Au Contraire

I am sort of a contrarian. In some things.

There's headlines all over the place of heinous crimes done and thwarted.

This is the history of our world, but it sure seems like a lot of them lately. A literal doom scroll.

And one of the things you see all the time is, such and such happened.

Tragedy happened.

Or, better, tragedy narrowly averted.

We got 'em.

There is no danger to the public.

Go about your day.

Nothing to see here, people.

It's the "no danger" part that makes me chuckle.

This illusion that hey, yeah a group of bad people were going to do a lot of not good, but we caught them all (we think, we're still looking into it), so go on about your business.

It's the oxygen mask falling down in a doomed air flight.

This reassurance of safety that to me is not so reassuring.

Of course, this is done for many reasons, some of them strategic.

Mostly, I think it's done to keep us in our little bubbles of same.

So what do I do?

I know that's what you're wondering.

Well, I'll tell you what I do.

You wanna know?

Really?

I suppose that's why you're here.

Okay, I tell my family, when the going gets tough, when the ess is hitting the proverbs, whatever you do, whatever happens: Panic!*

That's what I tell them.

"Whatever you do: Panic!"

We laugh and laugh.

It always brings light to a dark hypothetical.

I think these "no danger to the public" lines bring hypothetical lights to dark truths.

And you can't see in the dark, mon frere.

Especially with hypothetical lights.

...

PANIC!!!

*What? Did you think I was going to say I fight crime? Who am I, Aqua Man?