My Prediction Sadly Came True...Sort Of

[Mike]

Not too long ago I made a prediction here on the forum that went something like this: in the not too distant future there will be a crime occurring in front of a young adult who does not act because said young adult is busied with his cell phone, and said young adult will not even know why not acting was wrong...such will be the level of his apathy and moral degradation. I think the hypothetical example I gave was a young man walking by an elderly woman being attacked and not stepping in to help because he's occupied with his phone; and not only not knowing why that was wrong, but actually feeling offended that someone would suggest it was.

Well something similar happened last week, at least in spirit: in Washington D.C. 2 teenage girls used a stun gun on a Pakistani uber eats driver, and stole his car while he clung to the side of it, eventually flipping and crashing it and killing the man in the process. Video shows that after the whole event took place, the 2 teen girls in question were only concerned with the whereabouts and potential damage done to their cell phones...nevermind that there was a mangled and soon to be dead man lying on the pavement not too far from them.

The D.C. mayor, Muriel Bowser, in an act of unprecedented tone-deafness, casually tweeted out some trite thing about preventing auto thefts...saying nothing about the man who had been killed: Muhammed Anwar

This has become kind of a plague in D.C., these armed carjackings, and multiple teens have been arrested as a result, some as young as 13 and 14 years old.

- Another recent crime saw a group of teens rape and bludgeon a woman in a park before leaving her for dead near a pond. One of the teen perpetrators said he didn't care what happened to the woman because he "didn't know her personally."

- few weeks ago in Rochester NY 2 teens broke into a man's home, doused him in lighter fluid and set him on fire. He died in hospital shortly after. No motive has been revealed.

- few days after that tragedy a woman was gunned down by a 14 year old girl and killed...while taking a walk in the middle of the afternoon.

What the f#ck is going on? And: why aren't these stories getting the exposure they should be getting?

1) The perpetrators of the crimes are black and the victims are white. I am *NOT* including this to demonize black folks. I'm making the point that Walsh makes, which is that the racial dynamics of these crimes make them politically inconvenient, which is why we're not hearing about them from the major news outlets

2) Walsh speculates, and I think he's likely right, that most of these kids live in one parent homes, with no fathers around.

3) Walsh laments all the the time kids spend indoors on internet devices, saying it dehumanizes them and causes them to only view people as empty avatars.

4) Another point made in the video is that all the filth ingested by young people online isn't helping either: violence, satanic imagery, violent pornography, so forth.

I would also include the "education" that kids and teens are getting these days as yet another ingredient contributing towards this psychopathy we're seeing now among our young people. People are no longer viewed as individuals, but as faceless members of oppressor groups that are somehow responsible for everyone else's angst.

It's a perfect storm for madness, and I fear it's only in its infancy.

About 10 mins long:
A5JfX22kZio

[Strat]

I hear you but I have to disagree with you as to why it's not being covered as much as you'd like to see. These kinds of crimes have been happening for a long time and they're not particularly new. I agree with points 2-4. I don't blame media entirely but it doesn't help, case in point GTA games
w_ELTTwwc7E
Just my 2 cents.

[Mashika]

Not too long ago I made a prediction here on the forum that went something like this: in the not too distant future there will be a crime occurring in front of a young adult who does not act because said young adult is busied with his cell phone, and said young adult will not even know why not acting was wrong...such will be the level of his apathy and moral degradation. I think the hypothetical example I gave was a young man walking by an elderly woman being attacked and not stepping in to help because he's occupied with his phone; and not only not knowing why that was wrong, but actually feeling offended that someone would suggest it was.

Well something similar happened last week, at least in spirit: in Washington D.C. 2 teenage girls used a stun gun on a Pakistani uber eats driver, and stole his car while he clung to the side of it, eventually flipping and crashing it and killing the man in the process. Video shows that after the whole event took place, the 2 teen girls in question were only concerned with the whereabouts and potential damage done to their cell phones...nevermind that there was a mangled and soon to be dead man lying on the pavement not too far from them.

The D.C. mayor, Muriel Bowser, in an act of unprecedented tone-deafness, casually tweeted out some trite thing about preventing auto thefts...saying nothing about the man who had been killed: Muhammed Anwar

This has become kind of a plague in D.C., these armed carjackings, and multiple teens have been arrested as a result, some as young as 13 and 14 years old.

- Another recent crime saw a group of teens rape and bludgeon a woman in a park before leaving her for dead near a pond. One of the teen perpetrators said he didn't care what happened to the woman because he "didn't know her personally."

- few weeks ago in Rochester NY 2 teens broke into a man's home, doused him in lighter fluid and set him on fire. He died in hospital shortly after. No motive has been revealed.

- few days after that tragedy a woman was gunned down by a 14 year old girl and killed...while taking a walk in the middle of the afternoon.

What the f#ck is going on? And: why aren't these stories getting the exposure they should be getting?

1) The perpetrators of the crimes are black and the victims are white. I am *NOT* including this to demonize black folks. I'm making the point that Walsh makes, which is that the racial dynamics of these crimes make them politically inconvenient, which is why we're not hearing about them from the major news outlets

2) Walsh speculates, and I think he's likely right, that most of these kids live in one parent homes, with no fathers around.

3) Walsh laments all the the time kids spend indoors on internet devices, saying it dehumanizes them and causes them to only view people as empty avatars.

4) Another point made in the video is that all the filth ingested by young people online isn't helping either: violence, satanic imagery, violent pornography, so forth.

I would also include the "education" that kids and teens are getting these days as yet another ingredient contributing towards this psychopathy we're seeing now among our young people. People are no longer viewed as individuals, but as faceless members of oppressor groups that are somehow responsible for everyone else's angst.

It's a perfect storm for madness, and I fear it's only in its infancy.

About 10 mins long:
A5JfX22kZio



I think the hypothetical example I gave was a young man walking by an elderly woman being attacked and not stepping in to help because he's occupied with his phone; and not only not knowing why that was wrong, but actually feeling offended that someone would suggest it was.


What you are talking about is the "bystander effect", and it has been around since ever, not related at all to smartphones

It roots in something similar to "that person needs help, but my small kids can't be left alone while i go help the other person, what if someone takes my kids away while i'm busy helping that other person?"

You are blaming smartphones because it's today's "demon", back a few generations probably was radio or cd players, and hoodies and plenty other things. In that same way, someone would say "What do you wanted me to do? Leave my little kids alone so someone takes them away?" It's a human thing, not tech specific, you just as a human have things that take your focus away and regardless of reasoning we act on them

The real issue is not related to generations, but to human nature. You perceive as smartphone related because that's what you are focusing on right now, if we manage to have something like a link integrated into our brains, then it will be "those brain implants" instead of "smartphones". All the same in the end

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

[Mike]

Hey Masha, never before have we been so tech obsessed. Never before have we become so tech addicted. I don't think comparing today's smart phones to yesterday's cd players is a valid comparison, respectfully. Today's demons are immensely more powerful and prevalent than yesterday's demons. And much more addictive.

And when you mix in things like porn addiction (particularly the violent sort), video game addiction (again, the violent sort), a lack of fathers and father figures (more people are having babies out of wedlock now than ever), and the victimhood/entitlement culture popular among young people today, you have a real recipe for disaster on your hands.

Tech is only one component of a multi variable problem. Just to be clear, I wasn't blaming solely tech. I have a smart phone and I use it often. Too often lol. And I have nothing against video games. I like playing them. And I'm not puritanical when it comes to porn. But when young people, in their early teens (or sooner) are fed a steady diet of this stuff, before they establish any kind of emotional or mental groundwork, their minds become very twisted and distorted. And they become capable of some of the things listed in my original post.

And the people I envisioned casually walking by a crime weren't people with kids necessarily; i was thinking of someone in their late teens when I made that prediction. The idea being that tech obsessed, entitled, narcissistic, and increasingly psychopathic youth would be capable of walking by a crime in progress and feel entirely justified in doing so because they were doing something as silly as playing candy crush on their smart phone seemed quite probable to me based on the world I've been observing over the last year or so. And I think those girls proved me right, sadly.

[Mike]

Hey Strat, you're absolutely right about the violent video game stuff. No doubt.

As far as the race stuff, I respectfully disagree. Just because, well, imagine that all the perpetrators were white and the victims black. If that were the case I think we'd be getting rhetorically bludgeoned by these stories in the news 24 hrs a day . If a white guy is merely rude to an Asian or a black guy in a restaurant these days it's one of the top stories on yahoo news:) Know what I'm sayin?

[Mashika]

Hey Masha, never before have we been so tech obsessed. Never before have we become so tech addicted. I don't think comparing today's smart phones to yesterdays cd players is a valid comparison, respectfully. Today's demons are immensely more powerful and prevalent than yesterday's demons. And much more addictive.

And when you mix in things like porn addiction (particularly the violent sort), video game addiction (again, the violent sort), a lack of fathers and father figures (more people are having babies out of wedlock now than ever), and the victimhood/entitlement culture popular among young people today, you have a real recipe for disaster on your hands.

Tech is only one component of a multi variable problem. Just to be clear, I wasn't blaming solely tech. I have a smart phone and I use it often. Too often lol. And I have nothing against video games. I like playing them. And I'm not puritanical when it comes to porn. But when young people, in their early teens (or sooner) are fed a steady diet of this stuff, before they establish any kind of emotional or mental groundwork, their minds become very twisted and distorted. And they become capable of some of the things listed in my original post.

And the people I envisioned casually walking by a crime weren't people with kids necessarily; i was thinking of someone in their late teens when I made that prediction. The idea being that tech obsessed, entitled, narcissistic, and increasingly psychopathic youth would be capable of walking by a crime in progress and feel entirely justified in doing so because they were doing something as silly as playing candy crush on their smart phone seemed quite probable to me based on the world I've been observing over the last year or so. And I think those girls proved me right, sadly.

Way i see it, from what i can understand so far, is that this you were talking about was/is a US centric thing then



And when you mix in things like porn addiction (particularly the violent sort), video game addiction (again, the violent sort), a lack of fathers and father figures (more people are having babies out of wedlock now than ever), and the victimhood/entitlement culture popular among young people today, you have a real recipe for disaster on your hands.

Russia didn't have a very similar thing as the hippies, or the x generation or so, of course there's addiction in all places and to lots of things, but not in the same way in other countries. So i think i'm out of place and don't really get it so far

All i learned so far is a different thing, like dads mostly not really going away but stick around, no matter what and as bad as they are. More like people in the US did before.. "once married" back in the 50's or so, i read

Cancel culture doesn't exist, for the most part, in Russia

Most, if not all, of my friends, have/know how to shoot, assault rifles and other guns, yet you don't hear a lot about shootings in public places, it just doesn't happen, i think the issue is not the "games,guns,smartphones,tv,radio,walman,cars,xxx", it is education in the end

I have guns, i always had them, and all my friends do as well, we grew up from a generation that mostly did not had grand/great grand parents, because they managed to have their kids then died in the war, leaving kids to be raised by moms on their own, and the few fortunate that had grand parents, were treated harsh and forced to become kid soldiers "just in case". Yet you don't see the same behavior of "i'm so sad i'm going to go kill people at the movie theater"

Games, guns, porn and all the other stuff i just think that's an excuse to not observe or admit the real problem. That the education and culture is just wrong in the first place, and everything that can be observed is just an excuse to blame it on something else

In the end it just cycles back to the same thing "bystander effect". "If it doesn't affect me, it doesn't matter"

On 2018, a shooting happened in Crimea, remember that? The shooter was a guy that was obsessed with American culture and eventually did a copycat of American shooters on his own school, why? He admired the US shooters of the Columbine High School shooting. He just was a lot into that image and perception. Games, porn, cell phones, whatever.. had nothing to do with that

A broken mind is a broken mind

Something to consider is, someone may have a broken mind, but.. Having a broken mind, and what triggers it and why it can be triggered like that, are two different things

But what do i know

Check this out, no tech in sight, and yet...
V7toAPlo7J8

[Mike]

Hey Masha, yeah perhaps a US centric thing.

The US is historically tolerant, and Russia is historically intolerant, and both of those approaches have their merits and demerits. When you become too tolerant, for example, you can allow harmful things to flourish. That's happening in the US now. I don't think the silliness going on in the US (i.e. cancel culture) could ever gain hold in Russia because they'd simply not tolerate it. So, in that instance anyway, Russia's intolerance is a good thing.

Video games, internet devices and porn etc, I totally agree with you, are a way to avoid reality. Some escapism is healthy I think, when life becomes intolerable; but here in the US escapism has become a way of life. In fact, people feel entitled to their escapism. Personal responsibility and acting like an adult is becoming increasingly rare. You'll frequently hear things here like "my truth", "your truth", etc, but very rarely do we acknowledge *the* truth anymore. All our most fundamental truths are being turned upside down and our culture has become incoherent as a result. Actually, I think it's become quite insane. Full time escapism = insanity.

I wouldn't include guns in that list of things that are softening the minds of westerners though. They belong in another category altogether. Separate topic I think. The reason American kids shoot up schools for example is because they're being pumped full of nihilism from the moment they can read. "God is dead" as Nietzsche said, and as secular cults/religions i.e.social justice take His place, kids go mad over time. Notions of goal setting, hard work, and bearing your burdens nobly have been replaced with victimhood, grievance, and blame. Kids are being taught all kinds of confusing things about sex and gender too, and it's contributed to a fragile mental equilibrium. There are all sorts of variables in play actually.

Our openness, or tolerance, is at once our greatest strength and our greatest weakness here in the US. Navigating all that is quite a challenge. It requires mature adults, and they are a dying breed here, sad to say.

As you said, it may just be education in the end. It really does start there. Here in the west we are no longer educating kids and teens on reading, writing, critical thinking, and the value of individual thought and free speech. Our schools have become political indoctrination institutions now. Kids are being fed sick ideologies bent on turning them in to entitled, weak, authoritarian tyrants.

Re your video: the difference between those examples and the one i posited was that mine included violence (on an elderly person no less). Seeing someone suffering on the sidewalk by themselves is almost passe here in the US. We see that to some degree every day. We've grown a little numb to it. My original prediction, and what actually happened with the 2 teen girls i.e. valuing their phones over a dying person's life is quite different than the bystander effect as it is demonstrated in the video

The point i was originally trying to make was that our youth have become so morally bankrupt and apathetic that in some instances a cellphone would be valued more than a human life. The degree to which cell phones are the cause of that apathy/moral bankruptcy or the result of it is sort of a slippery slope. I think there are many factors invovled, and I've listed some of them here. Now stop scowling at me!:) That avatar of yours lol

[Mashika]

Hey Masha, yeah perhaps a US centric thing.

The US is historically tolerant, and Russia is historically intolerant, and both of those approaches have their merits and demerits. When you become too tolerant, for example, you can allow harmful things to flourish. That's happening in the US now. I don't think the silliness going on in the US (i.e. cancel culture) could ever gain hold in Russia because they'd simply not tolerate it. So, in that instance anyway, Russia's intolerance is a good thing.

Video games, internet devices and porn etc, I totally agree with you, are a way to avoid reality. Some escapism is healthy I think, when life becomes intolerable; but here in the US escapism has become a way of life. In fact, people feel entitled to their escapism. Personal responsibility and acting like an adult is becoming increasingly rare. You'll frequently hear things here like "my truth", "your truth", etc, but very rarely do we acknowledge *the* truth anymore. All our most fundamental truths are being turned upside down and our culture has become incoherent as a result. Actually, I think it's become quite insane. Full time escapism = insanity.

I wouldn't include guns in that list of things that are softening the minds of westerners though. They belong in another category altogether. Separate topic I think. The reason American kids shoot up schools for example is because they're being pumped full of nihilism from the moment they can read. "God is dead" as Nietzsche said, and as secular cults/religions i.e.social justice take His place, kids go mad over time. Notions of goal setting, hard work, and bearing your burdens nobly have been replaced with victimhood, grievance, and blame. Kids are being taught all kinds of confusing things about sex and gender too, and it's contributed to a fragile mental equilibrium. There are all sorts of variables in play actually.

Our openness, or tolerance, is at once our greatest strength and our greatest weakness here in the US. Navigating all that is quite a challenge. It requires mature adults, and they are a dying breed here, sad to say.

As you said, it may just be education in the end. It really does start there. Here in the west we are no longer educating kids and teens on reading, writing, critical thinking, and the value of individual thought and free speech. Our schools have become political indoctrination institutions now. Kids are being fed sick ideologies bent on turning them in to entitled, weak, authoritarian tyrants.

Re your video: the difference between those examples and the one i posited was that mine included violence (on an elderly person no less). Seeing someone suffering on the sidewalk by themselves is almost passe here in the US. We see that to some degree every day. We've grown a little numb to it. My original prediction, and what actually happened with the 2 teen girls i.e. valuing their phones over a dying person's life is quite different than the bystander effect as it is demonstrated in the video

The point i was originally trying to make was that our youth have become so morally bankrupt and apathetic that in some instances a cellphone would be valued more than a human life. The degree to which cell phones are the cause of that apathy/moral bankruptcy or the result of it is sort of a slippery slope. I think there are many factors invovled, and I've listed some of them here. Now stop scowling at me!:) That avatar of yours lol

On that video, at 2:56 the lady said something like

" There's a bloke absorbed reading the newspaper"

And this is a square video, probably like 30 years old or so, before any smartphones

You said

"
young adult who does not act because said young adult is busied with his cell phone
"

All the same to me, newspaper or cell phone or whatever. its not about the tech as i said, it's how humans work, with the exceptions, as noted on the video i posted, and none of the people on that video look very young, probably 30 or more

The thing is, what's happening and why people dont act on it, are not really relevant, people just won't act on it in any case, maybe it's a heart attack or aneurysm or whatever, regardless someone's life may be at risk, yet there's no action because of same reasoning.

I just think it's more about lack of human empathy than current times or age or tech

This seems like an uphill battle and im way too tired for it, so i skip, thanks 😊

:flower::bearhug:

[Mike]

Hey Masha, yeah perhaps a US centric thing.

The US is historically tolerant, and Russia is historically intolerant, and both of those approaches have their merits and demerits. When you become too tolerant, for example, you can allow harmful things to flourish. That's happening in the US now. I don't think the silliness going on in the US (i.e. cancel culture) could ever gain hold in Russia because they'd simply not tolerate it. So, in that instance anyway, Russia's intolerance is a good thing.

Video games, internet devices and porn etc, I totally agree with you, are a way to avoid reality. Some escapism is healthy I think, when life becomes intolerable; but here in the US escapism has become a way of life. In fact, people feel entitled to their escapism. Personal responsibility and acting like an adult is becoming increasingly rare. You'll frequently hear things here like "my truth", "your truth", etc, but very rarely do we acknowledge *the* truth anymore. All our most fundamental truths are being turned upside down and our culture has become incoherent as a result. Actually, I think it's become quite insane. Full time escapism = insanity.

I wouldn't include guns in that list of things that are softening the minds of westerners though. They belong in another category altogether. Separate topic I think. The reason American kids shoot up schools for example is because they're being pumped full of nihilism from the moment they can read. "God is dead" as Nietzsche said, and as secular cults/religions i.e.social justice take His place, kids go mad over time. Notions of goal setting, hard work, and bearing your burdens nobly have been replaced with victimhood, grievance, and blame. Kids are being taught all kinds of confusing things about sex and gender too, and it's contributed to a fragile mental equilibrium. There are all sorts of variables in play actually.

Our openness, or tolerance, is at once our greatest strength and our greatest weakness here in the US. Navigating all that is quite a challenge. It requires mature adults, and they are a dying breed here, sad to say.

As you said, it may just be education in the end. It really does start there. Here in the west we are no longer educating kids and teens on reading, writing, critical thinking, and the value of individual thought and free speech. Our schools have become political indoctrination institutions now. Kids are being fed sick ideologies bent on turning them in to entitled, weak, authoritarian tyrants.

Re your video: the difference between those examples and the one i posited was that mine included violence (on an elderly person no less). Seeing someone suffering on the sidewalk by themselves is almost passe here in the US. We see that to some degree every day. We've grown a little numb to it. My original prediction, and what actually happened with the 2 teen girls i.e. valuing their phones over a dying person's life is quite different than the bystander effect as it is demonstrated in the video

The point i was originally trying to make was that our youth have become so morally bankrupt and apathetic that in some instances a cellphone would be valued more than a human life. The degree to which cell phones are the cause of that apathy/moral bankruptcy or the result of it is sort of a slippery slope. I think there are many factors invovled, and I've listed some of them here. Now stop scowling at me!:) That avatar of yours lol

On that video, at 2:56 the lady said something like

" There's a bloke absorbed reading the newspaper"

And this is a square video, probably like 30 years old or so, before any smartphones

You said

"
young adult who does not act because said young adult is busied with his cell phone
"

All the same to me, newspaper or cell phone or whatever. its not about the tech as i said, it's how humans work, with the exceptions, as noted on the video i posted, and none of the people on that video look very young, probably 30 or more

The thing is, what's happening and why people dont act on it, are not really relevant, people just won't act on it in any case, maybe it's a heart attack or aneurysm or whatever, regardless someone's life may be at risk, yet there's no action because of same reasoning

This seems like an uphill battle and im way too tired for it, so i skip, thanks 😊

:flower::bearhug:



Fair enough but come back soon! Lets confuse each other even further. Next we'll be discussing the following: if a tree falls in a forest and there's no one there to take a cell phone video of it, did it really happen?:)

[Mashika]

Hey Masha, yeah perhaps a US centric thing.

The US is historically tolerant, and Russia is historically intolerant, and both of those approaches have their merits and demerits. When you become too tolerant, for example, you can allow harmful things to flourish. That's happening in the US now. I don't think the silliness going on in the US (i.e. cancel culture) could ever gain hold in Russia because they'd simply not tolerate it. So, in that instance anyway, Russia's intolerance is a good thing.

Video games, internet devices and porn etc, I totally agree with you, are a way to avoid reality. Some escapism is healthy I think, when life becomes intolerable; but here in the US escapism has become a way of life. In fact, people feel entitled to their escapism. Personal responsibility and acting like an adult is becoming increasingly rare. You'll frequently hear things here like "my truth", "your truth", etc, but very rarely do we acknowledge *the* truth anymore. All our most fundamental truths are being turned upside down and our culture has become incoherent as a result. Actually, I think it's become quite insane. Full time escapism = insanity.

I wouldn't include guns in that list of things that are softening the minds of westerners though. They belong in another category altogether. Separate topic I think. The reason American kids shoot up schools for example is because they're being pumped full of nihilism from the moment they can read. "God is dead" as Nietzsche said, and as secular cults/religions i.e.social justice take His place, kids go mad over time. Notions of goal setting, hard work, and bearing your burdens nobly have been replaced with victimhood, grievance, and blame. Kids are being taught all kinds of confusing things about sex and gender too, and it's contributed to a fragile mental equilibrium. There are all sorts of variables in play actually.

Our openness, or tolerance, is at once our greatest strength and our greatest weakness here in the US. Navigating all that is quite a challenge. It requires mature adults, and they are a dying breed here, sad to say.

As you said, it may just be education in the end. It really does start there. Here in the west we are no longer educating kids and teens on reading, writing, critical thinking, and the value of individual thought and free speech. Our schools have become political indoctrination institutions now. Kids are being fed sick ideologies bent on turning them in to entitled, weak, authoritarian tyrants.

Re your video: the difference between those examples and the one i posited was that mine included violence (on an elderly person no less). Seeing someone suffering on the sidewalk by themselves is almost passe here in the US. We see that to some degree every day. We've grown a little numb to it. My original prediction, and what actually happened with the 2 teen girls i.e. valuing their phones over a dying person's life is quite different than the bystander effect as it is demonstrated in the video

The point i was originally trying to make was that our youth have become so morally bankrupt and apathetic that in some instances a cellphone would be valued more than a human life. The degree to which cell phones are the cause of that apathy/moral bankruptcy or the result of it is sort of a slippery slope. I think there are many factors invovled, and I've listed some of them here. Now stop scowling at me!:) That avatar of yours lol

On that video, at 2:56 the lady said something like

" There's a bloke absorbed reading the newspaper"

And this is a square video, probably like 30 years old or so, before any smartphones

You said

"
young adult who does not act because said young adult is busied with his cell phone
"

All the same to me, newspaper or cell phone or whatever. its not about the tech as i said, it's how humans work, with the exceptions, as noted on the video i posted, and none of the people on that video look very young, probably 30 or more

The thing is, what's happening and why people dont act on it, are not really relevant, people just won't act on it in any case, maybe it's a heart attack or aneurysm or whatever, regardless someone's life may be at risk, yet there's no action because of same reasoning

This seems like an uphill battle and im way too tired for it, so i skip, thanks 😊

:flower::bearhug:



Fair enough but come back soon! Lets confuse each other even further. Next we'll be discussing the following: if a tree falls in a forest and there's no one there to take a cell phone video of it, did it really happen?:)

A satellite was passsing by and took video of it?

:sarcastic:

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

I think you will probably find that the further back in time you go the more generally conscientious - morally aware - people were. It's been on the decline for a long time. I think it's quite as you say, that it's being driven out of us, and tech addiction is certainly playing a powerful role in that.

I was only thinking along these lines last night in fact. I tuned in Sky Sports for the sports headlines - supposedly they're meant to be about sport - only to be bombarded by one, two, three stories that ALL focused on social media related controversies, where this sports celebrity had said this on social media, or that sport celebrity had been targeted and abused by a member of the public on social media, or whatever. This is the news now. These are the headlines now. Social media. I'm tired of it. Trolls will be trolls and there will always be trolls. They feed on social media, and thrive on the attention they receive. So what do the mainstream media do? give them precisely that attention, making the problem worse.

So what I was thinking last night was simply this. Social media needs to just disappear. Humanity needs to throw it in the garbage of history.

Sure social media - and particularly smart phones - have their uses and many positives, but the way it all works, the way it's designed and setup, works little different than a Class A narcotic, and unfortunately humanity, especially the young, lack the self-control and mental/social capacity to use it responsibly. We were so much happier and healthier and more functional before it arrived.

But at this point, I do not know if there's any way back to a pre-social media paradigm, short of some kind of cataclysm that knocks out the power grid worldwide. Unfortunately it's here to stay. Without radical legislative reforms, it will continue to eat away at people's brains, eroding perception, awareness, and the human connection, and thus empathy, until there is nothing left. It doesn't end with twitter/fb/instagram though, that's merely the lead-in. It ends with transhumanism. We end with transhumanism, at least that's the plan I suspect. I won't be buying a ticket for that train.

[Wind]

If you lose touch with your self and your (spiritual) roots, then what becomes of you?

If society is possessed by sociopathic & demonic values, then what would you expect?

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The Epidemic of Narcissism by Cathryn Polonchak, L.C.S.W. (https://www.jung.org/blog/5324862)


C. G. Jung states in his essay The Psychology of the Child Archetype:

…we are confronted at every new stage in the differentiation of consciousness to which civilization attains, with the task of finding a new “interpretation” appropriate to this stage, in order to connect the life of the past that still exists in us with the life of the present, which threatens to slip away from it. If this link-up does not take place, a kind of rootless consciousness comes into being no longer oriented to the past, a consciousness which succumbs helplessly to all manner of suggestions and, in practice, is susceptible to psychic epidemics. (1959/1977, para. 267)

Our culture has succumbed to the psychic epidemic of narcissism (an alienation from the self) which simply perpetuates itself as it is handed down from one generation to another. Where did it all start? How did we get to this place? By the use of will, civilized man’s consciousness has become more and more differentiated, more one-sided. He has lost touch with his roots, both the compensating feminine principle and the experiencing realm of the young child.

Our Western, masculine-dominated culture, with its emphasis on progress, shuns anything that may resemble a regressive movement. Innately, we are driven toward the light, toward a differentiated consciousness of the masculine principle. Jung’s theory of the psyche is based on the idea that consciousness arises out of the unconscious (generally associated with the feminine, the irrational, the undifferentiated, the body, the instinctual, relating to, experiential knowledge, completion and darkness). This is illustrated in both the phylogenetic and ontogenetic development of the human brain. In both the historical and individual brain development, the last part to develop is the cortex region — known as the executive center and biased toward the rational, the differentiated, the mind, the spiritual, controlling of, abstract knowledge, perfection and light— all are considered aspects of the masculine principle and associated with the conscious realm. We as a people needed this developing movement to advance our civilization via the scientific discoveries and new technology. However, our culture’s psyche appears to have a malfunctioning self-regulator which has resulted in an increasingly greater imbalance between the masculine and feminine principles — between the collective consciousness and its compensating unconscious.

Carl Jung indicated in the above statement that our past still exists inside of us (the unconscious psyche which encompasses our subjective nature of emotions, bodily sensations, perceptions, and images) and that we need to find a way to “connect the life of the past” to “the life of the present”. Failure to do so will result in a “rootless consciousness” that is “no longer oriented to the past.” This means that we would no longer be grounded in our subjective experiences (in a sense of an embodied, experiencing self as a culture). I describe this state of rootless consciousness as having no sense of self and would call it a narcissistic disturbance. Without our embodied/feeling/subjective experiences to ground us in who we are as individuals, we are prey to all sorts of suggestions from outside ourselves as to what we perceive, what we experience, what we feel, how we should respond, what we need, and what we want.

According to Jung, it appears that the “new interpretation appropriate to this stage of differentiation of consciousness” needs to include the linking of the present state of differentiation (masculine aspects) with the past (aspects of the feminine realm and the state of early childhood). This linking would only come if we can overcome our propensity for the light and soaring heights of consciousness and dare turn inward toward the deep and darkened realm of the unconscious.

I suggest that it is the devaluation and depotentiation of the unconscious, irrational feminine realm by our patriarchal culture that has resulted in our current psychic epidemic of narcissism— a culture that breeds emptiness and souless-ness. We are currently in the midst of a psychic epidemic. Is the enantiodromia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enantiodromia) in view? Can we as a culture meet the task Jung mentions above of “finding a new interpretation appropriate of this stage in order to connect the past that still exists in us to the life of the present which threatens to slip away from it”? Can we hold onto both realms — and let them inform each other?