Friday, December 14, 2012

Mentally ill Society

Almost daily now we are confronted with yet another mass shooting.  The frequency is picking up and it will only increase exponentially as the economic depression accelerates.

http://dayssincemassshooting.com/

Only In the Idiocracy
This just in: there is no sign that the number of mass killings is increasing, other than that they are increasing. The fact that there have been a number of recent attacks may give the impression that they are becoming more common.  We await statistical confirmation, or everyone hiding under their bed, whichever comes first...


Having written copious posts on the failed economic policies that led to this inevitable juncture, there are other correlated but less-obvious contributing factors that will exacerbate violence.  Many will blame gun laws and rightly so.  As I wrote here ("The Last Bull Market: Machine Guns") however, it's going to be very hard to get that toothpaste back into the tube.  And as long as society had a modicum of civility and cohesion, then ludicrous numbers of guns floating around in private hands did not lead to daily massacres, which gave gun policy the plausible deniability that it rested upon.  Unfortunately, with the fraying of that societal cohesion and soon the wholesale unraveling, we are now witnessing the failure of yet another policy of the Idiocracy that seemed to work in the short-term, but will fail catastrophically in the long-term. Just as a few massive hurricanes convinced the fucktards of the Idiocracy that Global Warming is a reality, so too it will only take a few more massacres to make everyone realize that gun "control" (lack thereof) is a major issue. This society is as predictable as a 400 pound fat man lumbering across the floor to the buffet line, running over everyone and everything in the process.  

The key factor alluded to in the title of this post however, is the level of latent mental illness pervasive in this hollowed out and decayed culture. This mental instability is a side effect of a society and culture addicted to consumption and external gratification, having no ability to achieve internal gratification.  Over fed and over stimulated, once all of that consumption oriented stimulation goes away, it leaves people feeling hollow and empty inside with no guiding philosophy or internal compass to replace the consumption buzz.

One of the things we need to get back to, along with a balanced and sustainable economy, is a way of life not dependent upon buying, eating, getting, and doing and instead comfortable with the quaint idea of just being.  Some call it mindfulness.  I for one have been practicing mindfulness for seven years now and although it takes significant effort, it has transformed my life, my level of stress (greatly reduced), and my overall feeling of well being.  Many who have not seriously attempted meditation or mindfulness scoff at it, as I did for many years, out of ignorance.  Unfortunately it's impossible to describe how it feels because its benefits accrue incrementally over time, so it's the exact antithesis of instant gratification. It's also the exact opposite of hyperactive attention deficit.  There are of course many other ways to create meaning in one's own life beyond meditation, still the corporate rat race and globalized ponzi scheme are relentless forces attempting to turn us all into undifferentiated drones. 

Disposable Society Revisited
The third factor that should be the most obvious aspect of this nascent rise in ultra-violent crime, is that society can't treat people like disposable widget as I wrote here, and then assume there will be no consequences.  This latent mental disease is indicative of living zombies who have been hollowed out to the point of having no conscience or empathy towards other human beings, in line with how they have been treated by society. Not to make excuses, merely to point out that only a deep-seated pathology would allow someone to kill elementary school children by the dozens. It's a pathology directly attributable to a materialistic and void way of life populated by independent free agents lacking any connection or obligation to one another beyond the point of sale.

Again, to the greedy fucktards who got us into this mess, there is a price to be paid for this global human disaster some morons still refer to as the "economy".  We are only now just getting a glimpse of the future price tag for this catastrophe, and yet we are already getting sticker shock.

Unfortunately, we ain't seen nothin' yet...