Not My Monkeys.....

So musers, its been a funny couple of weeks.

What can I tell you?

Life takes the strangest turns and while you can't always change that, sometimes it really isn't a bad thing.

We are so used to trying to control everything that sometimes a curve ball really knocks us off kilter, but in the process, it opens up doors we had never even considered.

Once upon a time, many moons ago, we had to kinda just go with the flow. We had to trust in the process and believe that if things were right, we would find ourselves where we needed to be. If they weren't, we wouldn't. Life was a gamble and there were no guarantees.

To a degree, there still isn't that solid guarantee, but somewhere over the last 30 or so years, that uncertainty has gone and we have a level of control that maybe we were never supposed to.

What happened to trusting in the universe?

What happened to putting yourself out there and taking a risk?

For those of you in the know - where did the elevator pitch go? For those of you who don't know what that is, its the speech you would give if you found yourself in an elevator with a minute to sell yourself and what you do to the person most able to get you there.

That ability to succintly and concisely explain why what you have to offer far outweighs anyone else in a short few sentences seems to have gone.

Don't get me wrong - I love the internet. The world has suddenly become so much smaller. We have suddenly been put in a position where we can have active relationships with people on the other side of the world. We can see family that we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. We can run a business successfully in one country from a completely different part of the world. We can have a meeting and not have to catch a flight and stay in a hotel.

The internet is an incredible thing. It offers so many opportunities. So much possibility. So many exchanges between so many different people, but the question is, do all those amazing opportunities come at a cost?

In amongst that ability to see the world in all its colours, cultures and incredible wonder, are we selling something of what makes us ultimately human, personal and private? Have we chosen to given up that privacy and mystery that everyone of us holds for the right to be able to see into the intricacies and intimate moments of other peoples lives?

I am a little bit of an introvert. I always have been. I find if people show up at my door unannounced, it causes an immense amount of stress. I like to know what to expect. As my kids like to tell me, its the 'tisms!

I get over stimulated and I struggle to keep the anxiety at bay.

For me, privacy and personal space is an incredibly important thing. As someone who straddles pre-internet and today, its a complicated state of affairs.

There are elements of the internet that nobody can deny are beneficial.

For example, as someone who loves a true crime podcast and attempts regularly to understand the psychology behind a serial killer, the whole 'big brother' state suggests that someone who would commit those kinds of crimes can be caught easier than 50 years ago.

On the other hand, has giving up our right to privacy had a huge impact on our lives as a whole?

Many people would argue that if you have nothing to hide, it shouldn't be an issue.

I sit on the other side of the argument. I don't have anything to hide, but I also believe I have a right to my privacy.

I believe that we all do.

I believe that the more civil rights we willingly hand over, the more we run the risk of martial law and complete control over our day to day lives and I truly believe there have already been attempts to get to that point.

We watched the government shut the country down only a couple of years ago and we are still seeing the fallout now. People are only just starting to see the damage that this did not only medically but economically.

How many people were aware that 3 months after we hit lockdown, the CDC downgraded COVID?

How many people were made aware openly in the press that Public Health England released a document that categorically stated that at least one of the vaccines reduced the efficacy of the immune system by almost 50%?

We watched the world stop.

We were fed statistics every day in the press without any real context. People were fed fear, destruction and devastation but weren't demanding the facts.

Every COVID death recorded in the UK was a result of someone testing positive within 28 days of them passing. It didn't matter if they died from a terminal disease or an accident. They were recorded as a COVID death.

The reality was that over the bulk of the lockdown period in the UK, the amount of people who actually passed as a result of COVID was under 5000, and most had other diseases that vastly increased morbidity.

The fallout from COVID has cost so much more than the economical expense.

We see children who should have been developing their social skills as lockdown hit now in a position where they struggle to be in groups. They are not sure how to behave and the fear of doing something wrong is overwhleming.

Suicide rates increased by 200% during lockdown.

Domestic abuse calls increased by a massive and terrifying 65%.

Cancer treatments were postponed which resulted in a huge amount of treatable cancers becoming terminal.

Patients who were not able to get diagnosed in time found themselves with life threatening diagnoses as a result.

I could go on but I won't.

The point I suppose I am making is that we have this incredible tool at our fingertips but we also have a responsibility to ourselves to preserve the lessons of the past.

Absolutely use this amazing tool to open up your world. Use it for the incredible benefits that it offers but then switch it off.

It will take over your life and all of a sudden, an incredible tool becomes a harness that controls every aspect of your life.

Facebook, instagram, linkedin, snapchat..... the list goes on.

Its made the world so much smaller but with every tap on a keyboard, every single message, every single vocal cue, how much of who we are are we giving away? How much control are we giving to somthing that already has way too much?

We followed the narrative for 3 years and for those of us who stood up against it, seeing the veil being lifted now is a small victory.

The world you live in within your phone is a world that is dictated by advertisers, government, business... its a world that you think you control but the reality is that it controls you.

Break free.

These are not your monkeys.

This is not your circus.

Switch the phone off.

Lift your head up.

Breathe the fresh air.

See the world around you.

Switch off the celebrity.

Switch off the crazy.

Switch off the worlds version of reality.

See what everyday life has to offer when you don't live inside a virtual world.

Its beautiful and do you know what? Its yours for the taking if you just bite the bullet and accept that real life is in front of you and not behind a screen.

Until next time........