Part 60
Have you reached your tipping point? If so, which way will you tip?
We are globally at that tipping point. I’m not talking about taking any particular political side wherever you may be -– that’s your choice. Frankly, all political philosophies have both strong and weak points, and sadly the weaker points are on display right now.
As events become increasingly depressing and as we are being herded into our own unique bubbles, I’m reminded of a movie made many years ago where a boy’s immune system had collapsed and he was put into a large plastic bubble, so that he could not pick up any bacteria from anyone or anything else. The movie, as I recall it, explores what it was like for the boy trapped in the bubble. He could see his family and friends. He could talk to them but there was no way he could reach out and touch them or be touched. There was nothing of that priceless commodity, human contact and interaction, other than for him to look out frustrated and angry at a world passing him by.
Is our current status much better? Yes, we can open up a laptop, go on to the Internet and receive endless flows of data, as well as misleading news and conspiracy theories, some of which may be deadly accurate, but how can we be sure? That still doesn’t allow for human interaction.
The truth lies under a morass of twisted and perverted facts and figures. We have reached the point where it’s almost impossible to be certain what is true and what is false. On a scale of knowing something with certainty, then falling down to a point of complete mystery, we are mostly in the latter condition.
We are then bombarded with bombastic statements from all directions, asserting that such and such has to be true and everyone else is lying. Sadly, in most cases there’s not one iota of proof either way. Seems like a recipe for schizophrenia to me.
What happens when one can longer decide with certainty on any particular issue? Our morale drops. Add into that our current retreat into bubbles. Is it any wonder that more and more people are giving up on life as it stands?
If you feel that all is lost, then the forces that are steering us this way have won. We are in line to become totally subservient to whatever authoritarian governing body may be in the driver’s seat!
Let’s hold it right there! The human spirit is potentially immensely strong, provided that we do not allow conditions to drive us into despair.
We must reverse that tipping point, no matter how impossible it may seem. We must remind ourselves of when in the past we have stood tall and strong – when we said “No more!” The majority of us have experienced such moments. No matter how impossible the odds seem to be, we can, by the power of our collective agreement, reverse the dwindling spiral on humankind’s demise.
Forget about moping around and complaining about the ridiculous situation we find ourselves in right now. Stand up, be bold again and fight for the survival of the human race. By that I don’t mean going out and giving someone a bloody nose or worse, shooting them. That’s no solution, although there have been occasions when brute force was necessary. However, in this instance, we need to use our good sense and strengthen our backbones for our current fight. It is vitally important to remember our own innate strengths and join with others of a like mind to rise above these artificial barriers imposed upon us.
I keep coming back to my childhood in World War Two in Britain, when I was aware of the unflinching courage of the men and women around me. I recall people of the South East saying that they would face the might of the Nazi forces with pitchforks and shovels if necessary. On a larger scale, the incredible bravery of the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots in the Battle of Britain who, vastly outnumbered, fought with the ferocity of those who simply would not give up and went on to destroy the massive bombing raid that was to be the precursor to the invasion of this little island. In the event, due to the heavy losses incurred by the bombers and their inability to soften up resistance, Hitler postponed the invasion, a fatal mistake on his part!
I recall a sailing dinghy race in Durban harbour on a wet and stormy weekend. I was crewing for a former school friend Nick Hancock. At the start of the race, the weather was foul but manageable. However, halfway through, a sudden gale bore down upon the eighteen boats in the race, capsizing many of them and causing others to run for cover.
Nick and I looked at each and shook our heads. “Let’s keep going,” we said.
I spent much of the rest of the race bailing the incoming water out of the boat, threatening to sink us at any moment while tending to my foresail at the same time, which was mostly the only canvas we dared hoist in those near hurricane-force winds.
We finally crossed the finish line, wet, frozen, bedraggled but triumphant. On enquiring with the Commodore of the Yacht Club, our position at the end of the race, we were told that we were the only dinghy to finish and we had therefore won. Our triumph went up a notch. We were also thankful to hear that no lives had been lost in the other craft.
Sheer bloody-minded persistence carried us through. That’s a quality we need today. I’m sure all of you can recall a similar battle against the odds when you emerged triumphant. That’s exactly what is needed now.
Another positive element in success is the alignment of purposes. Instead of us going off in all directions, some of them well-meaning but often futile, we as a group, the ExoTech group, should all point in the same direction, namely the successful launch of the ExoBrain. We must also hold to our firm belief that our life conditions should and must improve. Then we can and will win through!
ExoTech will not cure COVID-19 but it will bring a sense of cohesion and relief to all those who have been struggling with the monster called computing over the years. It will also clean up a segment of our lives that has become both a necessity and an albatross around our necks. When one considers the enormous effects electronic media are having upon our lives at present, it is no small segment. It is the vital communication link which, if cleaned up, may allow us once again to make value judgements based on data we can believe in.
To allow the tipping point to tip the other way, is an event too ghastly to contemplate!!!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.