Safetyism Everywhere all At Once
Saw in the news today that Kemi Badenoch used the term Safetyism while expressing her desire that governments should be less reluctant about setting out a vision for society. Apparently we no longer talk of Risks being about the Rewards that follow them.
Last night I watched the marvellous Everything Everywhere All at Once.
I loved it. The film brilliantly conveys what it was like to stare naively, eagle-eyed into the Total Perspective Vortex of late-2010s Social Media. You discover at pace that not only is any perspective possible, but someone somewhere is earnestly living it out and how dare you suggest I do any other ya cheeky sod, come ‘ere!! Unable to look away, suddenly you’re urgently motivated to—and then able to—empathise with, to rationalise, to justify seemingly anything no matter how bizarre, ridiculous, or appalling it previously seemed to you.
And yet still there’s more, there are others who must be included, you haven’t yet done enough.
And then, oh look!, it’s morphed into something more. Survival. Learn the new rules and keep your own head above the water! You're scrabbling, clutching for your own breath.
And down you sink into this unexpected rabbit hole—spiral down an endless drain—the sense of your own life, your own perspective, your own journey shrinks away in fright, suddenly unable to stand up in the face of the onslaught.
The etiquette, heuristics, strategies, lessons inscribed by careful childhood tutelage, are now articulated to you—outed to you—oh no—as nothing more than fictive (you naively suppose) projections of your own self-perception. That can’t be right at all! They quickly follow suit, as they must—they must!!. Then, as a result, Society, Self, Distinctions, Categories.
Even God?
Shifts. Lurches. Dissolves.
You lie helpless (”fractured” in the film’s nomenclature). All sensations of meaning collapsed into the infinitesimal nothingness—the singularity—of Nihilism. Any possibility that a meaningful narrative might find a foothold in you—for you—now forbidden by the indignant voices that lavished a thousand discordant, cross-wise lacerations across your unsuspecting super-ego.
It’s Everything and so for you it’s become Nothing. But it’s a Powerful, Knowing, Seen-It-All, strangely Authoritative Nothing. Oh no! Your very presence now threatens to usher your well-meaning friends to join you in hell. You’ve cut yourself up, and now you must cut yourself off. Until you are.. safe once again.
I loved so much about the film. From the hot-dog-finger licking to the fully-grown men squabbling furiously over sex-toys with baffling sincerity. To the path of redemption via your mum—maybe she’s the one person I can reach out to? To the—*stands*, *applauds*—gorgeous “Nihilism flip” while in that sacred embrace—”We can do anything we want [together] because *chuckles* nothing matters, remember?”.
It all makes perfect sense to me.
Give this film all the Oscars.
Being concerned about safety is the starting point of every human. It is literally never a bad thing to share a concern about safety. No, really.
Really.
Safetyism, then, is the Safety concern gone meta. In a world where every view I am able to imagine sharing doesn’t feel worth the risk—this just isn't safe—in an important sense all I have left—all we have left—is Safety concerns. And as with any one-dimensional orthodoxy, once institutionalised, the vocabulary of the thing becomes the medium through which any message must be expressed for it to carry.
The only dictionary a child can use to vocalise an identity.
To state the bleedin obvious: Safety concerns only concern safety. It's difficult to learn skills like problem solving, or programming, or polka dancing by actioning only safety concerns.
You won't learn love, not the proper adult kind—the kind worth bothering with—by actioning only safety concerns.
You won't sustain a house, a family, a business, a community. A life.
Here’s the solution:
Turn off social media. Get as much space as you need. Even if it’s years. This isn't cowardice. This isn't burying your head in the sand. You've already seen it all, why keep returning?
Accept there's a human nature even if you don't know exactly what it is. Even if we can't agree what it is.
Start hugging your mum.
Have, or hang out with, some kids.
Attempt to reach acceptance about the things you'll never be able to relate to about your dad. Start getting to know him on his terms.
Accept mess and imperfection.
Wait patiently, in faith.
Watch as the adventure of your life begins to unfold according to God's timing.
And for goodness sake. Form reasonable opinions. A few unreasonable ones maybe. Plenty of them. And change them. And share them if you have the courage, or opportunity. The right platform maybe. Even if it rubs the Zaphod Beeblebroxes of this world up the wrong way.
Eternal life’s far too pressing to worry about losing your earthly life over such trifles.