How many do you think are reading TBP and pondering how a country with $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities can possibly survive?
“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.”
Neil Postman
Admin – I pointed that $200T figure out to a friend of mine. He called bullshit. Next time I saw him he apologised. He looked it up after we spoke. He is looking at the world through new glasses now.
$200T is around 30 years GDP or 100 years tax take. Gee, wonder when we will pay it off.
Why would any rational human being spend any part of their life, voluntarily, in a place like that? Maybe if there was a saturation bombing of your city and that was the only place to go.
That’s one of the saddest photographs I have seen in a long time.
An entire platoon of Isis suicide bombers could walk by speaking Arabic and no one would know.
Not. A. Single. One.
Looks like that just about everywhere you go in public today. Sheople staring at iCrap. They won’t even see the SMOD coming out of the sky! Wait till the EMP hits. They’ll go from docile, oblivious sheople to panicked morons in about two seconds.
Huxley described it this way in BNW:
“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
— Macbeth (V, v)
People look at me like I have 3 heads when I tell them I do not text and still have a flip phone. Fine by me. Not much situational awareness going on these days.
none of these people know what is going on, one bit. but if you asked them who is the best candidate I am sure many would have a strong opinion.
hollow man,
no one would notice the towelhead camelfuckers even while they scream about their “all their snack bars” right before they transport themselves to their virgins.
people today, either through SJW programming or plain ignorance lack situation awareness on a stupifying level.
I am on my phone a lot, probably too mich, but I actually am reading TBP or a similar news site. I don’t have Facebook, Twitter or any kind of social media whatsoever. I do read a lot though, phone or kindle. But better than TV. The problem isn’t the smart phones, the problem is a dulled down populace. As you all have surmosed, they are doubtless all engaged in some kind of social media nonsense, not reading something that might make them smarter.
That said, as much as I do read on my phone and kindle, not on that kind of setting. I won’t let myself get sucked into something in a huge crowd of strangers, ever.
Adult men that are still on Facebook are hopelessly lost
So, when are we going to start seeing TV ads and hearing radio ads and spam advertising rehab centers for these drones? Especially for teens.. I’m thinking there’s big $$ to made off of these pleebs. Can u imagine the fucking tantrum these fucks would make if they had to give up their iSHIT like a drunk has to give up booze when entering an inpatient center for 30-90 days? Sad days indeed.
I don’t care to talk to strangers much either, so If i’m forced into public to sit I usually read a magazine/ or kindle. The thing about the Phone addicts that bother me is the driving, the walking into people and walls and such. The number one thing is people going to “visit” others yet spending their time staring at their phones instead or checking text messages constantly. My youngest brother is likely a mild phone user by modern standards, yet he still just stops and checks his text message mid-sentence most of the time. I’ve called him out on it plenty of times and now he keeps he doesn’t check it unless its “important”. But the first thing he does after saying hello is go put his phone out on the table right next to him.
I’m like my cell phone off as much as possible and as an emergency phone. Another example of a great device becoming a time sink and yet another social obstacle. Humans are pretty lousy socially overall anyway, especially when they aren’t forced to work together out of desparation to provide food like the old days. Now people seriously do look like sheep, but sheep probably don’t spend as much time with their heads down as the modern phone-addict. So we have TV which pretty much helped destroy reading as a passtime and a skill. TV also helped lower IQ’s in a major way and create passive non-PFC mediated “thinking” to become the norm. The average kid watches 36hrs of TV a week as of last year, that’s just bloody TV, not Iphones, video games etc etc. The path of least resistance certainly leads to laziness and passivity for most, not some amazing creativity burst and people seeking out self-actualization. Oh well. Who would have guessed that the new gods of the 21st century would be phones, they are truly worshipped by the young.
Everything will continue working until it doesn’t.
That means the failure will give little warning to those not watching for it, it will just happen.
A wise man sees trouble coming and prepares for it.
Be wise.
I wonder if Huxley or Orwell realized how perfectly their two visions would work with one another? First you create ambivalence. Then you enact tyranny. The univerties are a perfect model for how the rest of society will eventually look.
“Why would any rational human being spend any part of their life, voluntarily, in a place like that? Maybe if there was a saturation bombing of your city and that was the only place to go.
That’s one of the saddest photographs I have seen in a long time.”
It is sad, but it is not about rationality, it is about addiction. One might as well ask “Why would anyone ever inject heroin into their bloodstream?” Only an addict can understand.
Addicts must hit rock bottom before they can recover. SMOD, EMP or Nuclear War are the only instant cures,but like most modern pharmaceuticals the side effects are much worse than the symptoms. The slower and more likely one is economic collapse and civil war. One way or another, I don’t think we will continue much further down this path.
“Nations are not ruined by one act of violence, but gradually and in an almost imperceptible manner by the depreciation of their circulating currency, through excessive quantity.”
Nicholas Copernicus 1525
What bothers me most is the reduction in conversation between people. No more striking up an interesting chat with a stranger on a train or waiting in line. Adolescents have noticeably reduced their energetic and entertaining chatter. I watch families in restaurants in silence as they stare at the Dumbphones. One of the unique qualities of being human is being squandered.
Speaking of, today is the 44th anniversary of Clockwork Orange.
Malcolm McDowell says ‘A Clockwork Orange’ is becoming reality, 44 years after its release
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/malcolm-mcdowell-clockwork-orange-reality-article-1.2516188
This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper….
I don’t believe it will end until there’s not one drop of worth left in the Western world. The looting will continue until moral improves.
OR…there is a plan that’s being followed and it will just as suddenly end. Either way we have zero control over the process.
Evolution in reverse.
Reminds me of a story a while back of a fellow North Carolinian whom epitomized I-tardedness and Zombie-facebook addiction:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2614151/The-happy-song-makes-HAPPY-32-year-old-woman-dead-Facebook-post-driving-leads-crash.html
Left out the picture of them sitting in cubes 10 hrs per day, then eating frozen dinners while sitting in rows of houses looking at absolutely worthless NYC TV shows 4 more hours. They have nothing to talk about but what’s on TV or at the movies or some incredibly bad band etc.
Where zombies live.
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I’m thinking of getting one of these….just for fun. I read where Japanese use them when cell phone conversations on transit become irritating.
http://www.cell-jammers.com/
Cell phones don’t work where I live but my daughter uses my wi-fi with her phone when she visits. It might just mysteriously be ‘out of order’.
regards
Went to dinner last week with Mrs. Peaceout, it was mid-week which is unusual for us. The place was a popular Mexican joint and was mostly full of families and couples of all ages. We couldn’t help but notice as we walked through the restaurant to our table that at least one or more people at each table we went by was staring at their phone. While this is not a new phenomenon we found it to be mostly sad. After sitting down we looked at the folks in our general area, a mom and daughter, a family of five with elementary kids, three high school kids, and a father with his son. All were engaged in some manner with their phones through the course of their entire meals.
The mother and daughter did not speak to each other the entire time both thoroughly involved with their phones, stopping only long enough to shovel another fork load of food into their pie holes. The girl no doubt texting her friends to let them know how lame and boring it was to be out in public with mom. And the mother seemed to posting things on facebook.
The family of five where in and out of phone usage. The mother and father were trying their damndest to keep a conversation going with their kids who were constantly text messaging whoever elementary kids text. Even as the parent’s obvious frustration grew they never once demanded the kids put their phones down. Why 8 to 10 year olds need a cell phone in the first place is beyond me.
The three high school kids seemed to have mad communication skills. They were having a very lively conversation while simultaneously texting non stop and eating their meal. Fascinating.
And lastly the father and son. Our impression was that it was real dad having visitation with his son. The father patiently tried to have a conversation with the young man who rarely looked up from a game he was playing on his phone. We felt particularly bad for this guy, he was trying but the kid didn’t give two shits.
Mrs. Peaceout and I had a real conversation with our delicious meal and managed to make it through the evening without pulling our phones out. What a novel concept in this day and age.
Sometimes modern technology does not equate to progress.
While waiting for ‘she who must be obeyed’ at a big mall on the weekend, I sat in the large food court nursing quite a good cup of coffee.
People watching are one of my small life pleasures and there was no shortage of vistas!
Seated at a comfortable looking round table was a group of young girls, probably early mid-teen, all staring intently down at their “hand held” devices and with thumbs flying over keyboards
All of a sudden they broke into shrieks of laughter! All of them! Then just as quick as the laughter ended they were all back silently staring at their devices, thumbs a blur. Disconcerting.
“How many do you think are reading TBP and pondering how a country with $200 trillion of unfunded liabilities can possibly survive?” ~Admin
Since they are docile, no feces flinging, Im gonna say 0.
that photo looks like an example of learned helplessness .
Hello iPhone, my old friend,
I’ve come to talk with you again,
Because a zombie softly creeping,
Wrote some crap while I was sleeping,
And the message that was planted in my drive
Still remains
Within the halls of zombies.
In crowded streets I walked alone
By the feel of it a street of cobblestone,
‘Neath the orange glow of a street lamp,
I turned the corner and bumped into something cold and damp
When my eyes were darkened by the weight of a police club
That split my head
I clutched the ground in silence.
And in the dimming light I saw
Ten thousand iTards, maybe more.
People texting and not speaking,
People reading and not listening,
People writing jokes that voices never share
They LOL
Please don’t disturb the zombies.
“Fools,” said I, “You do not know.
Surveillance like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might free you.
Take up arms so they won’t defeat you.”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed off the halls of zombies
And the people bowed and prayed
To the iPhone god that Apple made.
And the NSA flashed out its warning
To the flock of sheeple now forming.
But the Admin said, “The words of the shit throwing monkeys are written on my online blog.”
Carried near and far by patriots.
And shared with all their friends and family.”
Zombie monkish.
Isn’t it v. rude to engage with an object while
others in the group look on? Apparently not,
espec. if all the others are engaging with an
object as well. I could not do it if I tried.
Too conformist.
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The sum total of human knowledge available at their fingertips with the average smartphone, and they turn it into a dumbphone..So how is Kim Kardashian today then ?
Endless mindless shit and frivolity, all as their sad little lives are turning to shit without their having the slightest clue..
DE-evolution at work people…
@LLPOH –
how do you arrive at 30 years? The US GDP is around 18 trillion; simple arithmetic brings that to about 11 years
@EC… the sound of stupid…+1000000. …great stuff.