It is quite complicated matter so we won't delve deep into it.
Aw
Before I begin though, in case it may seem that I'm talking At you instead of To you (you = anyone) then don't be offended.
Its true about the media and the other stuff you mentioned. Its a frightening though really, the more I find out about human nature, the more I fear for the future. Everything seems to be going away from reality, away from nature - we seem to be forgetting that we are mammals, and living entities, and have the same weaknesses, faults and downfalls - just like any other animal.
The terrible (and unnecessary) loss of life after the Boxing Day tsunami proves the fact that humans have strayed away from nature, in favour of their own manifested reality. Most animals instinctively knew that something was wrong and managed to escape, but humans have sadly gone out of touch.
Don't take me for a hippy (or one of those druids that dance around fires..) But the more humans "Advance" the further they stray from reality.
Society as a whole has lost the true sense of being human. When was the last time you saw someone create something with their bare hands for the pleasure of making something, and not for profit? (I'm talking about physical things, not a string of 1's and 0's)
The essence of being human is assimilating with your environment, using your minds just as much as our dexterity and thriving not on faster CPUs, or a top score, but on our own creations, nature, and most importantly: knowledge.
What upsets me the most is the unwillingness of modern societies to accept that old ways of life are still valid and humans have not evolved in a few hundred years, this whole thing of living on consequence, and borrowing from the future falls in the same category.
Just a few examples may make things a little clearer:
Cot Death:Its no mystery - children need human
CONTACT not brain boosting cow&gate artificial milk proteins...
If a mother leaves her child, biologically, and emotionally, the child is receiving the message: "you mother is absent, she is either dead or has abandoned you" The Emotional contact is lost.
Humans need more than just food and oxygen to survive, but if you remove the emotional attachment, by segregating your child to a different room, in suffocating synthetic clothing, and feed it artificial food, don't expect too much empathy or love back. It's a wonder so many children survive at all.
Reaction based CultureWhy is everyone bent on fighting the effects of problems rather than the roots?
Say you get sick: what do people do? Get some drugs!
"Symptoms go, that means the sickness is gone too - Right?"
^
Whoever has an attitude like that deserves everything they fall ill to...
What's the point of removing symptoms if your body is still sick?
Granted, after a while, your body does overcome the disease, but in most cases, the disease just stops exhibiting symptoms, and turns into a chronic state - periodically reappearing in a modified form in your later life to kill you and save everyone the bother of paying out your pension.
If you've got the flu, stay in bed, drink plenty of fluids, get some fresh air and direct sunlight, keep warmer than usual, and in a few days you'll be better than you were before you got sick.
Yobbish culture is ruining our societyYea - more police will solve the problem, lets ignore the fact that people just don't have the facilities, or the brains to do anything else apart from binge-drinking and kicking the shit out of each other.
Instead of setting good examples, and promoting stable family life, lets make celebrities out of sluts, fraudsters, freeloaders, and psychopaths. What impression are people getting when a guy runs off with some young one, leaving behind a wife and children? Why is it so much more profitable and easier to live if you are divorced, in an unstable relationship, and have no intention of doing anything with your life?
Where's the "stable family" tax break?
Why are people allowed to reproduce, when nature has disabled their ability to do so (for very valid reasons: evolutionary reasons)
If there's something wrong with you, don't repeat the mistake. IVF is useless, if someone is about to die from a rare blood disorder, they shouldn't be allowed to have a child - regardless of the fact that it can be done. Boycotting natures inbuilt error control is asking for trouble.
And whatever happened to
fixing stuff ?
Why is everyone focused in on the idea of replacing everything in sight? Instead of actually fixing something if it breaks.
The problem is: things are getting so far out of hand, that you have no choice but to conform: Super advanced technologies are designed to be disposable. Granted, some parts are impossible to repair due to their nature, but if a wire comes loose someplace, you buy a new unit instead of getting a bit of initiative and a solder-iron - Why?
Why isn't there more drive in industry as a whole, to produce something Lasting, rather than something that will ensure a fresh costumer right after the warranty expires.
The answer to most of those questions is very simple, and paradoxically, not very scary.
Everything that's ment to scare you is actually made up, and most of it is blown way out of proportion in order to influence you inot certain actions and or decisions. Simple.
If the "western way of life" suddenly got wiped out, then nothing terrible will happen. People are starting to be frightened by trivial things like the cover of their mobile phone, the colour of their car's seats, and the imminent non-existent terrorist that's standing behind you and will blow himself up in front of you because he is all evil and wants to kill you. All Nonsense. If you don't want Islamic terrorists, maybe you should have respected their beliefs, and just stopped caring about "Converting everyone to the one true faith" and maybe you shouldn't have created & financed them to fight the "soviet threat". If you were so scared of communist, maybe you should have learnt what it was really like, and maybe learnt something for the future, by looking at their mistakes, and solutions, and seeing if they had any solutions to your mistakes.
This turned out to be a really long rant, hope it was somewhat interesting.
I'll leave you with my predictions for the future:
- Bin laden will make a comeback whenever its convenient to bomb another country through which a major oil pipeline (or some other form of natural resource) will be built to suck the resources from country X in exchange for frivolous green tinted papers.
- Girls won't sleep with you unless you buy the latest Nike shoes, consume 93.7 grams of mints, buy the latest chart-topping album, and put gel in your hair.
- You will die before you get to spend most of your pension fund (if there's a fund left)
- Global warming and the greenhouse effect will cause crops in the poorest countries to fail, but that's ok since farm yields in North America and Europe are expected to rise by 19%
And the one I'm most sure of:
- The evening news is going to report some awful story about some frivolous threat like "a heat wave killing thousands" or a band of marauding killer additives that have evolved intelligence and will wipe out all human life as we know it.