How Are You?

Morning, how are you?

I wanted to check, because it feels like we rarely take the time to ask, and that's something I find sad. As a Brit, the default answer is usually "fine", noncommittal response that conveys nothing but a "I don't want to talk to you about it". It's a sort of conversational wheel, designed to move things on to work or whatever we deem to be more important. At times I think we only ask because its considered polite, and a genuine answer would be met with consternation.

Certainly, I find that when I remember something someone's told me, they react with confusion simply because that wasn't expected. It's quite sad, that we are used to what might be described as benevolent indifference, and suggests to me that we're still trapped by our troop size no matter how times we claim to be as clever as fuck. More than that, I feel that we're told pretty consistently that we don't matter, and encouraged to live vicariously through the lives of the rich and famous. It doesn't really matter what sex or gender you are, our culture rides a very odd, and very destructive, line between jam tomorrow and blow the bank because the economy needs us to spend money. As noted in previous rants/essays/whatever you want to call them, we are much more interested in our manufactured worlds than we are in the actual planet. We live lives ruled by fiction and its only rarely that something breaks through into that. We are also limited, necessarily so, and unable to deal with everything our panopticon orientated world believes we should be able to. Part of that is that we forget that technology is a tool, not a process of uplifting us to be a better organism. No matter how great our electronics become, it's still a bunch of apes operating them. No matter what we imagine, we can't escape the limitations of our meat, or at least we can't yet.

So, why am I talking about this? Does it even matter that I am? If it's something that's tied into the meat, the DNA that shapes us, can we do anything about it? Or are we prisoners of our coding?

I don't think we are, to be honest. If we were, our species would never have become the dominant species on the planet. We have learned to harness our ability to create stories in order to construct bigger narratives, narratives that bound us together. We called them religions, or nations, or movements. The funny thing is that the most successful of them - the ones that survive into our modern world - do talk about caring for others as being an important thing. So it seems a little strange that we still suck at it.

At a time when mental health is in the news and as that link shows amounts to as much as 40% of GP appointments, perhaps we should drop our masks, perhaps we should stop being "fine", and just tell the truth. Yes its a big step, but if we aren't open how will get the help we need. Plus, the mark of a true friend is one that listens to you even when you aren't "fine".