In a shooting war, the truth is the first casualty. And NATO has been in shooting wars permanently since the start of the century. Not NATO as a whole, but significant portions of it. Enough to keep the Military Financial Complex happy. But anything even remotely associated with the truth took a mortal blow on the way to the present. Huge parts of our everyday life are pure fiction. And we somehow learned to live with it. But now reality is back in full force, and we don't know how to deal with it.
The lies, half-truths and 'spin' is not limited to matters of war. Everything is a 'narrative' residing in another universe. From the pitch of the salesman, to the stuff teachers are offering our kids, to the stories about how our economy is doing. I know, if two people are watching the same event, in all likelihood their stories are not exactly identical. But this goes much, much further. Significant events may happen right under people's noses, and they miss it entirely. Or they notice it, are shocked by it, but start 'explaining' it from a background which is pure fiction. As if they just stepped out of time-capsule, unaware of recent history.
In the past I dismissed observations detached from reality, assuming they were all generated by 'Bots', or some agency spitting out propaganda under orders. Which is still true for much of it. But not all of it. I've discussed developments in the world around me, which had nothing to do with any war, with people in 'High Places', well educated, some of them educators themselves, related to subjects they are specialised in, emerging from those exchanges with a feeling they wanted to pull a fast one on me.
The whole story of this war in Ukraine we are told is bogus. Not because I say so, but because there are truckloads of proof. From video, sound recordings, to admissions from key players that certain important elements were not what we were told to believe. But most people either missed those revelations, or they dismiss them. Now, from research we know that one serious defensive mechanism is to suppress traumatic events, 'painting over them' as it were. Upgrading your life through selective memory.
Our memory is not like the digital memory in a computer, recording what we see and hear. When events are recalled, we may add or subtract details, or even entire segments that (no longer) fit the narrative of who we are. Not merely the narrative we are prepared to share with others, leaning towards painting a picture closer to who we wanted to be, but the one we use as a reference ourselves as well. In a world filled with all kinds of impressions, 24/7, things are different from the days when our surroundings were surprisingly stable. Pleasant or not, but plenty of time to contemplate. To think things over. To learn valuable lessons. Ouch! That hurt!
No such luxury in a world which evolves in unpredictable ways at many levels at the same time. In order to stay in touch with reality, you need some powerful filters. Or drop that mobile phone, turn off the telly, plug your ears, or take some time off to make sense of it all. Even though some people do have a strategy to prevent a 'burn out', it is apparently rare that they use these quiet moments to contemplate. Instead they order themselves to think of 'nothing', and calm down. Lower their blood pressure. Get rid of this sense of being on the run. Relax. And get a heart attack as a result, because of the abrupt change. Possibly use some 'substance' to help you relax? Watch movies, listen to music?
People with a job with plenty of routine, which they can do with their eyes closed, or merely guarding an automated system, are in a different league. But jobs like that are becoming scarce. Automation and robotisation are taking over all of these routine jobs, and employers find tasks which those guardsmen can do while waiting for some kind of emergency, so they won't be entirely useless. Making efficient use of those on the payroll.
Our private lives are stuffed with 'things to do' as well, since life on a single wage is out of the question these days. And the children cannot be left alone, while they too are waking up with 'Tik-Tok', 'Snapchat' and 'Insta', as their school is expanding and changing the curriculum almost on a daily bases, adding exotic new subjects that tax their young brains to breaking point. Not reading and math. But learning about how to deal with 'gender issues', and learning the latest about developments around the 'Climate Scare', and how best to influence your mentally moribund parents. And where to report them if they say something which is not very kind, setting them up for some 'coaching'. Or maybe knowledge they share with these tender souls is actually 'disinformation', requiring re-education.
All of this as you are fighting to make sense of how a man may be woman, and vice versa. How destroying dams is going to help stop the floodings and droughts. Why we need to defend the borders of a country on the other side of the planet, while the authorities refuse to defend our own borders. And how we are going to make ends meet at the end of the month as inflation bites, who cares about how the Bidens en Obama worked hard to cover their tracks in Ukraine? Do we look like we have time left to watch a video about some new Russian hypersonic weapon system used in Ukraine which leaves our own military speechless? But what puzzles me, is why a majority in our part of the world is still prepared to commit suicide in a war we provoked by regime changing Ukraine in 2014, to lay our hands on a useful proxy as we were planning to topple the regime in Russia too. And then I notice that it is a poll conducted by NATO. Okay. That explains it then. Their poll would have provided Kamala with a landslide victory too.