WHAT DISPLACEMENT ACTIVITY ?

There are difficulties with remaining upbeat in the light of the rising infection rates. Displacement activity is being stretched to the limit. I find myself wandering through previous entries, two of which were written seven years ago. One on 12^th December 2013 was a simple reprinting of the Journalists Code of Ethics. It is at:

https://fbuffnstuff.blogspot.com/2013/12/journalism-and-ethics.html

Loujain al-Hathloul

Zhang Zhan

Its main headings are Seek Truth and Report It, Minimise Harm, Act Independently and Be Accountable. It would not hurt if some journalists and editors had another look at the fine print, nor would it hurt some governments and their departments of justice to have a look at the terms and conditions of safeguarding a single individual’s human rights and promoting freedom of speech. There is too much going on under the cloud of the pandemic that may pass by unnoticed. Some of it is reported, but only on the back page so to speak, after columns on the pandemic and its variants. This is quite natural, but one must not loose sight or sound of the back page. Women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul (sentenced to 6 years imprisonment) and journalist Zhang Zhan (sentenced to four years imprisonment) should not be forgotten, despite Saudi Arabia and China signing a $265m deal to fight coronavirus.

On another tack I came across a paragraph from the 3^rd October 2013 relating to the possibility of pursuing a higher degree in performance writing:

“I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in, would be appropriate in the circumstances. At the outset one feels a certain assurance that one is on a track little travelled by. The concept of innovation strolling around the brain, synapses happily engaged in thought, is a pleasant sensation; however, the feeling is soon engulfed by the plethora of ideas and references contained in the first text one picks up, and the pleasant feeling subsides from the realisation that the strolling concept of innovation reveals a cavernous dearth of knowledge and ideas about the brain. The synapses cease to tingle, the neurons hover and the transmitting pulses subside.”

The gaps in one’s knowledge are crevices that become crevasses which appear to have no bottom. The shock of it gives one pause. As a result, one indulges in a variety of displacement activities, the idea of which is to bring one comfort, and, by returning to one’s comfort zone, one will regain composure and begin again to tingle the synapses. Of course the length of time it takes to recover one’s composure varies from person to person. So setting up a zoom call, or pouring over an on line order from the supermarket, choosing the next Netflix or Prime movie, what book to read – or not- can exercise the mind for any length of time; particularly when the activity is in the cause of humanity by not going out and catching or spreading the virus. It is one’s patriotic duty after all.

 

I am also well aware that my plight is very much a middle-class dilemma. There are numbers of people who are worried about far more important problems in their lives than whether or not what they do to have some comfort comes under the heading of displacement activity. For this, I profusely apologise. Let us hope there will be some comfort for all in the new year.