Knowing the reality is vital for our survival!

A number of things have struck me over the last few years, which has never been illustrated more vividly than by the pre- and post-Brexit/Trump discourse. Also, as demonstrated by the likes of Putin, Erdogan, Orban and Bolsanaro, tightening their grip on power (in their respective countries and regions), they have appealed to a populist agenda, which more often than not plays on people’s fears, and is underpinned by ideological dogma, often spreading misleading information, not to mention lies and falsehoods.

There are countless examples, where politicians and others, have just simply spouted nonsense, lies and untruths, exaggeration and vitriol, so much so, that it has become the norm, but where it has no basis in reality; where lies are based on sources that have been discredited, where evidence is dubious at best, and where links, correlations and causality are inadvertently given a veneer of respectability because they are repeated often enough so as to sew doubt, or raise questions about once-universally accepted knowledge.

The fact that we still have ‘flat-earthers’ and anti-vaxxers, and even more recently, those burning down 5G masts because ‘they spread coronavirus’ is just incredible in this day and age. The idea of even giving those who advocate such views the oxygen of any meaningful publicity is a travesty, although most of it these days is self-perpetuating through social media, but still, I thought one of the objectives of growing and learning is that once something has been discredited, it is ‘put to bed’ and permanently!

We stand at a point in time when the anti-expert and anti-intellectual agenda that seems to have arisen in recent times and more oft than not, founded in traditional and conservative ideologies ‘on the right’ of the political spectrum, is deeply concerning.

In this current battle to win ‘the argument,’ which by the way, I feel we are once again compelled to do; we have to work hard again to reassert knowledge already proven, reaffirm once more the rights of minorities, and hold to account the dubious and duplicitous musings of ignorant and ill-informed leaders. We must double our efforts to ensure we don’t become a society where unfounded claims and already debunked myths and ideas are on a par with proven theories, credible evidence and facts established through scientific rigour.

That we still have climate-deniers and worse, policy makers that back them is truly incredible, although, it is most likely that in the case of the policy-makers, money plays a significant role – everyone has their price kind of thing!

That we have IT companies ‘bigger’ than countries is more than troublesome. Read Shoshana Zuboff’s ground-breaking The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and you’ll see what I’m alluding too. That half of the world’s wealth lies in the hands of 42 people is truly astonishing!

That Nationalism is on the rise, automation is creeping into every facet of our lives, young people seem less and less interested and engaged in established parliamentary democracies and the disconnect in thinking between and awareness off our government’s foreign policy and its impact on ‘home soil’ is all too obvious, is more than a cause for concern.

That the planet has less than 60 harvests left, wealthy nations are among the unhappiest, the ‘War on Drugs’ has failed miserably and the banking system that collapsed in 2008 was put back together using even more debt, is an indication of collective incompetence at the very highest level.

That none of us are actually truly indigenous, nor that we truly have free will, or that migration is as old as time and parents continuously overrate their ability to influence their children are illusions we all suffer from.

That our biological ‘make-up’ is largely pre-determined before we are born, and that we are essentially the first generation to not only die before our parents, but are faced by questions of how we can actually make real improvements to the quality of our lives, there are just some of the many realities we need to face up too.

Knowing the reality of things is not only important, it’s bloody well essential for our survival!