Mind the gap

Hello again, dear reader.

In case you're new here, I'm Alastair Johnston and you're receiving this newsletter because you subscribed over at my blog or via a link from Substack. I'm grateful for you giving me some of your time and attention and hope I always inform or entertain you here. If not, please feel free to unsubscribe, I won't be offended.

Ever get those days/weeks/ (OK months) where you are just struggling? Where doing the things that you want to do, the things that make you feel good, or alive, or joyful, melt away and everything feels just off? Those times when you want to write your newsletter, want to provide useful stuff for the tribe of people who have subscribed and supported you and yet you just can’t hit finger on key? That.

I write here and on my website about stopping social media, not scrolling through endless news, opinion, argument. I write about trying to live a good life, doing real things in the real world. And yet, to put it bluntly, things have been feeling pretty crap.

Watching the world seemingly go to hell in a handcart. Seeing the standards of public life, professionalism, statesmanship, truth, honesty and compassion fall to the ground and sink under the mud and slime of the current technology, tech-bro, right-wing, oligarch, dictatorship mash up has brought me low. Not down and out but a bit battered and needing to retreat and rest and regroup. And in that place it’s been difficult to do much more.

But maybe, if you’re in a similar funk, I can offer a few things that have helped me a bit or at least acknowledge your similar feelings.

Oh, forgot to add, my “Unmachining” project is still brewing in my mind. More of that (as practical tips and ideas about how to push back) will be coming again soon, but for now my “normal” newlsetter will have to suffice.

Back to the “how to unfunk yourself a bit”.

• Force yourself to get out and do something in nature. Despite feeling a bit overwhelmed, I’ve continued to run 3 times weekly. I prefer to run first thing in the morning around my local park during the week and then add a longer run on a Saturday morning with my son. Despite sometimes feeling a bit un-motivated I can honestly say that I have never finished a run and not felt better about myself and the world. Seeing, hearing and smelling nature, combined with the enforced headspace to daydream, think and ponder is one of the most powerful tonics I know. And do not wear headphones.

• Read a real, paper book. Preferably more than one. Not Kindle (as it’s more tech-bro, privacy stealing electronic machine, controlled silicon). I had found my reading slipping, until I decided to just read 20 pages every morning. After a few days the habit stuck and very quickly I finished Elizabeth Oldfield’s excellent book on imperfect faith - Fully Alive, which I recommend btw. In addition I read something before bed. Fiction is best, or a story, not non-fiction or anything I want to learn. I’m following Mirian Lancewood’s adventures in Woman in the Wilderness as she and her husband Peter disappear into the New Zealand bush to live as pseudo hunter-gatherers.

• Fight back. Push back against those you are unhappy with. Do not accept their narratives. Rebel. Do not comply. Go outside and leave your phone at home. Turn it off. Be happy with driving without a sat nav and risk getting lost. Buy some actual vegetables and meat or bread and cook something not wrapped in plastic. Give money away to help someone or a cause. Hack your technology, bend it to do what you want. Refuse the cookies, use disposable emails, ignore calls.

• Go out into your street and smile and talk to the actual real people you live with. Having a whippet helps, as you’d be suprised by the number of people that will chat to you as you walk a four legged friend. But even if you don’t have a dog, go out and say hello to your neighbours. They and us are in it together.

• Notice nature. The photo above was last week in my local park. Yes the Bluebells are back.

• Watch the booze.

• Sit it out, it will get better. Remember the maxim “this too will pass.”

Here’s a few links to things I’ve been reading or watching lately, all loosley tied to the above:

This is What a Digital Coup Looks like - watch Carole Cadwalladr’s latest TED talk. then start resisting.

The Art of Poisoning Music Files - fighting back at AI’s theft of creative music.

Starting off the New Year without a smartphone - an older piece I somehow missed, but good reading.

How a French region voted to ban smartphones in ALL public places. Reading further I understand that eventually this ban was overturned, but it shows there is hope, there are other’s like us asking whether all tech is good tech. Vive La France!

Any new subscribers to my little newsletter, welcome. And if that’s you I’d love to hear a bit about yourself. What brought you here? What are you interested in? Drop me an email and say hello.

That’s it for now.

Be kind and live well!

Comments? Insights? Join the discussion or email me.

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