Had a mentoring session with Susan today. She was going on about how these days traditional media, social media, books, magazines and popular music overly sensitise us and encourage us all to think of ourselves as victims, and to wallow in that comfortable but impotent thought, rather than encourage us not to be. Her view was that most of us would be a lot better off if we looked forwards, instead of looking backwards, collecting, documenting, discussing and reliving all the ways we’ve been wronged. She said, for example, just because some pathetic sleaze bag wanted you to touch his willy years ago, why let that one event in your life define you. It’s no reason to live the rest of your life dominated by the idea that you’re a survivor, a victim. Maybe if you’ve lived through Auschwitch, Changi prison or Flanders Fields you could accurately say you were a survivor. Otherwise, apart from anything else, you’re diluting the meaning of the word survivor and trivialising the experiences of actual survivors.
Well, it seems to work for her.
After the session it occurred to me that I don’t know what to think about anything important anymore. I mean, is Pluto a planet or isn’t it?