A call came in from a friend this morning after he had been kicked out of the house. Nothing that untoward had happened, but he had been in a grumpy mood and was bringing everyone else down, so it was better he took off for a walk instead of brooding.
The reason for his funk was due to it being the weekend and the sense that Monday was just around the corner again, with nothing to break up the difference between remote working from home and on-site living from home. I think he is lot the only one who is suffering from some kind of cabin fever and he mentioned a couple of times that "this feels like last year" as if something should have changed.
Nothing is going to change, other than people getting more frustrated, stir crazy and breaking down in numerous ways. The mental health issues that are going to emerge from this period of time is going to be insane, yet I expect governments to attribute it to other factors, rather than the rules they imposed to keep people safe from themselves.
It is going to get far worse socially and it might be that there is no going back for a very long time. When they are shooting rubber bullets at protesters in Australia, things are looking pretty grim.
It is interesting to note the glee in so many people at the situation on all sides of the issue. Every argument is polarized, there is no nuance and no matter what position you may take, you are wrong.
Everyone has and is a common enemy.
Divide and conquer.
The degradation of society into what would have been until recently a dtmystopia has been rapid and it has the full support of most of every population. Fear is a powerful tool and when used with people who have lost their ability to critical think for themselves, it can be directed into mass behavior with precision.
The media are of course making the most of it, as are the wealthy. This is the fastest rate of change of wealth from poorest to richest the world has ever seen. Trillions of dollars are on the move, being passed through the hands of the poor in the form of support, before ending up in the coffers of the rich through the many channels of extraction.
It is depressing.
Almost as depressing as the thought of a future of lining up to register movements and track purchases of pre-approved goods and services.
We are not on the path to mass improvement, we are heading toward mass compliance. Despite all of the potential we have at our disposal, the world is getting greyer and people are feeling it.
People like my friend who holds a very good job, has zero debt, a lovely family, a house, a couple cars and a great deal of opportunity under normal conditions - feel the pressure. Humans aren't cut out for this, but because the algorithms of profit maximisation are in control, human capabilites do not come feature in the equation. It is no different to production using child or slave labor to satisfy its margin needs and investor ROI.
We are products, resources and tools... And we are disposable. No company cares about its customers other than as far as the value they bring to the bottomline and by extension, no government cares either, as they are stooges and puppets, living in the pockets of the real decision makers.
Each day, the global landscape looks more like a science-fiction book or movie. A Brave New World, The Matrix, Soylent Green and a thousand television series have depicted versions of where we are and now we are living proof of life imitating art. It is like all of the plot lines of Black Mirror have been combined into a mashup and used to inform social and economic policy.
I sense a resignation in society now, a letting go of the idea that things can ever be "normal" again and an acceptance of centralized servitude. Many people who I thought would be critical of what is happening around the world and locally seem to have just given up and no longer care that they are being treated like livestock, branded, shuffled down the runs to be evaluated and grouped into what value they can bring.
If these conditions had been imposed two years ago, there would have been severe pushback, but now through incremental shifts and fear-mongering to speed the advance, it has just become the way it is - "What can you do"?"
Such is life.
None of us are truly independent in this world and we all rely on people we know and many more we will never know about for our lives and livelihoods. Because of this, we are all tied to the behaviors of the masses and we will all be affected by the average. Since the average person is averagely intelligent, in debt and fear-driven - it isn't hard to direct the direction the entire world takes, by targeting the behavior of the masses. It doesn't matter if you are in the average or not - everyone is affected.
It doesn't matter if you take the stairs or the elevator, they are both heading in the same direction.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]