Thoughts on not spreading fear or getting sucked into other people's agendas

I don't like to do too much in the way of introspection but, there are times when I probably need to take a step back and review my activism, such as it is... I'm definitely not into self flagellation when it comes to looking at what I do but, sometimes a judicious amount of self criticism doesn't come amiss. As a bit of an aside, as well as writing, I also do photography and have taken up drawing again. With my my photography and art, I'm always reviewing what I do and striving as much as I can to improve it, without getting angst ridden about it. Given the increasingly weird times we live in, I'm starting to realise I need to start applying that approach to my writing and activism as well.

The last four years of the Covid 'crisis' and its aftermath have been a massive learning curve. It's only now that it's possible to look back and reflect on how I reacted to what was being done to us, how I let it change my activism and also, what I wrote about it. Did I get it right all the way through? No of course I didn't. Did any of us get it right consistently? If anyone claims they did, they're stretching the truth... Looking back, one area where I wasn't getting it right was that I was being way too reactive.

Reacting to an agenda can result in coming up with an analysis that's a mirror image of what we're against.

We were up against a lot of fear mongering. All too often, it felt like we were responding with our own doom laden predictions of what was going to happen with the great reset. There's a fine line between offering warnings about what is and will be done to us and how we need to respond, and sinking into so much negativity it feels like there's no way out. As I've written before, it's all too easy to point out what's wrong, it's a lot harder coming up with answers that will take us forward.

One of the factors that has made coming up with any kind of road map is that what can loosely be termed a 'resistance' is actually a range of different currents of dissent. That's something I've written about previously: We don't need 'leaders', 'voices' or false idols for our revolution 18.9.23.

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I attended a number of the anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine mandate protests that were held in London during 2021 going through to early 2022. The intention of doing this was to get a first hand feel for what the protests were about and the kind of people taking part in them, rather than rely on second hand reports from people with agendas. It was also to hand out copies of The Stirrer paper produced specifically for the protests in order to communicate an anarchist perspective of sorts to the people taking part in them. You can download PDFs of the papers I handed out from this page: Papers.

What struck me about the protests was the diversity of people attending. What I concluded from attending them was that they were a coming together of a range of different currents of opposition that were not always in agreement with each other. Some of these currents have evolved into a broader level of opposition to the great reset which I've written about a fair few times.

As such, there's never been the kind of consensus that would be associated with what would be regarded as a more traditional movement for change. Nor should there be because the last thing I ever want to be a part of is a movement with a 'vision' that's going to be imposed, regardless of the cost. I have no time for vanguardist shite that's basically thinly disguised social engineering, no time at all, trust me on this: Trying to be positive in the search for a better world... 17.9.23.

Whatever future society that emerges to replace the high tech enabled dystopia that we're being forced into cannot have any elements of one size fits all. Whatever does emerge has to recognise the diversity and complexity of thoughts and beliefs that make up humanity. Any attempt at social engineering to force people into a particular way of thinking and living has to be resisted.

Getting back to the paralysing doom mongering coming from some elements claiming to be on our side, there are a few things that need to be said... Yes, I know things are not good at the moment. I reckon that a lot of what have been dismissively termed as 'normies' are also well aware that things are not good. This starts from the stark realisation that here in the UK, we're living in a country that's metaphorically and literally falling apart. It goes on to the growing number of people waking up to the psyops that are being inflicted upon us. Unlike some elements in what has loosely been described as the 'resistance' I have enough faith that the majority of people will realise that things cannot go on as they are.

There's a better chance of the so called 'normies' galvanising themselves into action once certain elements in the 'resistance' can the negativity and start articulating a range of possibilities for the future. What the 'normies' won't respond to is paralysing doom and gloom.

There's a difference between a robust critique that also offers some ideas as to how things can change on the one hand, and on the other, the kind of commentary that fills you with so much angst about the future, you end up retreating into a protective shell.

You know what, looking back over the last three years, I've been guilty of writing a few doom laden pieces that offer no suggestions as to how we can move forwards. These were written at points during the lockdowns when I found my self sliding into pit o despair. One that I only fully exited once I'd moved from one side of the country to another to start a new life. Before that move, I got sucked into the whole sliding into dystopia trip and trust me, it's not a good place to be going if you haven't got any positive ideas about how things can be changed so the psychopaths are never in charge again.

Then there's responding to other people's agendas. The shitstorm surrounding the allegations being aired about the conduct of Russell Brand is a classic example of having to dance to agendas that aren't your own. I felt obliged to respond, obliquely in this piece linked to above: We don't need 'leaders', 'voices' or false idols for our revolution and somewhat more directly in this piece: While everyone's attention was elsewhere... 23.9.23.

It's one of those situations where regardless of what take you have on the issues involved, in this instance many and complex, you're never going to win because what you have to say will always be at odds with someone else's agenda.

This ranges from those who want Brand fully held to account for his conduct towards women all the way over to those who, wrongly in my view, see him as some kind of prophet. As far as I'm concerned, I've written as much, if not more, than I want to write about this sorry, sordid saga, and want to get back to looking at things from an independent point of view. Well, as far as that is possible...

As a brief aside, here on Substack, I follow a fairly wide range of writers. I take care to ensure that only a few of them tend towards doom mongering. Most have thought provoking takes on why we are where we are and how we can move forwards from that. I don't always agree with them but, that's fine because I don't want to be in an echo chamber. I want to be somewhere that allows for ideas to be expressed and then debated and contested. On the other hand, X (formerly known as Twitter) is a doom mongering hellscape that I increasingly try to have as little to do with as possible!

Getting back to the doom laden predictions of what will happen to us as the great reset steamrollers on and changes our lives so much that they'll be unrecognisable from what we're going through now, allegedly, there are a few points that need to be born in mind. While the elites may well have dastardly plans aimed at allowing them to concentrate ever more power and wealth into their hands while the rest of us are forced into a form of techno-feudalism, they're as fallible as the rest of us mere mortals, as are their collaborators. They have to rely on the unwitting, and sometimes witting, willingness of the grunts developing and implementing the technology that's going to enforce this new form of feudalism.

The more digitised our lives get, the more it becomes blatantly obvious that the technology behind this is not only far from perfect, it's quite often glitchy and deeply flawed. Coders are human like the rest of us.

That means they make mistakes that creep into the software and interfaces we're increasingly obliged to use. They also come up with some interfaces that are so poorly designed and implemented, you're left wondering what the f**k quality control actually do for their money! A lot of this is hackable and can be sabotaged in many ways. One being moving as much of our lives as possible back to analogue...

As for AI, well the origins of that are with coders and technicians who are human, flawed and prone to making errors. AI could well turn out to be as glitchy as the rest of the shite were obliged to use.

Are the elites who are trying to push the great reset upon us, flawless operators? No, they're human like the rest of us, albeit devoid of the humanity that most of us possess. What they're also possessed with is an overload of hubris. Hubris in large quantities can blind elite operators to the realities of the situation they have to deal with. It could well be argued that they're sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Were they expecting the level of pushback against the way they leveraged the Covid 'crisis' to accelerate the great reset? Somehow, I think not, hence the tinge of what can best be described as desperation as they struggle to retain control of their narrative and protect it from ever closer scrutiny.

So while things may well be getting a bit 'wild', as we head towards a crunch point, there's cause for optimism. Anyone who's looked at the situation knows that depriving the psychopaths of their power and wealth is going to be a struggle. I'm not going to shy away from pointing that out where necessary. However, there are a growing number of cracks appearing in the edifice of power that supports them, cracks which can levered right open to help break their power once and for all.

To briefly conclude, I'm going through a process of reviewing my activism, particularly my writing and other forms of propaganda. This is with a view to ensuring that what I produce in future doesn't fall back into doom mongering and offers some pointers for a better future. While I'm doing this, I'll be taking my foot off the gas when it comes to posting on here for a while, going down to a maximum of two posts a week. See you on the other side:)