Fearmongering, Loud Noise & The Global Agenda
Usually in my day to day life I don’t like to talk or discuss two things, Politics and Religion.
Politics: a) Because I am not educated enough about the history of the world to make an informed opinion, and when I started looking into it, it looked like a theatrical act that the more I delved into the details the more I was questioning everything I know about this world around me, so I felt I’m better off not knowing.
b) You can never be right! there is always two sides of the story and opposing opinions and people see things from different perspective, so it always escalate into an unnecessary fight as both me and the other party are technically helpless and in the grand scheme of things, our opinions don’t equal to shit!
Religion: the connection between you and the creator, the ultimate power, the higher self or whatever you believe in, it’s a personal connection.
So why would I come enforce my beliefs on you? or you arguing so much to enforce yours on me…why does it matter? why is the people’s faith is so fragile that it gets shaken by other peoples opinion?
When I was younger I’d get myself into endless debates to prove those who’s ideologies doesn’t suit me that they are wrong and the debate would always escalates into a fight and the fight sometimes make us lose that friendship (also unnecessarily) but now I know enough to know that you know what! I respect your opinion and your beliefs no matter what they are, and unless I ask you specifically about your opinions about mine, I’m not really interested to know what you think.
Anyways, today! I’ll be getting myself into a sensitive topic, and it can be interpreted into different ways, but this is my opinion and again in the grand scheme of things, neither my opinion or yours actually matters :)
so calm your tits and just read along, or don’t!
Now let me ask you, have you ever opened the news and it was positive news? everyone is living at peace or a day that passed that not one place in this huge planet that wasn’t suffering a certain disaster?
I personally have never.
And I grew up with a dad who was obsessed with the news, my god! it’s insane! luckily dad was living abroad so I wasn’t exposed to that habit of his year around.
It was only in the summer when we go visit him for 2 months, so those two months once dad is at home, the TV is always on the same type of news channels, always the same things! X country Bombed X city, people are dying right and left, not people at this point..just numbers! 20 died in an explosion, 58 drown…etc.
And that was the background noise for dad, he would sit to eat dinner with that TV busting out loud all of these disasters, he sit to play solitaire on his laptop also with those news on the background, and it used to agitate me ALOT!
Because it was never a background noise for me! I cannot ignore a voice telling me 50 people were killed and I’d brush it off as it’s nothing and carry on playing on my phone. Bodies were being perished, someone today their life ended as they know it because they lost where they live or someone they loved, and that is an actual reality that’s happening Live now somewhere else in the world, and that used to disturb me alot as a kid and I grew up hating the news and avoiding it as the plague, and I chose to be ignorant about it.
But as I was growing up, I lived through the Syrian war myself, so I had to listen to the news! I had to check the facebook pages that are operated by the community to know where did that rocket fall as I personally heard the sound of it, so it definitely fell on a place that I know, and maybe on people that I know! So I HAD TO KNOW!
As when you are part of the crisis you can’t just turn an eye and say: ignorance is a bliss! you simply have no choice but to know, so I started listening to the news, reading about it, educating my self more on the history of at least the region that live in (I still don’t know much).
And then at the same time while I was growing up, social media started becoming a thing, it became the place where we spend the majority our day, and seeing the news wasn’t optional anymore!
It’s not like how dad intentionally used to go turn on the TV, put Aljazeera and he intentionally listens to it! no! it became in our faces where ever we turn our heads, we became unable to escape knowing about the news whether we like it or not, because its blasted every where! every friend you have on socials, every page that is not even related to politics (food & Recipes) they’d be posting their political opinions.
Escaping the news…is no longer a choice.
I think it has been a week where I wake up every day being super grumpy! and this is not normal for me, because usually even if a disaster happens the day before, I sleep and wake up the next day with all of my negative emotions erased, but it has been a week where I’m waking up angry and grumpy for absolutely no reason that I can put my finger on and say this is what caused it.
I went boxing, I meditated, I hanged out with friends…and yet I’d sleep, I’d wake up and my energy is low! I’m not feeling like myself and I’m just upset!
And only today that I noticed why! today I woke up and immediately the moment I opened my eyes I went on twitter to see what happened.
Because for the last week everytime I go to sleep, I’d wake up the next day and a major disaster has unfolded, so I was so curious to see what happened this time! and indeed something major happened and I found myself scrolling with half an eye closed, reading “Bombed” “X people killed” “X assassinated”.
I got up started my morning routine, did my coffee but this time I didn’t even play Fairuz in the background as I usually do, and I noticed for the last week, I actually was getting agitated when I hear fairuz singing in the background and I remembered that I subconsciously was muting her after maybe a song or two so it’s only the video playing on tv but no music, while I carry scrolling on my phone.
That’s it! that’s what happened! that’s why I’m angry! I literally have been consuming the news the last thing before I sleep and the first thing once i wake up and even most of the conversation with my friends are about that, even though usually we never talk about politics (who are we really to state our opinions, we are waaaay too incompetent for that)
So I’ve lived for 31 years now, and the news were always the same ever since dad turned on the news on TV infront of me the first time.
Nothing changed! the only thing that changed is the state of our humanity.
We started losing parts of our humanity because we became conditioned to seeing killing as if its nothing! we play video games that we shoot the enemy right and left, blood splattering all around, and it’s a game! a game that we get a rush of dopamine when we play and win! even if that winning is literally our fictional character just assasinated someone in the most brutal way.
Listening to big number of people getting killed, stopped impacting us emotionally as it should be! because its literally every where around us now, that we became numb! and I don’t care if you’d tell me that’s not right.
I’ll let you do a test, and don’t even tell me how you’ll feel, I want you to know how you feel.
Go watch a video of a dog being beaten up in a brutal way.
Notice here how you feel, your reaction, and your emotions.
Now go put any news channel and listen to yet another air strike that blew up over 50 people to pieces.
Notice now how you feel.
If you are honest with yourself you’ll say that the dog video made you so upset you couldn’t watch it, you had to skip, you turned your face..it just felt too unbearable, but the news channel reporting on that massacre, didn’t move anything inside of you, and if it did, then I bet its nothing compared to your reaction to the dog video.
How disturbing is that!
It’s not because we value the life of a dog more than a human! it’s because we were programmed to be NUMB! dogs being blown to pieces is not what the news play 24/7, so such a sight is so foreign to our system, but humans being blown to pieces! I can bet you now go turn on whatever channel and wait 10 minutes, within that 10 minutes definitely there’s a reporting of such news.
The other impact that the news have on us, is lowering our vibration! you simply cannot be listening to such disasters and be happy and chirpy! it’s impossible!
Unless you are a sick psycho (which now we have alot of those in the world with an access to a keyboard and the internet — unfortunately)
So when we start our day or any part of our day we get hit with those news whether intentionally or unintentionally, what happens? emotions of fear generate in us, anxiety, worry, sadness, a feeling of helplessness!
As what’s happening is too major that you as a human feel like you are too small and incapable of doing anything to stop it, and this goes on day in and day out every single day another disaster, another crisis, and what’s the outcome….we’re all stuck in a low vibrational reality.
WE ARE BEING PROGRAMMED TO BE STUCK IN THIS LOW VIBRATION
Okay that statement above will sound to alot of you like it’s a “conspiracy theory”.
But you know what? I’m actually a sucker for conspiracy theories and I’m all about that and seeing that this is my blog! it’s actually surprising that I haven’t talked about something that I like this much till now (that is — if you believe this is a conspiracy theory- for me it’s not…it’s actually a fact).
A friend of mine who is very active on socials talking about the war thats happening as it’s impacting her own people, and she’s actually one of those that never stopped talking about it all of the years that passed, so its not like this new Viral trend of lets jump on the bandwagon just because everyone else is speaking about it, so might as well I get involved.
No she actually was active throughout the years (which is something I respect).
So because I felt so helpless about whats happening, and because I’m not the type that shares on social media just to be part of a trend, not the type that sits and dwells out loud, I’m the type that likes to either actually help or shut up! like if I can do anything to contribute to make the situation better then by all means tell me!
So I messaged her asking:
“listen other than sharing on social media, is there anything that you are doing that is actually helping on the ground? Something that is impacting in a positive way the lives of the people who are suffering? Is there anything I can “actually” do?”
And I expected that this friend is definitely doing something to help! like it cannot be just social posting..right? RIGHT?????
The answer was:
No.
that’s it…silence.
There’s nothing that can be done, as simple as that, and I was actually quite disappointed, not because she is not doing anything, but because she confirmed my doubts.
Now let me tell you what I think can be done which definitely is a bunch of unpopular opinions but hey it’s my blog, my space to say whatever I want.
**1) Worry about your own people: **listen if each one of us worry and contribute to our own people, we will do way better impact on a wider scale as a community.
**Example: **I cannot worry and spend my energy being consumed about a tribe that I don’t know about in somewhere remote in another continent that they are dying because they have no access to clean water, when my own people, my own mom and dad, and families with kids in my own city actually have water shortages, and some can go days without having water coming in to their houses.
So should we all turn a blind eye and be insensitive about other parts of the world Lin?
Absolutely not! but what are you doing? like what you are doing to help your own people or other parts of the world other than wasting your limited energy and limited time that we have each day, on reading and sharing the news like a parrot, while providing zero help on the ground.
Here’s what I’ll do in the example above:
I’d go help my mom and dad and aunties for example to buy a water a tank which would allow them to pass the days of water shortages without them being impacted badly, and then if my close family are all secured from that aspect, I’d go ask dad to let me know of others in our extended circles who are in need and we can help, and then I’d give money to help them too.
Now if every one around starts with their own immediate family, then extended family, and the circle gets bigger and bigger, and this gets implemented globally, then the suffering will be minimized so much until its no longer a suffering and it becomes an inconvenience.
And I gave the example above about water shortages, but this literally applies to everything else!
Giving money to organizations so they can spend it on their marketing budgets so they can target us on Instagram ads with the most fake propaganda driven videos, is not how you should be spending that money to help.
That money is not going to the people who need help, its going to the pockets of those big corps that they are actually a huge part of financing what caused the suffering of those people in the first place :)
Let that sink in.
**2) Don’t be lazy and take an action: **When the earthquake hit Turkey which impacted Syria, especially Aleppo (my hometown) its an ancient city, and actually underneath the city they discovered alot of caves which basically means alot of buildings are built on what underneath the surface would be hollow grounds, so the aftershock of the earth quakes even though it happened in Turkey, it actually reached Aleppo and maaany buildings collapsed to the ground.
Now when that happened, those who survived had to seek shelter in mosques..schools…etc. like what happens when any crisis happens.
What did the people who wanted to help started doing?
Flooding those mosques and schools with food! somehow everyone just contributes with food! organizations also spend the most on food! and yes I understand eating is necessary, but when other countries were sending to the earthquake impacted zones (one of the initiatives I was actually volunteering at, and I actually packed some of those boxes) they were sending bags of pasta and rice!
How would a human who lost their home and everything, would be able to cook that pasta? like does each family have a stove? and gas? or even a space to lit up fire using wood? and even if they did lit up the fire, do they even have a pot? like would you run away from your collapsing building and take with you kitchen utensils?
Now you’d tell me communal kitchens, okay! in some places that was the case, but let me tell you mosques in Aleppo weren’t equipped with that, so what ended up happening, the very small portion of help that did end up actually reaching the impacted humans, they had to go sell it in the street for cash so they’d be able to get money and to go buy food that they can actually eat, not things that require cooking or equipments.
**So why did you say don’t be lazy and take action, how is that related Lin?**Because people are being lazy when they just go give money to X fancy name humanitarian organization, only for that organization to steal 90% of that help and the rest will be distributed as something unhelpful as the above.
So what can you do instead?
I’ll tell you what I did in that specific scenario, I have dad on the ground in Aleppo so usually I provide the funds and he’s the one that takes action, so dad and I distributed the money to help people rent houses, and a woman that I was already helping who’s a stranger by the way, I asked dad to reach out to here and see if she was impacted, turns out that this lady was indeed impacted, the room that she lives in with her 5 kids the ceiling collapsed during the earthquake and she was sleeping in a mosque for a week with her kids, and it was winter so it was cold and rainy, and they cannot go back to that room.
So dad instead of buying food to feed 10 people at a mosque, he fixed the roof of that room and that family got back to live in their home.
You see, if each one of us goes and find an issue and fix it, even for one family, then we will make so much more impact than going and wasting the money irrationally just to feel like that we helped, but did you really?
And I know that having the intention to help in the first place is something positive on its own, but unfortunately help is not being provided in the right way and its not reaching the people, which means no impact is being made.
So stop relying on others, and go find a way to help directly and even if you manage to help 1 human, then that is enough! as another person will help another human and it’s a ripple effect.
**3) STOP THE FEARMONGORING: **and I had to write this in caps, because it pisses me off so much!
Stop spending that much time spreading news! resharing! reposting! okay lets say you believed that this will help a year ago when the world globally thought that if they actually are vocal enough then they will be able to impact the political agenda.
But now after a year, after 100000 of protests globally, and 100000000000 social posts…did anything change?
No. it actually got worse! it got worse because it made people realize the reality of the situation is, that we are ALL ABSOLUTELY HELPLESS! and no amount of shouting, fighting or protesting will change the agenda :)
So now! I think its time to shift that strategy and go use your time in a better way to actually support the people and really make a change.
**How can we do that Lin?**Simple! we have 24 hours a day, lets say you sleep 8 and you work 9 and 2 is spent on random human survival things, then you are left with 5 hours.
Those five hours you can use to instead of dumb scrolling and reposting, to actually go exchange that time with money somehow! make extra money by offering your skills, your knowledge, you experience, your time…!! i don’t know but go make extra money and go actually help others with that money.
Alot of people are crying for help, begging for money to exit the war zone and as I heard it costs $3,000 for one person to get out. so if you go make more money and you pay for that person, and then another and then another, then you are actually changing lives of humans and that is within your control.
And even if you changed the life of only one! wouldn’t that be worth more than all of those hours wasted just reposting stories or stating your useless political takes? which is not helping anyone but those big corps that they are literally feeding off your attention and the time spent on their platforms, as they are targeting you with more and more ads and making money out of you and your audience.
Come on guys! time to actually either make a change or just shut up! I personally after realizing how horrible I’ve been feeling the last week and only today I’ve noticed its because of the news, I now decided to stop. and it’s not because I’m insensitive, not because I don’t care and I’m selfish.
No! because I have people who are actually in dire need of my help! whether financially, whether emotionally, or even physically. And I’m the one who should be working hard to provide for them and to be there for them, and even to make enough money to maybe manage to take them out of their misery, starting from my immediate family and expanding further.
So I don’t have the privilege of sitting and being loud on socials, I actually have to make a living, I **have to **help my people, **I have to **be in a good place mentally and physically so I’m able to be there for those who need me.
I had enough of this fearmongering, I had enough worrying. This is the state of the world from the moment I was born and it’ll probably be like that until the end of eternity.
The only thing we have control of changing is ourselves, so start with that and let the ripple effect do it’s magic.
Peace and love for everyone 🙏
