Constipated

04 February 2017

Conversations often bring up what seem to be the weirdest things. And then I think for a bit.

I’ve posted recently of the information overload I’ve experienced since the middle of 2016; it’s had a lot of positives and fair share of negatives, but I’ve learnt about, well, me.

Constipation is a term I first came across courtesy of @schmidt_fu on either 10Centuries.org or pnut.io and it got me thinking. I said I’d think about it, so did.

Constipation:

“irregular and infrequent or difficult evacuation of the bowels; can be a symptom of intestinal obstruction or diverticulitis” (Definition from iOS Terminology app.)

Humans have evolved to consume various edible items (and, for pleasure, some plainly inedible or noxious), to process them and convert into nutrients, and finally to expel the resultant waste. Ok, not just humans, pretty-much everything alive on the planet operates in a similar fashion. What differs between us at the top, and those below us on the food chain, is our insatiable desire to consume, process, and to, er… talk about stuff.

Yeah, a bit short of suitable metaphors here; ‘constipation’ isn’t a bad pinnacle, right?

But there’s only so far that balancing act between consumption and dissemination can take the average sane person. I gave up where someone with more confidence, more psychopathic tendencies would, has and will, advance further. I saw the effect on myself of the constant osmosis of facts and figures, and simply didn’t like where it would take me.

That’s not to say I removed myself entirely from the stimuli, that’s impossible. Avoiding Brexit and Trump though, it’s tantamount to acceptance, and I simply cannot roll over and submit to the propaganda machines rolling over pretty-much everything I’ve assumed would provide stability for me, my wife and, the reason large numbers of folks believe we’re on this planet in the first place: my 2 lovely daughters.

Though we’re not in the midst of an actual wartime, it’d be fair to say we live in times of unprecedented upheaval. And it’s all stoppable in an instant if people simply come to their senses.

Chances of it happening? I think zero.

So, constipation, a recap:

“irregular and infrequent or difficult purging of the symptoms of stress brought on by an information overload; can be a symptom of the obstruction of regular thought processes or a response to stimuli outside an individual’s sphere of influence”.

My sphere of influence?

Around 1680mm diameter.