The Facts of Feeling

In the United Kingdom, an estimated half-a-million people identify as transgender. That is less than one percent of the population. Similarly, less than one percent of United States citizens consider themselves transgender, around two million people. A recent census found that nearly three percent of adults in the UK identified as lesbian or gay.

In the States, over five-and-a-half percent of adults prefer the same sex or fluid unions. Western media is awash with articles and soundbites about LBGTQ rights and feelings.

The feelings of those who identify as coming under the LBGTQ umbrella are not the only feelings being spoken or written about. As the wealth gap expands, and social media turns John or Joanne from down the road into a 'celebrity', the middle-classes and below are voicing concerns.

'The meek', inheriting the earth, as the Bible alluded to many aeons ago, is now. There is a push for 'fairness' - whatever that means - for all. But fairness is different for different people. The West has been up in arms over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Yet a war has been raging, with scant coverage, in Yemen for almost a decade. Is that fair?

A lengthy 'public enquiry', here in the UK, after a tragic fire that resulted in seventy-two deaths, has seen much hand-wringing and bumbling apologies. The deaths were of poor, working-class people.

Mistakes made by businesses or companies rarely result in punitive financial penalties in the UK, unlike in the US. Fairness is relative.

The meek to the middle have been fooled into accepting platitudes and apologies in place of pragmatic action. Feelings have been sold to the masses as the most important facet of life. It is an easy sell. Emotion, for many people, overrides rational thought.

We shop emotionally, eat emotionally, react emotionally. This is natural. What one feels is often outside of your control. How you react, however, is entirely up to you.

Controlling one's emotions and actions are minimum requirements as an adult. It is something that seems to be getting lost in the West. Some feel children should be learning about sexuality as young as four. Considering many tots cannot spell their own name at that age, that seems too progressive.

The pathological need to discover sexuality is a real obsession of this generation. An unhealthy fixation on pronouns and prefixes is confusing a generation. Wanting to find oneself is all well and good, but a functioning adult, for the majority, needs to be a useful member of society.

A person's sexual mores or preferences have no bearing on their usefulness if the other modern obsession - equality - is to be believed. With every generation now staying in further education, the tools for being an adult should be easier to acquire.

Unfortunately, feelings and mental health have allowed many to find excuses instead of solutions. The saying; 'If you give a man a fish, he will be hungry tomorrow. If you teach a man to fish, he will be richer forever.', has never been more relevant.

The ability to vent is not a good thing. Social media has made it far too easy to find like-minded people to share one's grievances. Admirable people tend to be adults. They take responsibility for themselves, their actions and their emotions.

Their sexual preference have no bearing on their outlook. Feelings and sexual preference and/or labels are not the most significant facets of life. Admittedly, it may be important to the individual. In the wider context, sexuality only matters to the individual. This obsession with the self is destroying people.

Human beings are meant to socialise and not just in a carnal sense. Healthy relationships - hetero or otherwise - help all parties to grow and discover what it means to be a productive human being.

Instead of focusing on sexuality and equality - for 'equality' see domination. That is another topic! -, the older generation should be helping the upcoming generation deal with issues that matter. Government should not be looking at teaching children about sexual leanings at the earliest juncture.

They should be teaching the young about money management, interest rates and mortgages. As boring as these topics are, they affect many of us throughout adulthood. So many adults are frightened by mathematics, yet they are taxed between twenty-two and forty percent of their income. People need to feel affected by and understand what is necessary in life. Money matters.

In this consumer society that we live in, those who take your money do not care about your sexual mores, your feelings or mental health. They care that you pay.