People mindlessly parrot what is conveniently served to them by the media. I also believed a lot of what I had picked up from the media over the years, like a steady drip.

Another part of me, on the other hand, didn't care so much about the doomsday scenarios. Nevertheless, I too believed in some of them and let myself be guided by them. Corporate advertising messages and government campaigns have always been extremely strong, and back when it was still cool to have a boat, a car, a house, a dishwasher and all the other convenient bells and whistles, environmentally conscious people were called names or ridiculed as "Fucking ecos!". In the 80s, my boss at the time was one of those exotic characters who cycled through India for six weeks, but of course he also flew there by airline first. Not so eco after all, is it? Anyway, for me he was a friendly and curious person from whom I learned a lot and I found his otherness much more interesting than the boring conformists from the village.

People don't get what you're saying here in your text. They, who have never dealt with the question "What is money?", do not understand anything about "currency cover" and "currency sovereignty". They are born into a world where everything is already there. You do what everybody does. And we see how people are treated if they step out of line even a little bit. It is precisely the common man who, in the movies, admires the one who doesn't conform and does things his particular way, this common man who, outside of the movie theatre, is the first to look askance at such a personality.

I agree with you that what the politicians blather on about is parroted. I listen to people who talk about "competing with China and the need to open up new markets" blah blah blah. I ask myself, "What does that have to do with your own life?"

I have no respect for those who make rules that they themselves don't abide by, but I have something against rules in principle that are artificially created and that basically just distort how people would behave if they weren't constantly mistrusted or put under general suspicion.

I've just come back from the country to the city. And already I feel confined and cramped.

I understand your anger completely and the indifference and complacency of those who believe everything that comes from the hierarchy always shocks me anew. I try to adopt a more relaxed attitude towards it so as not to drive myself crazy.

Have a good Sunday. :)