We’re back to dull and grey here today, but it didn’t rain on me as I ran round the village. Probably because the cloud has moved back in it’s not been frosty. It is still cold however, 3° according to my weather app but feeling colder as there is a damp wind.
It’s colder in Minneapolis. Bruce Springsteen has written and recorded a protest song: The Streets of Minneapolis. Here are the first two verses:
[Verse 1]
Through the winter's ice and cold
Down Nicolet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
'Neath an occupier's boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Come to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
[Verse 2]
Against smoke and rubber bullets
In the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead, left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
And here is a link to the song itself.
No doubt some of Mr Trump’s people will dismiss him as ‘just a singer’ but we need those singers expressing outrage. We need real, human responses.
Here’s a link to The Long Read in the Guardian, all about how we have grown used to over-using technology in our everyday lives. It is, as you would expect, quite long and points out how we are losing our physical connections with other people.
Here’s a small sample:
“While writing this, I dropped into a casual Indian restaurant I’ve been going to for years, only to find that, since my last visit, the system had changed so that you no longer say your order to a fellow human. Instead, you punch it in on a touchscreen even if someone is behind the counter. I helped the next customer, an old woman who just wanted a cup of chai, figure out the screens for her order. The process took us so much longer than saying “a cup of chai, please” and precluded any human contact with the servers, though at least she and I interacted with each other.”
Now, the writer is based in California where things are perhaps more extreme than here but it’s creeping in. Some examples:
Our bank is closing more branches. We are all encouraged, indeed expected, to bank online but sometimes you might want or really need to speak to a proper human assistant.
Phil recently purchased something online (yes, I know he should gone to an actual shop but it would have involved a trip to Manchester centre in the cold weather!) which turns out not to be suitable. He can’t just return it via the post office but now needs to go online for instructions on how to return the goods! That’s how inertia sets in and people order, and keep, stuff that’s not quite suitable.
I have railed at length about the automisation of supermarket checkouts. Even in our fairly small co-op store in the village as you approach the checkouts, you are assailed by a recorded voice on one of three self-service checkouts, instructing you to “present one item or swipe your Co-op card to start”. There are still two manned checkouts fortunately, which is just as well since the self-service machines only accept card payments.
Of course, a lot of people don’t even set foot in the supermarkets but do their “big family shop” online and have it delivered. It saves time for working people! Yet I remember being a working woman who did my “big family shop” in a supermarket on my way home from work. Not only did I do the shopping but I frequently met old friends and acquaintances and we caught up with each other’s news!
All the online shopping, the online banking, the online working from home cuts us off from contact with other human beings. And even that casual contact with shop assistants and bank clerks is important to our humanity. The number of people in shops and on the streets, watching out for others is reducing. And so people become nervous of going out on the streets; after all, the media tells us they are dangerous places! And so anxiety increases and other more serious mental health problems - statistics are constantly reminding us of the high percentage of men, women and children with ‘issues’!
They say that it takes a village to raise a child. Well surely it also takes a community to keep us all sane. I have a nodding acquaintance with a large number of people in our local community. I am more likely to know their dogs’ names than the people’s names but still we stop and chat and look out for each other.
We need more of that and less IT-based stuff. IT generated girlfriends / boyfriends/ friends / advisors / therapists can only replace people to a limited extent! That’s my opinion, at least!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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