There are many and few words for these times, yet the picture is clear, a dystopian reality bursting forth like a long awaited global psychosis.

Collectively born of the various cultural wombs of our world, none are exempt from the effects of toxic narratives that affirm various prejudices, inequalities and systems which are essentially all rooted in the same core theme of mistrust, separation and control. It doesn’t take much of an honest evaluation of our human situation to know we have some heavily negative patterning, programming, beliefs, thoughts; whatever you like to call it, within our minds that inhibit our ability to feel good about ourselves and have healthy relationships. That is the most basic core effect which ripples out into a normalised reality of struggle and lack. 

So many of our people exist in a state of subtle or high anxiety, depression or numbness, social anxiety, guilt, shame, frustration, pain, self hate, alienation ect.; all of this drawing back to the one root emotion of fear. Fear is the basis of mistrust and separation and the latter are the cause of so much turmoil in our world.

Pain makes people narcissistic.

It seals the translucent edges of our individual bubbles which inhibit us from being able to reach out beyond our own emotional realities to empathise with and act from a true place of intelligence, lucidity and rationality; these honest definitions would have us reject or at the very least seriously question the motives of the governments who are using Covid 19 as a basis for the slow eradication of our rights. Today's palette is democracy with the sourness of tyranny, for if we were to have a true democracy we would be free to choose what we put in our bodies, where we go and to opt out of any breaches of our privacy. Instead we are being heavily surveillanced, censored, silenced and overpowered. 

We have become accustomed to poor leadership for so long most of us cannot even rouse the imagination to believe there is an alternative. A true system of leadership would give respect to the diversity of our world and empower the people to make their own choices and educate fundamental moral codes of respect for one another, for our earth and how to leave things better for the generations yet to come. We like to call ourselves an intelligent species yet any true recount of our history and our present reality gives no grounds to this idealism, instead we are a species of self destructive tendencies, greed, power and complacency. Not from the conscious however, for I believe we are more truly beings of love and kindness who simply have a lot of baggage and not much support.

So the chasm stretches deep and wide, becoming almost insurmountable; not between the governments and the people (as any mass threat to human rights should most surely stir) but ironically, the drama lies between the people and the people. 

Those in favour of the governments choices, information and general ‘do gooding’ for the population are angry at ‘the conspiracists’ for ‘threatening’ their own health. The themes of selfishness and stupidity, being thrown in charged little bombshells of hate to and fro as the age old story of war entails.

Regardless of what our beliefs may be about Covid 19 we should all be aware this is indeed an epidemic of fear.

Historically mass fear has shown us how such events like the mass execution the Jews came to pass, not by those in power but by the people's acquiescence. By the people against the people, division is the grounds of fear and submission. 

It is common knowledge that mainstream media is one stream of junk information fed by the corporate giants for dramatising, evoking fear, affirming racism, misogyny, you name it. And we accept it, we even pay for it. We become addicted to it. To take the Australian government for example, how much diversity is represented in the house? Well it's a small group of privileged white males with misogynist and racist tendencies. So how much diversity of thought, visionary and imaginative acts of a better world and future would come from that? You get the picture. 

So there lies a rebellion at stake in the strangest of times. No matter which side of the spectrum you sit, this is not about the virus, this is about the implementation of dangerous laws that undermine our freedom to live how we choose.

We need to come back to love, we are in dire need of it. If we are to find our bridges to each other, surely it would be built upon the shared vision of freedom of choice. 

There is nothing in our history, or present reality, to reasonably affirm that those in power in our global communities have the best interest of the people in mind. Those who did represent a better picture of leadership and a genuine desire to help the people, were mostly murdered or overthrown by militias. So we invest our taxes into the police force so they can force us into a variety of things we don’t want to do and aren't educated about, (you would think they would put an entire curriculum upon our legal rights in our education systems). Isn’t that a fine coincidence. 

The bridge we need to cross is from disempowerment (fear) to empowerment (freedom). There are a million ways to inhibit someone's freedom from the psychological to the physical, it is not hard to hide the subtlety of these actions for we are a vulnerable species whose main reason for existence is to be loved and to belong.  

Perhaps this year is like a single string pulled from the yarn of our tight grip upon known realities, a single domino cascading towards a kind of future we could not possibly foresee. Keep the faith in the potency of simple truths, the right to freedom, the need for love and respect.  Simplicity that can guide us through any turmoil if we come back to the heart and an empathetic reality, build and nurture the bridges between our differences and remember it is a fleeting gift to be alive. So use the power of your joy, the most beautiful expressions of our humanity - music, dance, connection, nature.  Chaos always precedes change and though this mess is sticky yet the pieces have not settled, the glue undried, the time pressing and unfolding before our eyes. Each of us, an agent of change.

So what change will it be?

Art by Seth Tobocman