I'm thinking about taking mushrooms later but I haven't decided yet. I am getting over a cold and I took an extra day off so I have time but I have been in a dark headspace lately. I don't think I'm the only one though. I've been looking around and the vibe I get is one of fear, apprehension, anger, and aggression.
I think this encompassing bad vibe is born out of the psychic scarring of our societies caused by the constant droning of the media's negativity, fear profiteering, race baiting, and propaganda dispensation along with prolonged isolation and the human need to belong. Its a toxic soup that we're all swimming in and I think it has a purpose. Can you say mind control and cult initiation rituals?
That sounds like some crazy ass Alex Jones shit right? Is it that crazy, though? The terms "mind control" and "ritual" draw some loaded images to the mind; like sci-fi devices and blood sacrifices but they needn't be so theatrical of fantastical. That is to say, if someone can control a narrative, they can control what people think and if they can make people think that blind obedience leads to salvation, they essentially lead a cult. If some shadowy, evil, alliance of the press, social media corporations, and the centralized governing authorities (as a hypothetical example, of course) were to conspire to usher in a new system of feudalistic corporate authoritarianism, in which they have greater control of the populace, their resources, wealth, and power (what little of it they have, anyway), it would be to their benefit to control which thoughts the people have and encourage blindly obedient cult like behaviors. Wouldn't it?
These hypothetical conspirators might choose to contrive some urgent reason for everyone to need to isolate themselves. The illusion of safety is usually pretty effective as means of gaining compliance go. They'd probably overreact to some perceived threat and tell everyone that staying home is their ticket to freedom from the scary thing lurking out among their friends and peers. "You had better just stay home and watch the news for important updates or else that thing might get you."
While the people are home alone, they look to the media for information and social media for human contact. It would be easy for these (totally fictional) companies to feed the masses only the terrifying and divisive information that they want they want them to have with the hope of driving their opinions in predetermined directions while also increasing their sense of division and isolation. The conspirators could also introduce scary "others" to blame for the woes of society. "If it wasn't for those people, we'd be out of our homes and if it wasn't for that race, racism wouldn't exist." Normally, opposing opinions might keep that kind of message from sinking in but that's not a problem because these hypothetical conspirators also control people's ability to communicate to the masses and can censor anything that doesn't support their narrative and label its presenter as crazy or racist which, ultimately, creates an environment of self-censorship through fear.
Finally, when enough people have come to believe the lies, they are blessed with the offer of salvation through a new religion; come to deliver them from their lonely, frightened existences. You must only accept the word of the media as the one true gospel, wear the holy garb, recognize that the nonbelievers are unclean and dangerous (and probably racist too), and finally, bear the their mark. "Then you will be free again" shouts the new missionaries to their would-be converts. The freedom never comes though. There will only be increasingly intrusive and oppressive commandments from the priests of this of this new cult.
I don't have the answers. I don't know how to fix the world we live in. I can't tell you what the right thing to do is. I know this though; we can't allow ourselves to be blind to the fact that there are forces who benefit from keeping us alone, misinformed or closed to opposing ideas because those things make us weak. The fact that they favor those qualities and seek to cultivate them in us shows that they don't have our best interest in mind. We should be cautious of saviors, cults, and anyone who claims to be the sole source of truth (especially if they censor others at the same time) and resist the influence of those who say we shouldn't.
Peace.
All the images in this post are taken from unsplash.com.