People are disconnected all over the world. There is a growing tendency for people to feel alienated and isolated. The internet hasn’t solved that. We are lost without significant human contact and satisfying, useful properly paid work.
The taunt of getting involved in your own individual response to add to an overwhelming chaos of opinion and perspective online is meant to alleviate the isolation. Otherwise you are alone. It’s tempting but blogging is not the same as having friends. But that’s what we’re working with. So here we go!
When I awoke today I was thrown into another typical day. Isolated. In a world where I have to remember to leave the house or open the back door as a good habit. Bedroom to kitchen with a break at the local Asda supermarket to pick up cheap food.
First thing, with a coffee, I turned on the TV to be confronted with global news dominated by a dictator in Russia who has invaded another country in Europe. A democracy. Because he believes that this country has no right to exist outside the former Soviet Empire.
A war in Europe is not as depressing as the knowledge that the British public can’t grasp that factual reality of the war in Europe. It’s denied. They deny that it is in their interest to take an interest.
Even the president of the most powerful country in the world fails to understand the history, geography, science and economics of the world we live in. Yet he makes his random decisions based on his emotional responses to his own misunderstanding. Since coming into office President Donald Trump has made wrong after wrong guess about the war in Ukraine. It hasn’t helped.
That’s alienating. That makes you feel nervously hopeless inside. It makes me feel like numbing out the future.
So I turn to the pc to try and write blogs as an antidote. Take back some sanity. Popular blogs. Funny blogs. Blogs which include the useful info I’ve learnt as a musician. My writing is hindered by the silence and the lack of company. Hindered by a strong desire not to bother.
Typing on a screen has some kind of meaning in the void, but it’s not the same as actual human on human interaction. It’s an electronic representation of interaction and it doesn’t smell as a good as a new book.
I gather that isolation and alienation is a global issue effecting people’s mental health from South Korea to Manchester (pictured above). Does blogging help? I don’t know. Feel free to comment below.
A quick actual phonecall from a musician friend allows me to make some random release of tension in the form of humour. A former Para (British soldier/airborne), he at least understands why I am warning him to be on the look out for people with rocket launchers who dislike pugs, while he takes his awful spoilt dog for a walk. An elderly gent, he has three pensions and a few benefits. He too is isolated.
We’re going to meet up and play music in his government flat on Thursday night. We’ll drink tea and eat cake. Another friend, a carpet fitter and a bass player, will be there. He is returning from his gigs in Switzerland. It will make me feel a little jealous no doubt. My gig on Friday is in a small Lancashire town called Oswaldtwistle. Not nearly as exotic as Switzerland with a huge crowd and a new album.
Later today I will go out running and my girlfriend has promised a short visit to my rented house after her work has finished. Having a visitor makes my typical day not typical. I’m looking forward to it.
Mike Kneafsey Guitar 