Recently watched the Adam Curtis documentary 'HyperNormalisation" - that Patti Smith quote, all about people getting lost in their own little worlds, preferring a comforting distraction from the realities which surround them - disconnected from anything real .. caused me to wonder to what degree that apples to Northern Ireland..

The sheer, soul-crushing volume of bureaucracy in establishment politics here, the endless, mind-numbing committees and consultations that achieve very little beyond building a vast echoing cavern of alienation (in the estimations of some)

Is Ni politics so utterly impenetrable and irrelevant to so many - most have disengaged completely from it. Leaving space for something far less palatable to slither in and fill that void?

It's an uncomfortable reality to concede. when people are sick to death of the official channels, something else always comes knocking, doesn't it?

Are we losing touch with the realties of power , distracted by a combination of the flicker of a smartphone screen and a carefully curated spectre of "international issues" designed to pull focus from what's happening locally?

Watched "hypernormalization" a few days ago with a friend, the excerpt below caused me to wonder (in an NI context) how detached and alienated most have become from establishment politics & the realities of the power being  ceded through malaise..