PERHAPS we were always closer to our pre-historic ancestors than we thought. Most likely, it was intruding moments that enabled us to discover kindness and feel the fleeting emotions that led to more cordial considerations. For now, we are aware that all animals share emotions, awareness, and even advanced intelligence.
What has enabled Mankind is the ability to stare and question the Cosmos, and, in some cases, interpret the seasons, evolve with creation gods, and somehow develop an intellect that created demons and protective gods.

We have read of the blood-stained history of our ancestors. Somehow, we have construed that this creative energy that we call our God is within us. We have come to understand that our family tree is called a genetic stream at this age, but even with further clarification, that our children are not our direct genes, but also of those much older ancestors; even the ones no family likes to talk about… Oh yes, we only talk about the socially successful ones; not the scamps, liars and perverts. But their genes are floating around, too, and this age allows them a pseudo-reincarnation; if pseudo, it is.

Today, we have an effective tool called the Internet that is used to communicate and to provide freedom of speech and belief, and a bit of espionage. It has posted a revolution of values for many of us, and it’s tremendously informative. I had lost my previous phone, but information came up that was posted on my previous instrument in 2021 when I bought another instrument two years later.

Many arguments, if correct, surprisingly denote that we’ve retrogressed to a level of deterioration that, if not arrested, can be irreversible. We must embrace the young world and discuss the threats that they are facing. In the whole, go back to “old school values”: Who to talk to, who not to talk to; let them spend time at home, because some other supposedly safe place might have a ‘shapeshifter’ that “duh senior relative deh, protecting”.

We must now condition the next generation through practical logic with sound principles. The Internet can be child-friendly, but we must be realistic that other, not-so-child-friendly attractions also exist. Thus, they need your guidance, not your help. They can find what you don’t think exists.

Your guidance is your choice of content and other interests like books and games. Justify platforms of interest with your policing. It means that you have got to become aware by scrutinising. If you’re semi-clueless like me, get help on what to subscribe to; it’s not too expensive. But don’t just leave them alone and foolishly hope for the best. They’ll find all kinds of stuff you don’t want them to find.

The curiosity of the young is unquenchable; it is part of who humans are. It would be hypocrisy for any of us to say that we did not dare. I can remember in school, at about eleven or twelve years old, looking at a mini booklet a friend had stolen from a safe place that his father thought he had it in. The teacher was standing behind us, and we didn’t even realise that the rest of the class was also watching us in the back-bench. Though we were ‘wild cane’ punished, we still spoke about the imagery we saw long after, and how the teachers who did not close the headmaster’s door while we were outside waiting were amused at our Playboy booklet, and how our friend cried ahead of his father being called to the school.

What we learned in that period enabled us, as parents, to understand the edge between childhood and the danger of coerced ‘adulthood’; something too frequently abused and not considered. From the insensitive music in a minibus full of juveniles to the broken barriers of open conversations that should be closed. It will make life easier for us to understand from this short column and its title how to intercept what could evolve into an extended negative situation. If understood, it can direct focus, and help us to identify the “Shape Shifters”;dangerous folklore creatures that exist among us, that hide behind many personalities, appearing humanly normal. The ‘hunter-gatherers’ look back to the early human condition to do anything towards the triumph of survival, at any creature’s expense, among us today as part of our retrogressed human world.