I’ve been walking past this graffiti on the beach for years. Meters away from the surf and right on the concrete beach walk, it is highly visible to foot traffic but too boring to notice: a hasty, unimaginative execution in plain black dripping spray paint on a dystopian iron door the key to which has probably been lost for decades now. To its left an oleander, one of those plants that are impossible to kill. To its right a gutted-out payphone from the 90s that died long ago. It’s a perfect summary for a forgotten provincial town where investment in public services happens roughly once every generation. That oleander has surely seen the previous versions of that payphone in the same exact place, before they too, were vandalised.
Well, I don’t know what the graffiti creator had in mind, but today their words resonated with me. As this planet falls into disorder, “they” who create the disorder may be doing it on purpose. Everytime in history humanity descended into chaos there were those who suffered, and a tiny minority who benefited. Disorder is a weapon of mass distraction. It is often engineered to distract the public while oligarchs count their money under the table. Disorder is sometimes planned, strategised. That payphone? Was possibly vandalised repeatedly in order to procure more payphones, a classic corruption move. If only the oleander could speak..
How do we keep ourselves focused in the midst of disorder? Our new, fascist dystopia wants to keep us on edge so that we forget about what matters: the climate crisis. Human rights. Healthcare. Worker’s rights. Disorder may be their order, but this should make us more vigilant to re-focus the conversation on the things that matter, which are being taken away from us.
George is an author, researcher, molecular biologist and food scientist.
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George Tsakraklides 
It seems to be that people who want to get rich are usually control freaks who want their immediate surroundings to be in the order they want, which is actually just being responsive to their inner chaos. But because money allows them to keep their personal world ‘in order’ (surrounding themselves with ‘yes people’) they can ignore the increasing disorder outside their circle, even when that increasing disorder is their fault.