Sometime during the past decade it seems that mainstream western culture has crossed over some kind of terrible Orwellian boundary from which there is no turning back.
What seems to have become the new normal is a world saturated in propaganda, voyeurism, narcissism and indecency. Certainly a very large percentage of the population can remember the world as it was only twenty years ago. But it is a world that is receding so quickly that it is now a mere dot in the rear view mirror.
The changes have been both profound and insidious. Some of us heard a few faint but disconcerting warnings emanating from the wilderness. Something about unintended consequences. About racing blindly into a future of thoughtless and chaotic technology consumerism, and the effects of social media. By then the inevitable was upon us.
We are now at terminal velocity. There are no familiar landmarks; and no one can hear us scream.
RIP Howard Beale
"I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don"t want you to write to your congressman, because I don't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression, the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street . All I know is that first you've got to get mad! You've gotta say "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!" So... I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more!"
"Network" - 1976
Directed by Sidney Lumet. Written by Paddy Chayefsky.
When Jesus heard it, he said to them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick.
Mark 2:17
If 26% of the population have a "diagnosable" mental disorder one might ask what proportion of the populace could accurately be described as having an "undiagnosable" mental disorder.
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml
True self awareness regarding mental health is difficult to achieve. Our mental state varies from day to day, week to week, even hour to hour. We can become bored, exhausted, frustrated or cynical based on circumstances and brain chemistry. The operation of the brain is profoundly complex and subtle; and we must use the mechanism that is affected to derive an accurate observation of its performance.
The brain is a synergistic system which must be able to maintain a balance between input and operations. Too much input can overrun our ability to understand its state; and to little input with too much analysis can create feedback and distorted perceptions.
The human brain has evolved to its current state over hundreds of thousands of years. Biological adaption is a slow, slow process, and occurs over very great spans of time. Thus human biology has essentially remained unchanged for at least forty-thousand years. Our brain was adapted to living conditions and demands profoundly different from that which prevail today. Human biology and brain functions are almost certainly not well adapted to the dominant environment of mainstream western culture. The quantity and complexity of inputs that it is frequently subjected to must surely exceed its minimum safe operating conditions.
The great challenge of our time has become not eliminating dysfunction and risks, for that is quite impractical for most of us. The challenge is instead one of managing this risk, and managing the degree of dysfunction (illness) which results from operating in unsafe conditions.
Added to this is the fact that there are elites in business, government and media who now have heretofore unimaginable technological tools at their disposal. Tools which are designed and deployed specifically to create conditions wherein it is quite easy to gain influence or control over the maladapted human brain.
