[Rod_Cloutier]

I don’t know if it is just me, but the world seems surreal to me as of late. I don’t know if TPTB are putting subliminal messages on the TV to the extent that; ‘that everything is alright’,’ go back to your daily lives’,’ pretend global warming, peak oil, and other problems are unreal’.

I’ve noticed that other people around me are behaving strangely! I seldom watch TV so I would think myself less likely to be influenced by mass propaganda. (I've had nightmares recently that the government was drugging the food supply to make people passive and live in a drug induced stupor)

Yesterday my wife was watching the weather news when a car commercial came on; the commercial advertised a new type of luxury car that had the option of choosing whether to operate as a standard or as an automatic transmission and the ability to switch between the two. (Like this is a technological miracle). That to quote this rare commercial I just happened to see: ‘There’s never been a better time to build an autobahn in North America’.

I can’t believe the disconnect from reality when the global economy is still mired in the worst economic situation since the 1930’s, where millions are structurally unemployed for the long term, where both climate change and peak oil are looming closer by the day- that we need a luxury car developed where you can switch between an automatic or a standard transmission according to the whims of your mood.

Just the feeling walking around, or driving around my city; there seems to be a surreal calm, a ‘twilight zone’ type of shiver runs down my back when I see people going around there usual business as if the events of the past several years hadn’t happened.

Young people talking about their retirement plans 40 years on as though they will also get the utopian baby boomer retirement their grandparents saved for and expect to arrive shortly. Corporations doing long term planning for BAU, as if, they way of living of the past fifty years is expected to continue for the next fifty years without any social change expected. Soccer mom’s and dad’s, talking about the importance of their kids sports events like this is the most important thing for them to be doing, not, for instance, preparing for a future that will be vastly different from life at the peak of civilization.

I don’t know how many people I know who have separated as a result of the recent economic recession. Young marriages that don’t survive the stress of sustained income loss of one partner, epitomized by a woman that I know, whose husband threw her out saying ‘Don’t think of coming back until you have a job again’. Families don’t have the wherewithal that families had during the 1930’s from strict social rules or the church.

Am I alone in this surreal feeling?

[Crazy_Dad]

I agree with all of this though I question the need for religion.

I don't own a T.V. And yes I look at all the people running around consuming and going to the footy and think - boy are they in for a shock one day.

I'm lucky that my wife and I are on the same page. I'm done grieving for my own retirement, now I just want to figure out a way to protect my children as much as possible.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Repent', 'Y')esterday my wife was watching the weather news when a car commercial came on; the commercial advertised a new type of luxury car that had the option of choosing whether to operate as a standard or as an automatic transmission and the ability to switch between the two. (Like this is a technological miracle). That to quote this rare commercial I just happened to see: ‘There’s never been a better time to build an autobahn in North America’.

[PrestonSturges]

This episode of the Twilight Zone with Dennis Hopper as a white supremacist is very current.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx5vu5KLMCs

[americandream]

A social order premised around immediate gratification, simplistic world views, surreal fantasies and unreal expectations CAN ONLY but give rise to the fantastically grotesque. To expect anything else is to utterly misunderstand the nature of the dynamics at play.

[Pops]

I've wondered for a long time if people just get so caught up in their own little world they can't see past their noses or whether the majority of us spend our lives following the latest headfake.

I watched the live reports of the Loma Prieta quake from San Francisco back when and as the live copter flew around soon after the quake, I saw both the Bay bridge deck and the Cypress Freeway collapsed and the announcers said not a thing. It was weird to me sitting there and seeing the obvious damage to those 2 structures (2 of the 4 main exits from SF) and the announcers made no comments for what seemed like a long time about what was plainly big and important information.

There is a continual drumbeat of progress (call it marketing if you like) that is all around us all the time. "The Recession is Over!" - "The Market is UP!" - "New and Improved!" - "Live the good life!" - "Buy One Get One Free!" Throw in a few episodes of Wipeout! and American Idol and make sure the only downer is the celebrity detox story du jour and it's no surprise people walk around in a daze sipping a laté and staring at the pixels in their hand.

[urlhttp://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-consumer-confidence-plummets-on-job-worries-2010-06-29-102500]OTOH:[/url]

[ian807]

No mystery. Most people get *all* their information from television or web sites owned by the MSM, which is in turn owned by 6 major corporations worldwide (http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/001/Media/mediamoguls.jpg).

The wealthy who sit on the boards of these media corporations also own most of everything else (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlocking_directorate) so the messages are pretty tightly controlled.

In addition, psychoactive drugs (I expect marijuana to be fully legalized soon) and cheap food are readily available, for now.

So, to sum up:

Propaganda + cheap entertainment + cheap psychoactive drugs + cheap food = Zombies (a.k.a. "Sheeple").

Eventually, food stops being cheap. Electricity is rationed. Entertainment becomes a little more difficult. When, and only when that happens, people will start taking charge of their power and food production a bit more. They won't get a choice.

[oowolf]

It's called "existential nausea". I've had it all my life. It's that feeling that you're surrounded by meaningless BS. There is only one sure cure--an art like trout fishing. Other antidotes: "Naked Lunch"; the Chuck Jones' cartoon "One Froggy Evening"; the "Begin the Beguine" dance sequence from "Broadway Melody of 1940" with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell; the King Oliver recordings from 1923; La Maja Desnuda....etc.
Great art makes life bearable.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('oowolf', 'I')t's called "existential nausea". I've had it all my life. It's that feeling that you're surrounded by meaningless BS. There is only one sure cure--an art like trout fishing. Other antidotes: "Naked Lunch"; the Chuck Jones' cartoon "One Froggy Evening"; the "Begin the Beguine" dance sequence from "Broadway Melody of 1940" with Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell; the King Oliver recordings from 1923; La Maja Desnuda....etc.
Great art makes life bearable.