So Done With 2021...

So done with 2021...

... but apprehensive about 2022.

Even though it's January 1st, it sounds frivolous to offer the standard "happy new year" greeting. In light of what's going on, it seems trite... or tone deaf. Or somehow lacking appreciation of a new and very different reality.

I largely refrained from using it last year because I understood how challenging our times would be, coming off the unprecedented days of 2020.

Little did I know when I began using the phrase, "Better New Year to You" how much that would also ring hollow as the year wore on. Let me look back for a moment on what 2021 has been.

Frustrating. Maddening. Exhausting.

This past year — which I had formed in a hopeful frame only to be better than the previous — did not fulfill its potential. Not only that, parts of it were distinctly nasty in a way that made me wonder about humanity. Which leads me to confess that I have not been as jaded about the direction in which society is heading as I have been during most of 2021.

I don't have high expectations of 2022, but will always believe that things can be better.

NOTE: If you believe that the first day of January should only be reserved for unbridled celebration or if you don't care to read an off-topic post — nothin' about sewing here — you can safely skip today's entry.

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The Year That Divided Us

2021 made me more judgmental about human beings than I ever thought possible. On a near daily basis, I felt overwhelmed by inane idiocy from every direction.

Seemingly ordinary folks felt the need to demonstrate against seemingly small inconveniences in 2021. All in the name of "freedoms" and "rights". The same vaccines that couldn't be made available quickly enough for us in late 2020 were soon viewed by some as part of a conspiracy to inject tracking devices into our bodies. Actual, livid hate spewed forth as a result of being asked by our governments to wear masks. Self proclaimed students of history — who have had the privilege of being born and raised in the relative comfort of the western world — thought it appropriate to compare local health restrictions and vaccine mandates to the atrocities committed by past fascist and genocidal regimes.

Politicians, in an effort just to keep their jobs, were running around like proverbial emperors without clothes — literally, in the case of one former Canadian MP — hoping that we're all stupid enough to believe anything... and unfortunately galvanizing those who are.

We have reached a point where virtually any opinion can be floated out and accepted as fact by fringe elements. Meanwhile, the rest of us are being asked to prove that the earth is round... or that the pandemic is not a hoax.

And I'm not letting the "far left" off the hook when it comes to sowing idiocy. The continued attempts to placate relatively trivial matters with political correctness is exhausting. The more we try to convince people that we are all equal, the more pushback we get, since it is virtually impossible to promote inclusiveness without first drawing attention to the differences among us. Ironic, isn't it?

Grammar and language are also taking a hit from political correctness. First there was the idea that people can claim their own pronouns (as if they could somehow pin them on their chests), with the plural "they" now being acceptable when referring to a singular person. What I find ridiculous about this trend is that it has prompted folks who are clearly not gender fluid to participate on social media. I'm talking about married men and women in traditional families who have no likelihood of ever being mistaken for the opposite sex, finding it necessary to inform on their Twitter accounts that they are to be referred to as he/him or she/her.

Sheesh.

Then just last month, I came across an article listing terms that we should consider not using, among them "blind spot", "tone deaf" and "first world problem". (I've actually used two of those in this very post and I'm not going to apologize for doing so.) The gist of the the article was that we must take care, because people who are — blind? deaf? living in second and third world countries? — may take offence.

(◔_◔)

With extremes that seem so nonsensical on one side and dangerous on the other, it's no wonder that people are becoming more and more divided.

Which brings us to...

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The Year That Proved Social Media is Destroying Society

I learned of one good thing that Facebook did in 2021. A seventy-some year old divorced man reconnected with a former colleague who just happened to have been recently widowed. They are now enjoying a second chance at love. However, I am pretty sure that Facebook reconnections have also broken up many a marriage, so that negates that bit of positivity.

If you've been a regular reader here, you may know of my stance regarding social media. Since I first posted my opinion of it back in 2017, my views have only strengthened against it. In 2021, it was impossible to ignore the deluge of misinformation that was being spread via social media about the pandemic, about vaccines, about COVID cures... the list goes on and on. The Surgeon General of the United States actually stated back in July that online misinformation is a "serious threat to public health".

Unfortunately, the only urgency Mr. Zuckerberg seems to have about fixing the problem is to change the name of his company.

Forgive me my rants...

Most of what I described in the first part of this post is actually a direct result of social media. The deep fissures that have made their way across society would not have occurred without people having the (easy) ability to make outrageous claims — and then double and triple down on them — via social media platforms. It's led to "unity by rage" and the formation of alliances based on things that we are against, rather than things that we support.

The most troublesome byproduct of the age of misinformation is that we no longer value traditional competence. Instead, we give credence to "experts" who have gained prominence strictly due to their being the loudest voices online. Meanwhile, individuals who are educated and qualified in their expertise are just as likely to be ridiculed for their input as to be thanked and appreciated for their knowledge. This phenomenon is beyond comprehension. It informs me that humanity is circling a big drain, which makes me concerned for our collective futures.

There are small glimmers of hope. I recently read a tweet from someone who said that he'd rather give his kids Jack Daniels and weed than give them Instagram. More of us need to think along those lines. (Although you're free to play with the JD and weed part. ⊂(◉‿◉)つ )

A lot of what social media is, is an addiction that's bad for us, particularly when it creates instant outrage and amps up negativity. It's like booze to an alcoholic. Treat it as such and we'll all be that much healthier for it.

The Year That Delivered Climate Change to Our Front Doors

On December 1, this was the radar graphic that greeted folks in the southern part of BC, my provincial neighbour to the west and a place I consider my second home.

image courtesy of Global BC...

It was the third atmospheric river to hammer them in the span of two weeks. Can you imagine a literal river falling from the sky? While it was an established meteorological term, I had never heard it used before. To see the devastation that resulted from three such systems in a row made my heart hurt. (California was also hit by at least one this past month.)

The first one had already produced catastrophic results, flooding farms and towns and leaving a major highway with damage that will take months to bring back to full capacity. Secondary roadways were washed out and impassable, stalling an already tenuous supply chain. Some areas of the province were cut off from the rest of Canada for days. Grocery store shelves emptied in a way that topped even the early periods of the pandemic.

This is the same province that experienced the worst part of a heat dome — another crazy meteorological term — last June, leading to a small village going up in flames days after setting a new record high temperature of 49.6 degrees Celsius. Continued heat and dryness then triggered the wildfires that burned through the province for most of the summer. (Over the past ten days, some of those same areas have now experienced unprecedented cold temperatures... it doesn't want to end.)

The series of winter tornados that tore through the US three weeks ago — with one staying on the ground for hours, grinding through more than two hundred destructive miles — was yet another example of weather gone mad. A couple of days ago, about six hundred homes burned up in Colorado from fires driven by lack of moisture and hurricane force winds.

It made me think that for decades, we've been told that climate change will be a slow, gradual process before it becomes a major problem that can no longer be addressed. What if the past several decades have been that slow gradual process and we're now hitting the next phase? If we are in fact already past the beginning of a new normal, we need to do more — and do better — for future generations.

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The Year I Realized How Shallow Most First World Problems Are

I was in a panic exactly two months ago, thinking that supply chain disruptions would make it impossible for me to find a "day timer" for 2022. I checked my neighbourhood Dollarama first and could not find the version that I was looking for. A few days later I was fortunate enough to nab one of eight remaining at the Dollarama at the mall.

When I got home, I took a moment to consider how frazzled I felt about something as inconsequential as possibly not having a glorified calendar.

While we are being asked to reconsider using the term "first world problem", I maintain that many of the worries consuming the minds of people in western society are insignificant compared to those faced by people who might live "elsewhere".

image courtesy of Google Dictionary...

It's why I'm appalled by those who have made their fight against pandemic restrictions a field to die on, equating their inconvenienced lives to the worst periods in human history. The people making these comparisons have no clue what it means to live in hiding from officials who will kill them on sight, to have no idea where tomorrow's meal is going to come from, to wonder if the next roar overhead is going to drop a bomb that will take out their entire family, or to decide that crossing deadly seas on an inflatable raft is better than staying in their own native country.

To be clear: I don't have any idea what it feels like to be in those situations. (I thank all the forces in the universe that I don't.) But I also don't pop up on the evening news whining about how hard it is to get home from my annual tropical vacation as a result of changing COVID protocols. I don't go on TV to sue an event planner for providing the wrong colour table cloths. And I certainly don't poison the minds of small children by having them carry conspiracy theory signs while shouting obscenities at meaningless freedom rallies. My goodness!

I lament the increasing loss of empathy in our society. The inability to walk in the shoes of a fellow human being is a major problem. The lack of concern for the well-being of others outside of our own crew is a huge issue. The resulting self-centeredness is not a show of strength; it weakens all of mankind.

If you're the sort who makes new year's resolutions, consider adding one to your list. As people, as communities, as countries, as a planet... can we strive to be less offended by inconsequential things that shouldn't bother us and be more willing to address the crucial things that should bother us?

If you've actually read this far, I thank you; I appreciate you, and please know that I do wish you all the best in 2022. I also promise to be focused on sewing next week.

Until then...