An Era of Dissapointment

There is a heavy hallucinogenic twist inherit in modern life.

What I mean to get at is that as a society we tend to alternate between an oblivious walk about through the years and periods of hyper observation. Either way, we do ourselves a disservice. For instance, the past eight years in the country have been marked by one thing, a refusal to acknowledge that our professed values and standards had been cast aside. Now, today, everybody is concerned. It is still much to early to tell if we are going to find ourselves though I think for the most part, we are going to, for a time, check every motion.

How much of this is the collective thought of millions? Where does the individual fit into this? Can we honestly say that independently people are good, and in groups they have a weakness?

To answer any of these questions first takes a great deal of introspection. The problem becomes clear then. Humans have an amazing capability to all at once be self-loathing, egotistical, and altruistic. In fact, maybe these three things are the true flesh of our being. If a balance can be struck, you may find Zen.

When we want to look at the behavior of the masses we ask the statisticians. When we want to analyze the actions of an individual we ask the psychologists. But if we reverse that, if we ask the psychologists to draw a picture of the collective thought process. What will we find there? I have no answers, only assumption. What I suspect though, is that we would find a sort of group narcissism.

This seems to be the truth when you take time to look at popular media, in particular advertising media. Because of this, because advertising is directed towards the individual we can draw two assumptions safely. The first is that the individual is conditioned at some very basic level to desire certain things. Second, this conditioning filters back through the media, where it can play on those planted desires.

This view is supremely pessimistic. However as it stands, and this notion deserves a more concrete proof, we can see that at this time society is almost perfectly programmed in it’s desires, and it’s perceptions.

In this sense, no longer is there a difference between right and left. Center has become entirely meaningless. We now live as we’re told; yet part of that directive is some sort of individuality. Yet, even with this it is difficult to find individualism in today’s world.

My individual looks quite like yours.