This morning over coffee I was discussing with my husband a particularly toxic behaviour and atmosphere in our work realm. I told him that even if we were to walk away today, we will always have our legacy, that no one could take away what we have achieved in the last decade.
With a sad face, he pointed out to me, that while he wished to agree with me, what is happening in the world, Trumpism in particular, is showing us daily that history is being re-written and that nothing even rights or facts can be taken for granted.
The next sip of coffee was sour.
But let’s think about it. How much is our modern society relying on digital content to tell, share and record its History? Yet how fragile are these archives? We are seeing with with Twitter, X, Meta. All it takes, all it took, is one bruised and fragile ego and information is either gone or worse re-written.
As a by-product of the above, the fragility and volatility of the archives is the best fuel for gaslighting. Especially for women. They are often guilty of referring to facts when they want to argue and often avoid relying on instincts at the risk of being called hormonal and hysterical. Yet what happens if the “objectivity of facts” depends on structures which are are reliable as a sandy castle?
People have been swapping platforms but what will stop these platforms from being bought and for the X/Meta story to repeat itself?
My invitation to you reader, is to grab a good old notebook and pen and to Journal. Record your thoughts however futile, record your life, record your achievements, your fears, your dreams, notebooks can be burned like books and witches but in our current climate it seems that everyone has the responsibility of being the guardian of their own archives.
I have had one form or an other of a journal since I was a child and I am wondering today if journaling is more than ever an act of resistance?
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