25 September

I post a lot less to FB these days, because it’s so bloody dull. Like reading personal ads and classifieds. An Israeli scientist said something the other day that interested me. He said the world is broken because when the major issues of the day are discussed, people only talk about them in relation to the people they *don’t* know (politicians, celebrities etc.), and only rarely in relation to the people they do know. So instead of ideas being blended into the lived experience of ourselves and our friends, they become cliches and stereotypes, slogans mouthed by strangers. Everything is the angry firing of these slogan missiles. While in the meantime we mostly share with those we know what we’re doing (not often what we’re thinking), because the thought of disagreeing with those close to us is too stressful. Gradually the world becomes these insular personal lives, curated to some impersonation of happiness, which we imitate between ourselves. And the rest of the world just seems insane and apocalyptic, because it’s not real, it’s that constructed impersonal world of people we don’t actually know, holding simplified views which we then put into battle, like we’re watching footy, backing our team.