The World As We Think We Know It

Friday 16th March

Nothing is permanent, all permanence is illusion.  What we thought we knew only a few years ago is irrelevant to the constantly changing situation.  Predictions are useless, the World is changing so fast it is almost impossible to even guess with any degree of accuracy.  But maybe it has always been so; maybe it is just our heightened information technology that allows us to be somewhat reluctant observers of the changing world.  Maybe we just have too much news, although I am often frustrated by the paucity of genuine reporting, and the substitution of Opinion for fact.

In fact, we are already in the realm of 1984.  Facts are simply what we are told is the truth – unless we are actually there, witnessing events ourselves we can never really know what is going on.  We were lied to over Iraq, even jack Straw now admits that, though he was instrumental in trying to convince us all that lies were facts.  We have been lied to over Syria, over Isis, over the corruption at the heart of the City of London, indeed over almost everything.

In fact the more we know, or think we know, the less we can believe.  All we can do is to try to understand the motives behind those that are giving us ‘the News’ and read widely and compare differing viewpoints. In the end we are largely helpless in the face of this constantly changing world.  At least the internet allows us to communicate with other confused individuals and try to come to some understanding of the conflicting blur of information scurrying across our horizons.  In the end it is up to us.  We do not have to be passive receivers of information.  In reality the World is just us, each and every one of us.  And we can and do change it every day.