supporting them. Our fear is their power.

In this Disinformation Age we inhabit, fear can make us believe anything it seems.

Where one people aimed their fears and superstitions on the unseen and unknown , imagining supernatural threats and creating personal rituals to avoid bad luck and unfortunate tragedies, today people aim their fear on the visible, reacting with fear and superstition to things we could just as easily embrace and understand.

And the world suffers for it.

While we squabble and huddle together around virtual campfires, afraid of everything beyond the edge of the skewed and distorted light, the world is careening out of control around us. The rich get richer at the expense of the poor, environmental problems keep piling up, social issues are getting worse and worse, and nations are crumbling under the weight of their own ignorance.

Or personal safety zones are getting smaller as the perceivable world gets bigger and more complicated around us.

It has to stop. 

We can’t let fear rule our lives, our nations, our world. If we do, we will break apart even further and the only ones who will benefit are those who can turn our fear into their profit.
But how do we turn the trend?