Here We Go Again - Chapter 57 - Thats How it is

As we travel this great wide brown land getting to think about life, in the pursuit of happiness and other grandiose concepts, we are bound by an invisible imperative of what we are led to believe.

For Robyn and I it’s simply about wandering. The freedom to wander here and there as we see fit.  

Did Kris Kristofferson and Fred Forster have it right when they penned Me and Bobby McGee? 

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”.

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So the maddening throng travels, and it travels in packs, Grey Nomads and others alike in these times when travel within Australia is the only option for those with itchy feet. We’re in the Northern Territory now heading through Kakadu, on to Darwin and then on into the Kimberley and beyond. Freedom here is an interesting concept. Mostly we are free to roam with the madding crowd. The madding crowd itself creates all sorts of issues. Add to that the effects of Covid on the ability of business owners to provide services and the word Freedom comes with a different context altogether.

As many as there are Grey Nomads traveling the Northern Territory and Western Australia as is their want at this time of the year,  there are also young families, having to homeschool anyway, dragging their offspring around the country giving what I believe they feel is a much rounder education. 

And what a classroom it is.

For all the times under the awnings of a caravan doing the school work that’s imposed upon them there are the times when you can simply jump in the car and wander. Rather than looking at pictures in a textbook why not actually going touch and feel the real thing. Many of the families incomes are securitas particular time because of job keeper,  why not take the boredom out of sitting and waiting for things to get better, then hit the road and discover. 

The difference between a picture and a textbook and the wind on your face as you peer over an escarpment towards the great Kakadu National Park or the land surrounding the Winton Dinosaur excavations is incomparable. The difference between seeing it in a textbook and seeing It up close and personal, tactile is incomparable as well.

So we see the throng of young families joining us Grey Nomads on the track around the island. What stories these children will have to tell their offspring in the future, bouncing them on their knees, or perhaps even throwing them into the backseat of the car and heading off to show them the wonders that is Australia.

It’s a shame really that are pandemic has changed the outlook of so many to the point where rather than staying at home and being bored, they have jumped at the opportunity to explore and vastly enhance their education. While so many have struggled with the concept of homeschooling, by taking a greater outlook on life and the definition of home many have sought to take this opportunity by the horns. The result comes in the terms of memories. Memories that will forever remind us of times when things were the way they were, not because we had done anything in particular to start the conversation, but saw us react in a manner “ outside the circle”.

The planning of this trip for us had taken some time. To see the influence of the pandemic changing people’s ideas from that is simply how it is, to, how can I make the best of potentially a bad situation,  signifies the ingenuity of the human mind.

There is of course one huge problem with this type of mentality,  and that is the conjecture of the “Mob”. We see it time and time again,  the mob mentality, whipped by,  media, social media and those who believe they have a god-given right to impose their views upon the masses. Don’t get me wrong,  I’m not talking about overthrowing governments, or even looking to create civil unrest. What I am talking about is the continual bombardment of other people’s opinions  being disguised as truth being disguised as the truth, and being rammed down our throats.

There is a quote from Men in Black (1997 Colombia) that encapsulates what I am saying perfectly. “A person is smart . People are dumb panicky dangerous animals and you know it. 1500 years ago everybody knew the earth is flat and 15 minutes ago you knew that humans were alone on this planet”. You can reason with an individual but you can’t reason with a crowd you can only whip them up into a frenzy. 

That’s the way it is. 

That’s what the would be influencers and leaders prey upon, and at times, have led us to the edge of oblivion. The great orators know this, the not so great ones but have great speech writers also know it and social media platforms give voice to the Faceless Anonymous influencers, preying “ I read it on the computer therefore it must be true”. 

Truth – now there is an interesting concept. Dutin Hoffman’s, Bernie LaPLante (Accidental Hero – 1992 Colombia) “Everybody always knows what the truth is, like it was toilet paper or somethin’, and they got a supply in the closet. But what you learn, as you get older, is there ain’t no truth. All there is is bullshit, pardon my vulgarity here. Layers of it.” suggests there is a suppression of the internal mind when it comes to truth.

We know, as individuals, what “truth” is. Yet we choose to follow, and the mob mentality takes over and those who would lead us along the road of their truth, know it. These people are dangerous enough. 

Then there are those of course who simply play with the mob as sport. Much like the bandit described by Alfred Pennyworth (Batman Begins – 2005 Warner Bros), talking in terms of attempting to bribe a tribal leader with precious stones and the failure of the plan noted, “Because he thought it would be good sport.  because some men aren’t looking for anything logical like money.  They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn”

These are the most dangerous ones but they are certainly not the majority. There are of course the zealots, those with clarity in their minds, they believe should be inflicted on the masses in order that they comply. 

I fear for the youth.  I fear for those locked into not just social media platforms where those with their own moral compasses, inflict, and continue to inflict from the anonymity of their invisible pulpits, their version of the “truth”.

At what point did forming your own opinion become so hard? So hard in fact we have to rely on others to form it for us.

What truth is “real” and where do we find it? Certainly our news feeds have lots of opinion oriented inclusions masquerading as pure news, but in effect, all media throw and continue to throw their slant on what they want us to see and worse, think. All in the name of ratings.

Is “influence” what we truly seek in our news. Can we, as Brian Henderson uttered after watching the Channel Nine Evening News of a night would suggest – “thats the way it is”, truly know what is going on and how it affects us, and moreover how we should react.

The question everyone needs to ask themselves is ……. 

Are we truly losing our freedom – if the mob is any example we have already lost it. Are we inevitably seeing the loss of that which we lose because we had nothing else.