Taken For A Ride?

Are we being taken for a ride into an apparently beautiful new world?

Do we see a sunset? Or the dawn of a new era? Is it a trip to heaven? Or hell?

In the greater scheming scheme of things (beware of schemers), it would behove us well if we were to ask some pertinent questions … are we being driven on a course pre-set, or even railroaded, irrespective of our wishes? Or are we in the driver’s seat of our own lives? How does it look from where you’re sitting? Does the view look good? A rosy picture? Or as scary as hell? Does it look like the dawn of something new? Or the last vestiges of a dying age? Is the picture they’re painting a colourful distraction? Is there an element of subtraction? Parts missing from they’re vision they didn’t tell you about? Isn’t that what happens when someone’s on an evangelistic mission? Keeps you distracted or focussed on the rosy picture they paint? A kind of blinkered vision. A trick to just keep you looking dead ahead whilst on this railroaded journey.

This trip we’re on, and meant to be enjoying or looking forward to, are we sure we are not in some sort of psychosis? Or a from of hypnosis? Do we live in a democracy? Or a hypnocracy? A digital technocracy? A thieving kleptocracy? Its all possible. But we’d never know if we’re being taken for a ride, unless we get to know the facts.

Passenger? Or Driver?

Are you in the driver’s seat? Or the passenger seat? Are you happy for someone to take you to the destination they prescribe? Or where you want to go? A destination of your choosing, or at least by agreement. Are you sure this isn’t some form of a hijacking? Would you know if nobody told you? Whilst your eye is caught by the rosy view painted before you, have you stopped to ask yourself if this is a version of the vision you had in mind? Or some other kind, irrespective of you? A kind of inversion? Were you ever asked? Are those in power using all the right words? But maybe in reverse or the converse of how you interpret they’re calling? Perhaps their charming verse and version of the universe as they see it has enchanted you .. to the point of no return? Is it a one-way ticket to ride? Have we indeed come to the point of no return? Did we press that bright red ‘stop’ button in time?

A technicolour vision

Looking at the pretty pictures or reading the glorified technicolour vision may all sound wonderful, using all the right words. But often is the case that the trajectory is void of detail. It is the stepping stones and the stops along the way that matter in terms of detail. Knowing who or what we might pick up along the way, that could compromise the trip or ruin it for us.

If what is being planned for us is seen as for the good of the collective, then perhaps there are danger signs in that light motif. Anything that gives you little wriggle room to manoeuvre, or even to change your mind, with little of no chance to exit the ride, will likely be not a good move and that goes against your best interests. For usually, once you’re committed to a long journey, there is little if any possibility of getting off.

Ask questions

Its worth asking questions of those we have entrusted with our future direction. Asking for information on the detail of their vision is where the visionaries often become unstuck and where you have clout. Where the community has power. After all, the elected or assumed authorities are supposed to be the arbiters of the people. It is your right to ask tough questions of your local services, whether that be your travel company, parish council, town council, city council, county council, regional authority, or even national or supranational governing bodies. For if we don’t, it may be too late to change direction or change your mind about the trip altogether.

Due diligence

Do your due diligence. Get to know not just the local plan, but the bigger picture or long-term plan. Where this super dooper overhyped trip is headed? If you are the driver, then you have elected to take responsibility for your own destiny. If on the other hand you are the passenger, then it is important to get to know the detail. Is it ‘just the ticket’? It pays in so many ways to know what the ticket entails … the destination, the route, who the driver is; who the company is who tells the driver what to do, and what the price to pay is likely to be. How is that money being invested or spent? And remember, just like a so called ‘free lunch’, with a free ride, there is often a catch!

Paul Heaney, February 2023