Inside People in an Outside World

Mt. Agung eruption 2017.  I was staying on the island of Gili Trawangan as the volcano erupted in Bali, Indonesia.

The event lasted a couple of days and put life on pause for about a week as we prepared for the potential for a larger eruption, which did not happen.   

The following down-turn in economy due to media and false and late posts on social media lasted months and spanned across the thousands of islands in Indonesia.

The world is beginning to have two new separate groups of people, who see the world from a very different viewpoint.  


There are those who go outside and do things.  They go out to the park, to parties and attend events.  They love riding a bike, going on a hike, or dancing all weekend long at a festival.  They learn new skills like how to play a guitar to play with other people in a band. They meet new people, they travel, and they may enjoy the beach, the forest, or the desert.  They value experiences and conversations with people with different experiences.  They want to do, see, hear, and feel it all.  They like to feel the sun on their face and the wind pushing on their back.


There is another group of people who stay mostly inside.  They often hate the sun, the sand, and most of the natural elements.  Their skin itches easily, their nose gets irritated, and the wind and sun makes their eyes water and they love, love, love the TV.  They learn by watching videos of outside people doing outside stuff and form their view of the world by documentaries, expert opinions, and videos of someone else doing the things they don’t want to try for themselves.  They value the news, enjoy watching sports and they’re often foodies, fans, and followers of all things interesting and important.  And the best part of being an inside human is that with all that time spent watching programming, scouring newspapers and websites, and debating issues of grand importance online, one stays utterly woke and informed about the world.  Ya know, the world, the one out there, on the outside.  


Fortunately, in today’s mediated world, one can become an armchair expert on all things outside without barely leaving the comfort of one’s Lazyboy and from that comfort of one’s Lazyboy they can debate and argue all issues of the world with other people on their Lazyboys somewhere else watching “all the wrong TV shows being influences by propaganda having no idea what the real world is like”!


The thing is that all these inside people with their inside experiences and inside opinions are screaming about the outside world.  The place that they barely visit and rarely even like.  No, we’re not covering the entire world with a plastic bowl for your inside, air-conditioning-conditioned, out-of-shape comfort, nor are we going to debate against your opinions of the places you have never been to no matter what that one lady on YouTube told you to be the truth.  Sure, the news told you to be afraid and raise awareness of all the scary things they told you were outside.  However, if you just stay inside, you can be completely safe and then you don't have to worry about us endangering ourselves with the outside world.