Geeks Vs Loneliness: be excellent to each other

A bit of a change for Geeks Vs Loneliness this week. I think it’s a bit of an odd time in the world, and it seems right to talk about that, and if there’s anything we can do.

The last four weeks, whichever side of the assorted big and small arguments that have been going on, have not really shown the world in a great light, I don’t think. Be it politics, blockbuster movies, cultural divisions or social media, it’s as if a big magnifying glass has been held up to human beings, and there’s been some realisation that we might all be different. As if that’s a threat or a problem.

Geekdom has long saluted and embraced differences, and part of the fun of the geek community has been the debates, the arguments, the passion, and the coming together for a pint of large/cup of coffee/nice slice of cheesecake/add your own afterwards. Appreciating that we’re different, but we still have lots of common.

I know I’m simplifying, and deliberately so. Some horrible stuff has been happening online and offline these past few weeks, and I know from the messages many of you have been sending that you are as sick to your stomach of it as me. At a point where the word is tough for so many people, the prevailing attitude is one that seems to lead to more loneliness, rather than more companionship.

I don’t think that’s what the geek community is about, and should be about. I’ll go further. I think it’s incumbent on anyone with any kind of platform – including a little website like this one – to do something. We can all, surely, change the world one person at a time.

Because the thing is, so many people each and every week are doing so many good things. It’s just nobody bothers to report that. It’s the bad stuff, and the hate, that gets the headlines. And I want to do something about that.

I’m proposing, therefore, that next week’s Geeks Vs Loneliness is going to be dedicated to brilliant things that geeks have done in the past seven days. As simple as that. A great big feck-off clickbait-to-hell list of all the good things that people have been doing. And I need your help.

Has someone been kind to you? Have you lent a DVD to someone who was having a crap time? Have you bought an extra coffee for someone? Then tell us. Mail us at denofgeek@yahoo.com or leave a comment here. Even if you tend to be quite shy, and it all feels a bit humblebraggy, I think it’s very much worth it on this occasion. Please: let’s come up with a bumper list of positivity and goodness. Let’s just list a tiny snapshot of the small nuggets of goodness that human beings bring to the world.

As for this week, I want to hand the rest of Geeks Vs Loneliness over to Ted Theodore Logan and Bill S Preston. People sneer at films like Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, I hear. But heck: they’ve got far more wisdom in them than half of the Oscar-bait that I’ve sat through…

One Of The Three Most Important People in the World: It’s you!

Ted: Yeah! It’s us![to Bill]

Ted: Who are we?

Ted: Bill, I think they want us to say something.

Bill: What should I say?

Ted: [shrugs] Make something up.

Bill: Be excellent to each other.

Be excellent to each other, folks. And thanks, as always, for reading…