Satirizing Satire with Satire

Satire: the great neutralising agent of the rage of injustice. Both the weapon to attack the enemy with and comfort blanket to retreat under when the tribulations of life become all too much. The nation's pressure valve. For those moments when you need to attack a formidable opponent and also demonstrate the futility of doing so. That unique armour piercing blade, fashioned over the ages by humanity's wittiest intelligentsia, who claim it will immobilise any opponent through the subtle manipulation of their psyche. Armed with the sharpest satire, they say you can defeat any opponent by simply agreeing with them more than they agree with themselves, and at once your enemy shall find themselves licking their wounds, boo-hooing to the winds. But beware of wicked fearmongers who will falsely tell you to beware of Snatchers; a terribly unsporting class of opponent who collect the barbed exaggerations you throw at them, then present them to their army of followers as proof you are supportive of their cause. Meanies.

The Magic of Spelling

Reading a good story can be a magical experience. Not only in the way they can make us feel, but in the wizard-esque magic spell sense - in that they can have a powerful effect upon matter itself if cast correctly. Like the transformative effect upon depression hearing a talking cure can have or the instant lighting up of synapses in the brain the news of winning the lottery produces. If spells can have a direct effect upon the material world if cast correctly, and stories have the potential to be magical, then not been able to spell properly means not being able to release the magic in your story because it contains errors.

The Problem of Intention

Whenever I have the intention to do something grand or idealistic, I fail big time, or at least, am left deeply unsatisfied with what transpires as the result was never my intention.

I'm very interested in seeing new systems emerge that help us all work in harmony together though. One experience that keeps coming back to me was when I was at a private festival involving the coming together of various like-minded people. I was struck by the levels of generosity there. Everyone was just so giving! And perhaps because the location we were in was so beautiful, we all felt momentarily separated from the cruelties of the real world, living in a vision of a collective future we wished to be real, a kind of temporary utopia that everyone knew would soon be over because festivals unfortunately don't tend to last forever!

For the next few weeks after returning to the life and person I was before the festival, I found it surprisingly easy and natural to be totally giving to my friends, verging on it feeling quite necessary to be so whenever an opportunity arose. If a friend said they were hungry and I happened to be eating at the time, without thought I found myself offering them my sandwich, telling them they could help themselves. Of course, they would never eat the entire thing, but I feel like it was the gesture that ended up nourishing them more than the food did.

Surprisingly, in group situations where other friends and onlookers witnessed this, I would find myself being offered or given things more often than was the norm for me. And they in turn gave among themselves more than I'd seen before. The atmosphere became one where everyone wanted to give to each other because seeing genuine appreciation and other people being made happier made them happy too! It was nuts!

I'm not one for taking chemicals and then jumping into a hot tub with friends all loved up, so it was a bit intense for me to feel that level of unconditional love just spring up out of nowhere, but I did find that as each day passed, what was an overwhelming feeling of resonance with humanity gradually became normalised, to the point where it no longer disrupted the coordinates of my lived experience and became a part of who I was.

This was years ago though. A fleeting period in my life, a glimpse of the kind of utopia I didn't think was possible. I'm back to 'normal' now! A right selfish bastard who always puts themselves first! Hahaha!!! But I do often find myself longing for the belief that I had in the past. A belief that it is actually possible after all to help sustain and instill in others a love for living through giving

Greta Thunberg - Perhaps it will befall the person with autism to do what is necessary to save us all

It strikes me as significant the fact that today's youth climate change strike taking place in over 100 countries was conceived and driven forward to this point by a person with autism. It's significant that it took a person with a so-called disability to display the necessary level of single-mindedness to act for the benefit of all, which I'm hoping serves to empower others to have the courage to act upon their own deep convictions despite perhaps feeling they are the only ones willing to do so.

Over the past 15 months that I've been working with adults with severe autism, many of their traits I've come to see as evolutionary strengths I've wanted to instill in myself - one of which being the importance of always remaining faithful to what really matters most - ignoring the distraction of the chitter-chatter and inconsequential small talk of others and pursuing that which leads to a feeling of true contentedness.

Every single person with autism has been uniquely configured, and so it's almost impossible to make any generalisations about what makes them tick, but from the 8 residents I've been fortunate to work with, every single one simply has no interest in comparing themselves to others. Every single one of them has no issue expressing how they feel at any moment in time regardless of how it may appear to onlookers. And in the increasingly ambiguous and confusing reality we inexorably create for ourselves, it's been massively stabilising to find myself each day in an environment surrounded by people whose actions and intentions I can believe 100% - because when you live in a sea of uncertainties that tosses you around mercilessly, you need an anchor to help keep you steadfast throughout it all.

Choosing to use emojis to react to emotional stories we see in our news feeds because we find it difficult to articulate ourselves as we would like, is degrading our ability to communicate effectively, which in turn is affecting our mental health and sense of personal autonomy

If you happen to read something in your news feed which leaves you feeling angry or upset and are compelled to say something in the comments, but then worry about saying it right or upsetting someone, or people misunderstanding what you mean and then attacking you - don't trade all of the anxiety in wanting to speak your truth for a convenient emoji instead - because soon enough you'll have forgotten how it feels to articulate your grievances through words to any satisfying degree at all - and the next time your emotions are stirred by injustices taking place in the world it will be even more difficult to muster the confidence to say what you really want to say, making it more likely you will choose the easy way out once more - taking the entirety of your feelings and emotions in that moment and replacing them with 1 of only 6 possible options - I agree - I love - I'm amazed - I hate - I'm sad - I'm angry

We're much more complex than emojis allow us to express, and deep down we know it. It seems as though the continued denial and inaction to improve our capacity to describe our reality is becoming yet another increasing source of frustration for us. And if a backlash to the inherent lack of precision of emojis does eventually become a source of collective distress, I would not be surprised at all if companies like Facebook responded to the outcry by introducing yet more refined emojis capable of allowing us to 'articulate' ourselves with greater 'nuance'.  

Not being able to express our sentiments exactly how we experience them, or not feeling free enough to talk openly about sensitive topics that may require us to be generous and kind to each other - isn't good for our collective mental health going forward. The system itself in which we communicate (Facebook) encourages us to be less nuanced in our thoughts through the crude alternative of emojis.  

Emojis are to language what McDonald's is to food. They never fully satisfy, but they do at the time.  

We can only be as expressive as the tools that we use will allow, and being able to crystallise in words precisely how we feel at a certain point in time truly is one of the best ways to externalise and then look squarely at, whatever it is that might be troubling or exciting us inside.

So down with emojis and alphabets FTW!!! :D :D :D  

I'm troubled by the culture of fear I see growing around me, when I look at my friends and read their concerns over consequences of them expressing themselves honestly online. I worry about the long-term conditioning and self-limiting effects this will have on them. From what I can see, a lot more people are choosing to self-censor in order to minimise the chances of anxiety inducing responses from others, and for some, even the idea of getting into a debate online these days is leading some to become filled with anxiety. If having a debate online in front of an audience feels like a battle, then the ability to articulate yourself as you would like surely is a great weapon to have in your arsenal.  

Reflecting on this last point a little further it seems as though one of the precursory factors which causes people to avoid engaging in online discussions stems precisely from them perceiving online debates as battles. If you use war analogies and metaphors as the lenses to help you make sense of discussions then you've already admitted to yourself that conflict of some sort is to be expected. But if you choose to see discussions as group problem solving exercises, where everyone present is a free participant able to contribute an idea or (just as important) counter an idea in order for the collective train of thought to eventually arrive at the truth, then it may help us see others more favourably and with less preconceived judgments.