Withdrawal as Resistance – A Recluse from News

 

Picture – Kings College, London

The world is bearing down on me. I can no longer endure the endless stream of news about wars and destruction, genocides and the killing of children—matters over which I have no control and can do nothing to stop. My health is being eroded; despair breeds depression.

What makes it worse is the way the media delivers these horrors. Headlines are crafted not to inform but to provoke. Death and destruction are narrated as sport with the same kind of commentary.

I refuse to be consumed by this. I have found a way of staying out of the world while still participating in its affairs. I shall not turn on the news from any source—radio, television, or the internet.

Or the continuous stream of forwarded messages.

I shall be a recluse. And I will not lose much, because what passes for “news” today is less about informing than about sensationalising.

Even when you ought to be alerted to something that truly matters—say, a meteor tearing down space onto your roof—the urgency gets buried beneath the carnival of exaggeration.

The alternative media, in particular, make a feast of every fragment: attractive, but empty of substance. Headlines are bait, analysis is shallow, and outrage is manufactured to keep us scrolling. The noise drowns out the signal.

So how shall I be involved with the world?

Fortunately, I have a daughter and young friends. I shall contract with them to inform me of any meteors, two-headed men, or other matters that demand attention.

They will advise me when I should sign a petition, add my name in protest, or lend my voice in agreement. In that way, I shall remain a recluse, but with trusted editors to filter the world and alert me only when conscience calls.

Iran War - The Burden of Knowing

 

The ravages of the illegal war against Iran are a heavy burden to live with while knowing our own species is capable of such profound barbarism. When we see the news of schoolgirls being murdered in their school, we aren't just worried about the price of oil or interruptions to international travel; we are questioning the very nature of who we are as a species and what kind of world we are leaving for our children.

We must also face the hard truth that we are not "outside" of this madness just because we are 6,000 miles away. Even within our own peaceful communities, there are those who believe that hate and violence against others are valid ways to build the society they envision. This toxicity knows no borders, for rather than find means to allow temples to be where they are, we choose to demolish them

Our duty as part of the human family is to prove that violence is not our only legacy. We change the species by refusing to become numb and by standing firm against the rhetoric of hate at home and abroad. We do it by teaching our children the tools of peace, demanding diplomacy over destruction, and practising radical empathy, dealing with our neighbours. Distance doesn't absolve us of responsibility; it gives us the stable ground to stand on and reach out. Every act of compassion is a vote for a different kind of humanity.

A thought for us all to consider:

In a world where conflicts can escalate so rapidly, how do we balance the pursuit of national security with the moral obligation to protect innocent lives across the globe? If the cycle of retaliation is left unchecked, what does that teach the next generation about the value of diplomacy and the possibility of lasting peace?

The Depravity of the War Against Iran

 As we listen to the celebratory explosions of fireworks for Chinese New Year, we hear those same explosives, honed to murderous perfection by the most powerful nation, being applied to obliterate another nation. There is no hesitation that children might die, deprived of the existence they were born to. No hesitation that it will destroy the people of their future if they do not rise against their leaders.

And the so‑called civilised world that had been for centuries doing the same, watch, cheering as spectators.

The war in Iran is not the act of a moral nation set out to restore the morals of another. It is not about nuclear weapons. We have heard all that before, of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

They were all lies.

No, the war is stoked by two highly developed countries that have reached the apex of depravity – the US and Israel. And depravity has no limits. Neither man nor beast is safe from such depravity.

The Epstein papers reveal this depravity: men who create systems to seek pleasure in raping children, who see murder as an acceptable way to satisfy their greed for wealth, who wield power to control and expropriate the resources of nations.

This is not progress. This is descent. One per cent of humanity now controls over eighty per cent of global wealth, and those controlling it are not sated and cannot be stopped. We have lived under the illusion of democracy and other ideals, but these too have been corrupted, hollowed out, turned into instruments for greed.

Everywhere, man is born bound by chains. And those chains are not only political—they are economic, moral, and spiritual. Lives are shortened when those chains are broken, because the system is designed to punish resistance. What we are witnessing is not the failure of ideals, but their betrayal.

And the danger is not confined to one nation. It spreads across the world because depravity at the apex of power does not stop at borders. The same greed that fuels war also fuels exploitation, climate destruction, and the erosion of every principle that once claimed to protect humanity.

What is unleashed in Iran is a warning to all: when power is so depraved that it has developed a system to rape children, no one is safe. And yet, even in chains, humanity must resist. We curse the criminals, we expose their depravity, and we refuse to let despair be the final word. If they seek to shorten our lives, we will lengthen our defiance. If they seek to erase our future, we will write it anew. No matter how deep their depravity, we will live despite them.

Article – 28 February 2026