Are We Actually Still Human?
I come from a world where people sit in the same room, a cafe, a pub, a community centre, and talk to each other face to face. Real people. Real settings. Anyone who crossed the line into self-promotion, shouting louder than others, or being the bloke with the only opinion in the pub, didn’t last too long. Because actually most people don’t much like that.
This morning, I was walking Rowan up the hill on Castle Terrace, when I saw a young man walking towards me and a young woman on a bike, both on the pavement. Given Rowan’s overgrown puppy propensity to pull on his lead, I moved into a driveway to let them past. At the same time, the young woman steered her bike on to the road. “Thank you” I said politely. Neither returned so much as a smile or a grunt of acknowledgement.
That isn’t a pop at young people, because people of all ages have become generally ignorant, impolite, defensive and inclusive, and would much rather avoid contact with other human beings, as if it’s a difficult thing even to contemplate. They would far rather look into a rectangle of metal or plastic and engage only in 2D. It’s weird.
Yet people talk a good game. They clap for nurses, encourage us to look after old people in our neighbourhoods, and engender a sense of what these days is loosely known as ‘community’. It’s all distant stuff that can help to make us feel good about ourselves. We can retreat behind our screens for the real work to be done by others. The stark reality is that human beings have become endemically selfish.
Human beings are not designed to live in isolation. Isolation is one of the main causes of mental health problems. So it’s actually much more weird to spend our lives hiding behind a screen. It absolutely isn’t weird to hold the door open for someone, to step out of the way to let someone pass, to pass the time of day in the street, to engage in conversation with others on a bus or train ride, to open a conversation in a pub. So why do I sense people think I’m the weirdo when I do any of those things? The fact is, I’m not:
“Is it me who’s the maverick, expecting far too much
From life and the living and other such and such?
Is it me who’s the maverick or is it you?
Is it me who’s the maverick – or is it you?”
That’s the chorus from the second song on my forthcoming album “A Proliferation Of Pointlessness” for which there will be a Listening Party at 6pm (UK time) on Friday 29th August on https://www.youtube.com/@johnreed-music/videos Book it in your diary. It’s an album that mixes personal songs with observations about the way in which we currently live our lives. We all really need to wake up.
Peace.
John