The people. Talk to the people and you quickly discover many of them are just total downers. You know, it is sort of understandable, the news is generally not good. Lots of major stories with harrowing details, bad outcomes, tragic consequences.
Also, anyone paying attention can plainly see and hear that we all are daily being pummeled, and inundated, with total shite. The bad actors, yes, the evil-doers are busy doing evil, filling our heads with disinformation, lies, innuendo, and crazy-ass conspiracy theories. It is so easy to succumb to fear, doubt, worry, cynicism. Almost makes one want to just throw up your hands and beg for mercy.
What's a humble pilgrim to do?
I say, be recalcitrant, be contrary, show a little gumption and discipline, take the postive, optimistic path. You can just resist engaging with those thorny, hard to fathom, basically unanswerable questions. I say, just take a pass. Deflect and deflate at all times.
You can fall back on sentences like: Well, no one really knows. We shall see. Maybe it's not as bad as it looks. The future is unwritten.
Bad vibes? Worries about the present and future?
I say, fuck it, keep your head. Point out that there are plenty of people trying to do their best. Folks doing the good work in the face of darkness & adversity. Folks keeping calm and carrying on. I mean, match that picture of fatalistic bleakness with an exuberant Hope, Joy, Humor, and a certain self-contained cool. Be aware it might not go over well. The doom-sayers really want to wallow in their pools of doom. But you know, you don't have to join them. Damn the torpedoes.
