I Used to Have a Great Ass!
& other things I’ve lost along the way
Hey, I wasn’t the one who called it great, okay? I always thought my behind was too big, & was pretty embarrassed about it. Turned out the men in my life seemed to think it was my best feature! Go figure, eh?
Life is so damn weird.
But ... it’s gone!
Vamooshed!
Had me a doozy case of “omicron” (if that’s what it was; again, whatever), was very unwell for a long while there – lost my appetite, & ate practically nothing for a couple of weeks. Predictably, lost quite a bit of weight (this does tend to happen when one doesn’t eat, hmmmm?)
A friend pointed out to me later that I’d lost my ass!
I wouldn’t have noticed it myself, since I don’t spend a whole lot of time looking at my backside in the mirror.
She was right.
It’s gone!
Occasioning a few wry chuckles on my part, I have to say.
Life is so damn weird.
I started musing the other day on beliefs I used to hold that are now also in the rear-view mirror. Proving that we can change as individuals – evolve as time goes on, & learn new stuff. This seems like a good thing, don’t you think?
“Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.” – Karen Kaiser Clark
Here’s a list I’ve come up with:
I used to:
Trust that what I was being told by mainstream (or legacy) media was the truth. In spite of much evidence to the contrary (slow learner! Slow to connect the dots. In that, I know I’m not alone). That faith has utterly left me now, which I needn’t go deeply into here. I did write an essay about trusting in MSM early on in the Covid era. So much has happened since May 2020 (slight understatement), & I could add plenty more. Here is a very informative short video that really lets the cat out of the bag with respect to the reliability & independence of mainstream media.
Believe that the so-called “health care” system was really about health. My bad! Took me quite a long time to connect those dots too! It’s a pharmaceutical delivery system. A pill for every ill! A health care industry – & one that reaps unimaginable profits for those who profit from it (we regular “average” humans are not among them). I wrote about trusting health authorities here.
Be a “leftie,” politically speaking. For decades! In the Covid era, much of what I believed the left stood for seemed to suddenly go “Poof!” Lefties are not stupid, in my view – but they are dangerously naive. Too caught up now in what propaganda expert Mark Crispin Miller calls “the nightmare of identity politics.” I certainly was! They have blinders on. (As do we all, after all, one way and another.)
The political system is soooo broken! So corrupt. I now see “left vs. right” distinctions as mere divide & conquer tactics ... which are ancient! I still have the same basic values I’ve always had. But I’ve lost my naivete about politics. I’m no longer “left,” but not now “right.” If you ask me, politics is a complete shit show. Corruption every which way you turn!
Believe the “educational system” was really about education. I’m not so sure now it ever really was! What has gradually became clear is that it’s an indoctrination system. This has certainly been a great disappointment to me. To put it very mildly indeed.
Trust in “experts.” Once upon a time, I automatically put people with MDs and PhDs up on pedestals. No more! Some people with white coats, fancy degrees, titles & alma maters are very smart. Some are as dumb as a bag of hammers! (I could write a separate essay explaining how this became clear to me. Another day perhaps.) Like any literate adult, though, I can do my own reading & research, form my own opinions & conclusions, and figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Right from wrong. I am very careful now not to put anybody up on a pedestal. Some folks do a lot of good stuff in the world, & that’s wonderful! But you know what? Nobody is right all the time. We all have our blind spots. All of us. We have to use our own critical reasoning skills to discern right from wrong and truth from mere propaganda.
Science was not subject to corruption; it was and is a “pure” endeavour. Naively unaware of how badly corrupted it’s become over the decades. Many insightful quotations about the real nature of modern science can be found here. And note – this all goes back a very long time. Think eugenics. Lobotomies. Canadian scientist/media figure David Suzuki’s 1989 book Inventing the Future goes to great lengths to explain that science is not morally neutral (the science quotations posting above quotes at length from his book).
Believe that governments have our best interests in mind. Ha. As if! This one fell away gradually over decades of environmental activism & many-many direct dealings with (many) politicians (at all levels: municipal, regional, provincial & federal) & bureaucrats. No doubt some politicians (& bureaucrats) have integrity, & more or less mean well. The systems they’re embedded in, however, do not. These systems are all broken. Too many people stay in their roles for the power, the paycheque, the perks & the pension, if you ask me.
Believe that “regulatory agencies” actually do regulate polluting industries & agencies. Again – as if! All have been captured by those very corrupt industries/agencies they purport to regulate. It’s called “regulatory capture,” & it too is epidemic. This was something it took me far too long to connect the dots on. (It’s embarrassing!)
The WHO was actually a “health” agency. Anti-nuclear work taught me that this was just never the case. WHO & the nuclear industry have colluded with one another since the late 1950s. If you want to learn more about that, I point you to this essay. How I could ever have thought that an agency colluding with the global nuclear establishment wouldn’t collude with other corrupt entities is a puzzle to me now. Again – slow to connect the dots.
Vaccines were unassailably a “saviour” of humanity. Utterly “safe and effective.” A deep dive into the vaccine issue that I embarked on more or less unwittingly six years ago now taught me how misguided this unquestioning faith in vaccines is. If you’ve never questioned them yourself, take this quick quiz. And/or, read this: ‘The Impact of Vaccines on Mortality Decline Since 1900—According to Published Science.’ I expect you’ll encounter a surprise or two!
This is probably a good time to insert this graphic. Turns out almost every issue one dips one’s toe into is very much like an iceberg. Not much showing on the surface; vastly more underneath it!
To continue:
That one could inform people about things – the environmental crisis, say, that some of us have been aware of for decades – and they would a) learn to care about it & b) start doing something about it. We would change/save the world! Decades of environmental work (on a wide range of different topics ranging from air & water pollution & waste/recycling/incineration issues to lead & pesticides, endocrine disruption, deforestation, the ozone layer, climate change/ocean acidification, to cancer prevention, toxics in personal care products, energy conservation, & finally ... nuclear work; I really went down a lot of rabbit holes!?) have shown me how naive I was. Most people seem to have remained mostly oblivious to the gradual (now not-so-gradual) poisoning of the planet’s air, water, earth, food supplies ... and our very own bodies. And how this all affects our health; even the very future of our species (if we have one!)
That evil was only a concept, a religious artifact or belief. But then I spent a long time looking evil in the face in those years of anti-nuclear work. As it turns out, it’s not only in evidence in that quarter. Corporations have no conscience! To these entities, only profit matters. And some individual humans are so far gone in their greed & lust for power (& frankly, their contempt for most of their fellow human beings), that I believe now evil has run amok on our planet. Phew. Not a fun realization! Fortunately, at this very unique juncture in human history, there are also vast numbers of heroes emerging! (I plan to post a long list of some of these shortly.) As a person who doesn’t spend much time indulging in hope, I won’t hold my breath on all these heroes being able to “save the world” – but it sure is a very, very heartwarming phenomenon to be witnessing!
Facts really mattered. Facts would convince people of important things! But it seems we humans are more & more subject to sound bites than to actual facts & (uncorrupted) science. This became clear early on in the Covid debacle. People believed what they were told by their televisions/media outlets. Didn’t do any digging. Didn’t notice that the media/health agencies were (still are) not providing actual back-up data for their false (frequently outrageous) claims. That corruption & lies (& fear-mongering) had become the real pandemic. I know: research is time-consuming. It takes energy! Sound bites, on the other hand, go down fast & easy. I guess they always have! We have always needed (it seems) to hate this religious group, that tribe or political party or race ... or whatever. We humans have always been easily swayed, easily manipulated. Easy to herd. Deeply wired to be compliant. And fear is an amazingly effective tool our “leaders” have always known how to weaponize against us.
******************
Well. So I’ve learned quite a bit over the years – most of it not particularly easy or fun to digest! Our illusions die hard, and our blind spots don’t tend to reveal themselves to us readily. Dot-connecting takes energy & work! Denial is so much easier. Why? Because it’s the “no change” option.
But as Charles Darwin once said:
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the one most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
And, as nuclear physicist Ralph Lapp once said:
“We are aboard a train which is gathering speed, racing down a track on which there are an unknown number of switches leading to unknown destinations. No single scientist is in the engine cab and there may be demons at the switch. Most of society is in the caboose, looking backward.”
These Things Still Matter!
Here are a few things I’ve long believed in, though, & still do. These ones are definitely not in the rear-view mirror.
Truth still matters. Even (maybe especially?) when it’s “inconvenient.”
Integrity matters.
Connecting the dots.
Curiosity!
Conversation (i.e., communication, connection) is the Whole Darn Karmic Enchilada. You can quote me on that!
Friendship: soooo important!
Our voices matter.
Gratitude too. It’s transformative!
Kindness & generosity & love & compassion definitely still matter.
Courage really matters.
Doing the right thing.
Staying human still matters.
