Daniel Sage
We are nearing the end of one of the craziest years in memory, an early contender for weird year of the century, and possibly as precipitous to our species as the year when an asteroid hit the Yucatán Peninsula and wiped out the dinosaurs, leaving the planet free for our little primate ancestors to grow big and brainy (and start taking over everything in sight).
2016: Tectonic political shifts, record population, a planet under pressure. Rock stars, movies stars, kings and presidents passed in droves. Global temperatures hit a new high. Donald Duck took the White House. Britain struck out for the high seas on its own. Refugees surged across borders. The moon shone blood red one month, and supersized the next.
The left atrophies
Aided by a sensation-gorged mainstream press, we see nationalist leaders adopt left-wing poses. The left atrophies, stunned, haemorrhaging power. The French may get Le Pen. Trump is a Neanderthal. A new normal is up for grabs but alas the rules of engagement are at an all-time low, with trolls, fake news and unfettered bigotry contaminating all discussion.
We’ve got used to living in uncertainty, knowing only there is more to come. No wonder comfort food is having a little revolution of its own. Restaurants mint silver from our fears, serving macaroni cheese and bread-and-butter pudding. Hamburgers have taken over every high street here in London in a swarm of oozy stuffed baps piled high and with every conceivable dish on the side.
There is something sadly punctured in the happy bubble of the capital’s multicultural air, a fear the party may be over, that the merry mingling of so many different cultures is threatened by what the grey suits have allowed to happen and a media-bamboozled populace voted in. Democracy itself, so long sacrosanct as an untouchable given of our modern world, wobbles like jelly in a rising gale.
Draconian
On this small island on the edge of a cold ocean, the most draconian state surveillance powers in the West were passed into law. Going further than in many autocracies, the new Investigatory Powers Bill, or ‘snoopers’ charter’ as it’s widely called, requires internet and phone companies to keep records of all web activity, emails, calls and texts for up to a year, and to make them readily available to a wide range of authorities who may want a peek.
Whatever it takes to stop terrorism, goes the official line. But, survey the wildly shifting government backdrop: it’s not a stretch to envision a far less rigorous use of this apparatus than our present mob says they’ll follow. The system has been installed. Big Brother can watch us on every channel. Even if the current lot keep their snouts out of our business, we’re potentially one election away from a snoopers’ paradise.
All this passed into law, amazingly, with next to no obstruction. A few hands were put up (submitting 96 recommendations) but not a single restriction or covenantal change was made to the bill, which is virtually unprecedented. The use of encryption, the one obstacle to the charter’s efficacy, is under review for a potential veto.
Distracted public
Now, only days after becoming law, there is an outcry. Hundreds of thousands of signatures already collected oblige Parliament to debate the matter, but it is too late.
The bill was waiting in the wings since 2007 and its timing could not have been better, with politicians and public alike distracted by Brexit, Trumpet and crises all around.
As the motto at the Conspiracy Theorists Association might read, you couldn’t make it up.
The freedoms and discretion the internet promised may soon be available only on the dark net, or by using special virtual private networks (VPNs), subscriptions to which are skyrocketing.
Meanwhile, a new phenomenon is shaking the knowledge tree with the spread of false information in fake news stories. Still a relatively low-key problem in Australia, where news comes mainly via a few major players, elsewhere it’s causing serious trouble.
Fake news
Some is politically motivated, such as stories about the rape of a 13-year-old girl by Muslim refugees in Germany, which caused demonstrations across the country and undermined pro-refugee prime minister Angela Merkel who is up for re-election in the autumn. After extensive coverage, it was proven to be untrue. Russia is the prime suspect: they are disgruntled at Merkel’s ‘meddling’ in the Ukraine. Other rumours suggested Merkel was in the East German secret police, the Stasi, and is Adolf Hitler’s daughter.
People believe this stuff, much of it garnered on social media as well as in the press, and then vote in elections. This year, major decisions in many countries have been coated in this dross and sewage. How to verify? No-one yet knows. But it does remind us that everything we read is possibly made up, or at least tilted and spun, by those with vested interests.
So… batten down the hatches, don’t be naughty, don’t go online, don’t get caught, change your name, jump around! And enjoy happy holidays. Let’s all make a New Years resolution to shine upon some positive revolution.
• A former Byron Shire resident, Daniel Sage is a London journalist and author of the novel Fall Curve. See more at danielsage.co.uk.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
