Which pill will you take…?

Want to know true horror? It’s that feeling, the unknown dread, the sense something horrible is about to occur. Not right now maybe. Around that blind corner perhaps. Just ahead. Maybe creeping up, barely sensed yet noticed. That niggling voice of warning. Hoping for the best. But inside knowing the worst is coming. Worse than can be imagined. Oh, the horror… 

Creepy.

But there’s always hope. Hope things will turn out okay. That we will survive, whatever happens. Won’t we? There’s that doubt again, fearful, that no, things won’t turn out okay. 

That’s my mood today. I’m also saying goodbye. Maybe that’s part of the sadness. These words are the last I’ll write to this blog. I’ve never really considered myself much of a writer, and the imposter syndrome was always there on my shoulder, laughing. And these words are the first I’ve written in maybe a year now. Defeated in the knowledge of insignificance. Pointlessness. The world is changing, as it always does. This is my current real horror. That idiocracy is on the rise.

It seems that in the USA, only 2% of parents now bother to read to their children. My own granddaughter – while ironically walking to the local library – announced in all seriousness that she doesn’t like reading. I was aghast. This from a bright eight year old child who (used to) love books and (still) loves to read with me. Or so I thought.

I gently examined her reasons and made the argument for reading and for books. We ended up borrowing several books of mainly factual content which she indeed loved. But I fear I’m losing the argument with her to her older brother. A teenager seven years senior and constantly plugged into his phone buds and computer games who never reads. His argument, plainly and proudly stated to me, that anyone who doesn’t game on a computer is simply dumb. He has no time for boring books. Relentless peer pressure I’m guessing, affects all of use I suppose, especially when young. 

Here’s the rub. And it’s a paradox. More words are now being read and typed than at any other time in history. Short form writing – and reading – has become normal. The attention span has shrunk, and is shrinking still. Doom-scrolling on phones has captured the attention of not just the new generation, but across all generations. So who has time for books? Fewer every day. Walk down any street, on any plane, bus or train and most people are staring into their phones. Granted that some may be enjoying a a book in electronic form but, I suspect, most will not.

The polarisation of society that forms inevitably from circular bubble (mis)information is spreading. Increasingly, science is being doubted and replaced by magic beliefs. Carl Sagan back in the 1980’s worried that the world was reverting back to a lack of critical thought. How right he was. Yet, we are all susceptible. Ask yourself how it is that, whilst driving, a speeding motorist overtaking is an ‘idiot’ while a slower moving car in front of us is also an idiot? Our perception is that ‘we’ are always right in our position, our opinion. If we don’t apply critical thought, and instead rely on information fed to us by possibly unreliable sources, chaos will ensue. 

My true horror is that the Idiocracy is already upon us. With no time to read, without that foundation, that quest for knowledge, what do we have left? Magicians and snake oil salesmen. The demons are released. 

Anyway, I’m sure things will be just fine. Won’t they?

In any case, it’s goodbye my friends. It’s been fun and a pleasure. I might, who knows, scribble some entertaining nonsense and post it here one Monday morning. 

My thanks to Jack for allowing that possibility and for also allowing my stories to remain on the site. In parting, if you haven’t already, do try and find and read Carl Sagan’s book The Demon-Haunted World. It really is worth a read. But at least here, I know I’m preaching to the believers.

(The photo heading this blog post is a picture I made in a little homage to the Films One Flew Over The Cukoo’s Nest and The Matrix. My photo website is HERE).