All Chirpy

Back on th blog, first one in couple of yrs. 

Lots has happened - Trumps normalized fear, Britains in divorce, David Attenborough’s stagediving like a walrus cos mother nature’s squeaking …

The age of despair ?  

Not for me, quite the reverse. 

I spent my downbuzz allowance 2 – 3 decades back when we hit the gas on global development, and shoved, shouted and celebrated as allaboutme.com repeatedly took first prize. 

Aspirational units everywhere, men fingering fliphones, currency traders, wall to wall shoulderpads, shiny suits - an entrepreneurial wonderland - you know the story.

Nixon, Reagan, Thatcher, Clinton, all trailing bridal parties, cashed up the agreements on financial controls and boom we were off untethered. Well some of us.

Despite, ‘Hey you with the sad face, come up to my place and live it up’, it was just sad.
I couldn't shake the Lorax off my back. 

So why so chirpy now ? 

People talking bout ecology, growing their own food, equity, ownership, tiny houses, employment, migration, agency for the meek, AI, tech sector accountability, redefining land use, footprints, lack of certainty, yada.

These are the good days, talking about more than sports scores or the property market, taking action. Good days and bad days. 

First though, acknowledging my own privilege - I’m a middle-aged middle-class homeowner with the bank as minority shareholder, living in a developed country with the world’s biggest moat - so for now I’m kinda comfy, have the luxury to muse like this.

The planetary squeeze we’re identifying has been on the march for my lifetime. So with the wrecking balls swinging closer to home, we’re on the squeak too. Not a bad thing – when disease works it’s way to the surface it can be identified and lanced. 

Yes my faith is being restored.

I love that at our core level, one-on-one, most of us are decent people. 

Deviant, deluded, deranged even, but deep down we possess some goodwill, and seek the best for our families, friends and communities.

As a collective tribal species maybe not so much, but slip past the competitive sparring and we’re born-naked die-naked vulnerably decent. 

This confidence in who we can be, actually who we really are deep down, is the clincher.

I love that we’re finally putting ourselves in the dock as we seek to recalibrate our moral compass  - acknowledging the issues, exploring the bottlenecks and how we tackle them. 

I love that we’re willing to at least sit down with our conflicting narrative.

We must have growth – must have it or global economy falls over. Ponzi 101. 
But we must nip growth in the bud - world resources are finite or the lot falls over. So it’s out with the gps – how do we navigate ? 

I love that mother nature is now big picture visual, in the saddle. She is the ultimate CEO and the Board, a business case hermaphrodite. I love that it’s no longer allaboutus.com , even when we want it to be, that the struggles of other species and ours are connected, that we're getting this fact.

I love that as global leadership(that’s mostly not really) reveals it’s ongoing matrix, it’s spiraling darkness, unusual resonances surface - cue the 16 yr old eco-warrior from Sweden and a global movement of more where that came from. Sorry kids we’ve been cheating on you. 

OPEC calling her the most serious threat to the fossil fuel industry, a supercharged influencer. Take a bow Margaret Mead, Dr Seuss. 

Ditto in the USA where Sanders and AOC’s squad are calling shop on inequity, team america world police, positing a new green deal, and globally, the egg timer Extinction Rebellion teams.

I love that significant numbers are speaking truth to power, withholding inappropriate obedience, and that we’re doing group process - building our confidence and narrative to call it. Tales from the mirror, show me where it hurts.

I love that growing pockets of our young are questioning whether ownership/self-accrual are viable let alone desirable goals.

I love that people on low wage shit jobs, and those struggling for even that status, are reaching critical mass – although it sucks, it's a necessary flashpoint where the rubber hits the road, change can manifest. 

I love that American foreign policy, the dodgiest of business cases and the most consistent agency of global terror over the last 70 yrs is increasingly being undressed as we seek answers. Ditto for the real powerhouses backstage. Governments don’t rule the world, goldman sachs rule the world. Actually pretenders, mother nature does.

I love that (for me), it’s not just melbourne cartoonist Leunig for company anymore. That there is now robust community searching beyond the distraction of weak media-made faux leadership. 

And so on.

There’s a lot of us, big families of young ones coming thru in th developing world, and all of us would like something to eat, a roof over head, to get along and to get it on.  Can we ? 

Not sure, but I get excited when people put out, mobilise and pop-up narratives that challenge status quo. 

I have a chum who makes it his mission to get on with arseholes. Instead of reacting or walking away, he delights in finding the crack in the armour where he can make a connection with said bumshit. And build something decent out of it. This is one of his greatest delights, a new vocation maybe, an arsehole paramedic. Could be a new sport, tv gameshow – “ It’s all go on ‘Extracting Empathy From Pricks’, find out after the break ”…

So yeah, never been more enthused. 

Can I muster even a bit of despair ? Not at the moment. Should I ?

And if I do I’m going on Bumble - ‘hurt before but willing to try again’.

Bound to work, can’t not.