Today's Climate By Joe Hakim

As the fear pours out of every television speaker, congealing into the bitter ink on the headlines on the front of all the papers, we prepare ourselves for the hordes of paedophiles lurking around every corner, waiting to swoop down like vampires snatching babies, using their supernatural powers to take control of our PCs so they can hypnotise all the kids and make them perform a striptease, and as we continue to drown in paranoia, terrified by the thought of all the teenage terrorist cells, arming themselves well for the upcoming fight, guaranteed entry into paradise by bombing everyone into hell, working in suburban garages throughout the night to prepare their dirty bombs and chemical weapons, before they unleash widespread devastation to prove that they're right, all this leading to the time when we turn our heads up and look into the skies, at every bird as it flies by, wondering when they will bring the virus that will destroy the remnants of our day-to-day life, the final twist of the knife as the climate changes, and the mood of the general public ranges from dumb-struck horror to widespread apathy, finally descending into anarchy as the floods destroy all the major cities...

Stop. Just stop for a moment and take a deep breath; it's time to step back from all the overreaction, inflamed by the politicians and the people who control the things we hear and see, all of us living in this insane climate of absolute insecurity, the scare-mongering authorities undermining our daily activities, making us all believe the only solution is to lock ourselves away, and pray for the day when someone or something will come along and deliver us from everything that's wrong in the world, while in the meantime you just curl yourself up into a ball on the floor, because there's nothing more for you to do other than break down and cry, and try and come to terms with the fact that someday day soon everyone and everything is going to die.

Copyright © Joe Hakim 2006

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