Today, I got high and refused to come down.
And why should I? Have you seen the world?
You probably haven’t. Honestly, it’s so confusing. I understand why you wouldn’t want to.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me take a moment to share my thoughts.
Every morning, after not getting enough sleep, we wake up and become slaves to our devices. And while we are staring at the screens we all hold so dear (don’t hate me please, I spend so much time on my own phone each week, it could be a full time job so I get it), we are being bombarded with information. The onslaught lasts all day and deep into the night hours when we should be sleeping, causing us to wake up sleep deprived again, and the cycle continues.
We are assaulted throughout our day with information telling us to hate each other, not hate each other, turn off the phones and go outside, spend more time on this app or that app, our president is good, our president is bad, poor people are bad, poor people are good, rich people are good, rich people are bad, don’t eat the food, the food is fine for you, take these pills so you can be normal, these pills are unhealthy so we are going to take them away, you don’t need the pills because your fine without them, oh now you are a menace or too sick to function or you don’t behave neurotypically? here go to this “wellness camp” and we’ll take you away from society and “take care of you”….
The attack on morality, humanity, and decency is out of control everywhere you look. The ethically and morally grey areas are blending together so much that many people are ignoring it altogether.
I keep reading social media posts referencing our real-life dystopian conditions. It made me think.
One thing many dystopian societies in fiction have in common is a population so beaten down that they don’t even realize how bad things are. Many feel like there isn’t anything they can really do about it anyway, so why bother wasting precious energy on it? A lot of posts reference the Hunger Games, and why wouldn’t they? Panem and the districts are perfect examples of dystopian societies and control. The parallels are easy to see if you open your eyes. They’ve been clear for a while. Similar parallels can be seen in other literature and movies.
When I read the news headlines and then scroll past memes that depict reality more accurately, the dystopian theory hits a little too close for my comfort. Drink another Pepsi, scroll through the reels, and dissociate just a little bit more.
To argue against a dystopian reality, all I can say is that what you see is a direct result of what you want to see. Is it bad? Hell yes, for a lot of people. Is it good? Yes, for some people. Who decides? Apparently, whoever has the most money. But we’ve all known that for our entire lives. Money has always “made the world go ’round”.
For those of you not paying attention, Elon Musk owns the United States. He owns us all. Maybe not “officially”, but let’s not lie to ourselves anymore. Most of us can’t afford to do anything of consequence about it, so we don’t want to acknowledge it.
I don’t know, friends. What do you think? How bad is this thing gonna get before it gets better?
Cathy Marie Bown 