Counter Culture

As I was walking down the slope into the small valley I could hear voices ringing out and the heavy sound of machinery. This was unexpected. Gradually the sounds quietened. It got me thinking about what a surreal dream we all inhabit – bordering on a nightmare. I’ve mentioned this before but it came to me so clear. What exactly is going on? I was thinking about how we are becoming afraid of our fellow beings. Mind forged manacles indeed – now we are not simply ‘isolating’ ourselves but imprisoning our minds. I carried on and dropped still further to a stream. There stood a man, alone, looking at the waters flowing. It was an encounter. Briskly I continued and as he turned and walked to me I gave him a wide smile (the only form of ‘reaching out’). He seemed perturbed. Maybe this was just my interpretation – but it felt awkward. I said ‘hello’ (‘bonjour’) and he replied in like. After crossing the stream I watched him climb the slope I had previously come down. His trousers were salmon pink in colour – I have this fanciful idea that he came from the stream and took human form! What better time for another species to tread warily into human society. They must never have witnessed us so scared and vulnerable.

The way from the stream is a fair climb – but with rocky outcrops on the path to aid the ascent. I could feel my heart beating and my lungs filling with breath and subsequently exhaling. My legs moved with the will of my mind – thankfully they have the strength to do my bidding. We are physical as well as mental creatures. We need to move. It’s inbuilt. By the time I reached the top, I was panting but I could see back down towards the valley. The trees are clothing themselves and soon the ‘clear-season’ and its sights will be fully clothed and veiled. Dare I say it, masked! From the heights, I felt stronger – mentally and spiritually. But what is going on? What is happening to us? Will this nightmare become but a thing half-remembered, to haunt us only in future fears and anxiety?

Everything we think we know comes to us through a screen. Even if others speculate upon this theory or another, their information has also come from a screen. Well, I suppose there must still be some of us reading non-virtual newspapers! It is speculated that the virus might have come from one of Wuhan’s infamous wet-markets (which apparently are beginning to re-open!); others maintain it has come either deliberately or by accident from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (manslaughter or mass-murder); others think that the problem lies with 5G (and its towers/masts) and that the coronavirus is simply – dare I say it again – a mask. As a result of the virus there are others who point out possible dangers via enforced vaccination (that might well carry a chip too – so all of our movements would be tracked not simply car journeys); the linking up of our minds (and bodies) with A.I.; a cashless society – whereby we all become slaves of the banking system. The latter reminds me of the proposed UBI (universal basic income) – maybe that will be used as a ‘sweetener’ to gain our compliance? But it might also mean that everyone is reduced to a slave wage with JUST enough to survive. I mean if you tie all these in together – it’s harrowing reading. The image of humans linked in to an artificial web – food for thought, or food for an emerging spidery elite?

• Maybe this ‘Strange New World’ we find ourselves in will herald a bright future for us and our fellow creatures. It’s entirely possible. Isn’t it? That would mean altering our relationship with SCREENS and our fellow humans. For the moment it feels like reality is processed through a screen. Can we be as brave as Alice and step through the looking-glass? Do we need to live our lives through screens? Surely this dream we are living through has shown us the potential of a different way of life – if only viewed askance. It surely must have prompted many of us to ask basic (and not so basic) questions, such as:
• What is REALLY important?
• What is the true nature of REALITY?
• Who (or what) provides us with our apparent reality? 
• What will give us real and deep happiness?
• Where do we belong and what do we belong to?
• Do we need to constantly complicate our existence?
• Can we be happy with less?
• Is it more important to have silence than noise?
• Are we being manipulated by the media?
• Who can we trust?

Is it more important to share and live a spiritual rather than materially based life?

I could go on. But I’ll spare you. You get the drift.

So – what’s it to be folks? Or is it a question of ‘wait and see’ (hopefully not followed by ‘hide and seek’)? Is it a question of looking at the chessboard and guessing our opponents next three moves? Or are we all on the same side? And this is where I can only re-iterate: reality presents itself through screens! I really don’t know anything. Absolutely nothing for sure. I wait. I watch. I listen. I think. I ready myself. This spectacular BLIP in the history of ‘Our kind’ might just be that – a BLIP! A nasty blip nevertheless. Once we’re through the looking-glass and then back again into ‘reality’ it might be as if it were all just a bad dream. No technocracy; no crashing of the economy; no mass unemployment; no One World Government – but rather families, extended-families (and Nations) getting on with their lives anew. A major spiritual change moving across the still, silent oceans and passing over the towns and sprawling cities of the World. A return to deeper and simpler ways of living. Can we be trusted with FREEDOM?

Time will tell.

By Tim Bragg
Tim Bragg is the author (amongst many books) of Lyrics to Live By – Keys to Self-Help Notes for a Better Life available from Amazon
Image by Antonius Ntoumas from Pixabay.