"I can't keep up any more." The world of Future Shock is already here

[petra]

Posted by peterpam (here)

Posted by petra (here)

Posted by ramus (here)
Petra ... I hope it's not permanent, your hate. Hate is an emotion that draws to you what you hate. It's an adhesive emotion. What you think your pushing away you are actually drawing towards you.

I don't know if this will help but: The opposite of Love is not hate, the opposite of love is indifference. So if you don't love it here be indifferent to it, that will not draw to you what you want to push away. Don't give the darkness power, hate and Love are very powerful....

Don't let the darkness eat you up.

That's helpful ramus. So the saying goes "To rid yourself of darkness all you need to do is turn on the light". Easier said than done though (ha ha)
It's definitely trouble. I've been "having a chat with myself" about it too, and not only do I resent being alive - I resent eating food! My resentment is getting out of hand, and I'll probably end up getting professional help if it keeps getting worse. No offense to your help at all - it's helping, thanks.

Indifference happens... but that just ends up making me feel guilty, as if I am betraying myself somehow by not "feeling my feelings"? Feelings really are a puzzle sometimes.

I don't feel some kind of "burning hatred", it's just like a really really deep feeling of not wanting to "be here". You're right about it being adhesive, and I just don't want it getting any worse.

Maybe this is why I like my corner. I have control in my corner.

EDIT:

Posted by Whisper (here)
We got rid of our TV...some time ago.No need this brain wash machine....

Brain wash machine, ha ha
How about Propagandavision
or "Idiot Box"

Could you allow yourself to feel indifference to those things that you can't change? That would take a huge emotion load off of you. Ask yourself this: What are the emotions of hate and resentment doing for any one and anything outside yourself? What are they doing for you? Are they worth it? Indifference or acceptance can release you to be productive in things that you can do something about.. I do understand you in not liking it here, I have felt the same way my whole life. Once I gained acceptance and realized my dislike for living here doesn't change a thing, it became much easier. Change what you can and let the rest go.

That's the serenity prayer. "God grant me the serenity..."

"Serenity Now! Serenity Now!" .. "I don't think the phrase it works if you yell it!" (that's my relevant thought, from an episode of Seinfeld)
I know negative emotions are useless, and I understand that.
My thoughts asked me a suspicious question once and I still remember, "Would you like to know where your future leads?"
I snapped back "I already know where it leads. Death."
Cynicism... it's a part of who I am, and I just don't think it's going away. I could probably try to tone it down a little though

[avid]

Everything now seems to be frenetic, just take a look at our current thread titles/discussion topics.
The horrendous ‘light-the-blue-touch-paper’ of the anomalous fires in Paradise, severely affecting ‘our own’, the dowsed cataclysms of a trusted member, the financial rationales, the surmisings of ‘Q’, earth trends either natural or unnatural, deliberate toxicity to the environment and to humans, the ‘takeover’ by other-dimensional beings for nefarious means, and the giant potentially ‘blackmail’ never-to-be resolved ‘cover-ups’ ongoing due to Satanic interference by an alternative ‘globalistic’ elite society.
We love positive imagery, wondrous music, exciting adventures, camaraderie and compassionate support here, please don’t let negativity ‘tip our balance’....

[petra]

On the bright side, at least we're not ignoring it!

For a long time I was frustrated because I thought everyone was blind. Now I see that is not true, I was the one who was blind.

[ramus]

Petra.. This song just came out by Citizen Cope, interesting name , the song says a lot : I thought of you........ and me, I really like this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y4oeTFOQv0

[Bill Ryan]

In my opening post, as well as in the thread title, I referred to Alvin Toffler's seminal and prophetic Future Shock, written in 1970.

Here's the audiobook:

• http://avalonlibrary.net/Future_Shoc..._audiobook.mp3

[ramus]

I waffle between pessimism and hope on a daily basis .. I thought I was broken but I am not. The doubt that arises comes from outside of me and influences my thoughts. One of my greatest beliefs is..... doubt is imposed.. not generated. I remind myself this when the waffling begins. Future Shock at work.

[AutumnW]

Posted by Mike Gorman (here)
This effect is linked with the idea of increasing novelty, we seem to arriving at a time when the momentum of increasing novelty is growing exponentially. Terrance McKenna had some interesting ideas about this. The internet has enabled us to digitize the media production of humanity, and of course a percentage of this is going to be 'crap'. For example, take YouTube itself, it is such a vast resource, there are really excellent resources but also reams of complete rubbish and low quality expression.
McKenna talks about a kind of crisis point in this increasing novelty, where it speeds up dramatically.
Time is certainly speeding up-I recently realized that I had been living in Tasmania for 5 years, that was the quickest 5 years I have ever known!
I know just what you mean Bill!

Well put, Mike! We live in a world of less and less, in terms of money and more and more novelty. People are trying to deal with it by ramping up the quantity of info they produce in an attempt to create a balance between the two, for the sake of survival.

But as Bill and everyone else has pointed out, balance is not restored. Instead less money, more novelty creates a synergy that greases the rails on the run away train that we feel compelled to occupy. It's so weird.

[Agape]

I feel every so often I can’t keep up with the state of this world emotionally. I think it’s an emotion, the pace of our heart beats, human vulnerability, the awareness of it.
It’s not easy to breathe it out. Of course there’s always someone stronger out there pulling the ox chart so to say, doing the hard jobs, writing thousand worded essays and thesis on evolution of proteins in every plant and beetle we ever found, all those things you ever wanted to know and put together and I know I won’t be able to read them all even if I get life,
we simply aren’t an AI, a cray computer can absorb and process all that information together( someday, more efficiently), lets take it easy, we don’t have to do that much.

Enough is enough I agree. My time stops so often seeing the contradictions and how much we have-in terms of knowledge- and how much we are losing.
So huge is the loss of lives, dignity and respect and all those little points that would make a miracle but being lost, everyone suffers.

I don’t understand how am I preserving sense of sanity and integrity for a bit yet and filtering all those overwhelming moments that would kill an elephant ( well that’s my opinion but look, elephants could well agree these days) but I think it’s because I’m still young.
I’ve seen too many so called “mature humans” on this planet suffering from mental dis-ease. Politicians, philosophers, religious leaders, all kinds of people ..not all but too many as if they all could not handle it at some point and they turn mental.

Attached to their theories and life styles and schools and lineages and families and only blood lines, some people “die young” by being overwhelmed and overtaken by that dis-ease and it scares me.

It scares me to meet the world of aged idiots And young ones who admire them and aspire to be like them.

So happy there are few others like Bill , some smarter, healthier, living beings still walking on this planet .

I think it’s ok not to be a “cray computer” and I’ve also done many years of meditation retreat in the days when internet was not available to me and I read the newspapers but only sometimes. I saw things clearly in my mind and would miss nothing. And many of my memories and learning ever acquired and forgotten was coming back , resurfacing in my mind, clearly as well and things I saw in my mind would probably fill volumes. And nothing really missed.
That was before the internet for me..

But in last few years, due to life circumstances paradoxically I had to unplug from the IT and relax from the pace and return to the “original self” is what’s going to be the most important, been most important now and in future, for all of us I feel.

Return to the “original self who is the knower”.

I feel very overwhelmed by global human circumstances and suffering in either case anyway. But it’s important to keep coming back from the chaos and vanity of “too much talking” to the peace and wisdom of “need-to-know”.

[Savannah]

I have forgotten how to read



“For a long time Michael Harris convinced himself that a childhood spent immersed in old-fashioned books would insulate him from our new media climate – that he could keep on reading in the old way because his mind was formed in pre-internet days. He was wrong.”

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle37921379/



Last year I started losing interest in reading and when I pushed myself I just couldn’t get through an average size chapter. I have loved reading all my life. Frustrated with reading boring text books I had to read in college I actually I wanted to read between semesters the books I was interested in. I have read every night before going to bed since I was 12.

I wondered if it was just my age (62) or if I was getting depressed. I just couldn’t understand what was going on with me. I thought about computers shorting our attention spans . Very disturbing as he notes above because I also thought my brain was immune since I didn’t grow in the technology age. Of course we all know how adaptable the brain is but this really brought it home for me.

Maybe it’s because I’m reading so many information/ nonfiction books and I used to read more Novels. However even a novel I may finish it but it’s still hard to get through unless it’s very high interest level.

It seems like is my attention span is shorter because I want that dopamine hit more frequently, that ‘s talked about in video games, addictions and drugs. I want the book to get to the point, just give me a quick list, Hit Me with the facts! So I can learn faster, advance quicker. Entwined in this is a feeling there is less time and sense of urgency (that may be another thread).

[Mike]

omg, Savannah, i feel exactly the same. i've been trying to read the same 3 titles for years, and i just can't get thru them.

i get bored quickly and my mind starts wandering almost immediately...even when the material is something i find interesting. i wasn't always like this! i used to be an energetic, focused reader..and would even stubbornly finish books i wasn't even particularly enjoying, just on principle.

i have a hard time watching movies even! i find myself neglecting them in favor of 10 minute youtube videos. and even when i'm searching for a specific youtube video, i'll often forget which one that is once i'm bombarded with all the options. Sometimes an entire day will go by before i remember what i was looking for. amazing.

[Flash]

Coaches fatigue.

There are mow coaches on everything whom are all presumed knowing more than you do or presumed able to guide you. Fine to learn to play guitar or to learn a language.

But for the thousands of life coaches, please.... why in heaven sake would I have to listen ? My inner self is much more efficient.

[Valerie Villars]

Ditto for me Savannah and Mike. I could have written that article on reading.

When you tie in Herve's excellent post here https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...=1#post1267785 then it all makes sense.

I've been trying to articulate for years why books were so important and how dangerous technology is for our evolution as spiritual beings. My spiritual awakening was due to having read books, listened to music and a fluid application of gained knowledge, among other things.

Technology is keeping us from attaining enlightenment. I believe there are those who are aware of this and are using it to their advantage. There is no doubt in my mind about this.

[Ernie Nemeth]

Posted by Savannah (here)
I have forgotten how to read



“For a long time Michael Harris convinced himself that a childhood spent immersed in old-fashioned books would insulate him from our new media climate – that he could keep on reading in the old way because his mind was formed in pre-internet days. He was wrong.”


https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle37921379/



Last year I started losing interest in reading and when I pushed myself I just couldn’t get through an average size chapter. I have loved reading all my life. Frustrated with reading boring text books I had to read in college I actually I wanted to read between semesters the books I was interested in. I have read every night before going to bed since I was 12.

I wondered if it was just my age (62) or if I was getting depressed. I just couldn’t understand what was going on with me. I thought about computers shorting our attention spans . Very disturbing as he notes above because I also thought my brain was immune since I didn’t grow in the technology age. Of course we all know how adaptable the brain is but this really brought it home for me.

Maybe it’s because I’m reading so many information/ nonfiction books and I used to read more Novels. However even a novel I may finish it but it’s still hard to get through unless it’s very high interest level.

It seems like is my attention span is shorter because I want that dopamine hit more frequently, that ‘s talked about in video games, addictions and drugs. I want the book to get to the point, just give me a quick list, Hit Me with the facts! So I can learn faster, advance quicker. Entwined in this is a feeling there is less time and sense of urgency (that may be another thread).

I know what you mean. I don't think I read ten books last year. Not half of my usual total.

[East Sun]

I'm 76 yrs old and have been a reader all my life.
I cant put a definite moniker on myself, I'm not intellectual, am self educated,
maybe worldly wise but am at a loss these days as to what is "supposed" to be right
and that word is crucial at any time.

We got our info. from books, but not today. If we are astute and choose rightly we have people like David Icke
and others to listen to and decipher what they are saying to be right in our opinion.

[Caliban]

Reading is a relationship. It's almost like a romance. You start again picking up a book and reading a half hour and you feel that pull to come back. And you read for an hour. Then the scale begins to tip.

Let's not make too big of a deal of "future shock" and whatnot. It is what it is right? So let it be. Just start turning away.

[Flash]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I simply have to manage my video viewing — somehow! — to reasonable levels. This simply means that some things tend to get cut out or relegated to a lower priority. I'd imagine that that applies to just about everyone reading this. I usually patrol all the new activity on threads when I get up each morning, but even that's primarily wearing a moderator's hat and not diving into every video that looks like it could be interesting. I do often download things to view later, but I have a huge backlog there... I think maybe we all do.

Yes, I do speed reading, and this is why I can read quite a lot of text even here on avalon. And even here I have a reading backlog. But for this reason, I much prefer reading than any video - it is also less influential, I can keep my own critical analysis easier, not having the image influencing me.

But I cannot do speed video looking, or speed hearing lol. Therefore a huge backlog too.

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)
I do often download things to view later, but I have a huge backlog there... I think maybe we all do.

Did you know post: Many YouTube videos include transcripts.

Click on the three dots and then click 'open transcript'. I’ve found there’s no transcript available when the video is newly loaded. The software must need time to process.

I toggle to the no time stamp and cut and paste to speed read, review or click on specific topics. Note: the whole page copies when I cut and paste within the transcript. It's intact along with the miscellaneous info which I delete. I do that rather than scroll on the dialogue, i.e. transcript because it takes a long time especially with the longer vids.

You can also click on a sentence and it’ll bring you to the specific time stamp on the video. You may need to click on “hide chat” so you can see the transcript.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Flash (here)
Yes, I do speed reading, and this is why I can read quite a lot of text even here on avalon. And even here I have a reading backlog. But for this reason, I much prefer reading than any video - it is also less influential, I can keep my own critical analysis easier, not having the image influencing me.

But I cannot do speed video looking, or speed hearing lol. Therefore a huge backlog too.

A big difference with articles (or transcripts) is that they're quickly searchable. Videos aren't. (At all, quickly or otherwise.)

So I may well have to sit through an entire two hour video before I see if there's anything that might specifically interest me, if (e.g.) I'm trying to hunt down a particular piece of info. That's a vast, inefficient waste of time... if I need to be efficient that day.

[AutumnW]

I think part of the issue with reading books versus reading or watching videos online might have something to do with a sense we have of online being more participatory and somehow more urgent and that goes for reading articles online that don't have a comments section.

After a fairly short while structural changes in the brain start to occur and again, that may be due to the sense of urgency and sense of being involved in a participatory phenomena that demands our attention, as if we are with fellow hunter gatherers on the Savannah doing something important for survival.

I have often stopped myself and asked myself exactly what I am hunting for online and I have no answer other than, "I'll know it when I see it!"

We are learning a certain amount and expanding our awareness in some ways while likely shrinking our capacity to be still, calm and easily satisfied with the practise of reading a book. It's a shame.

[Savannah]

"I have often stopped myself and asked myself exactly what I am hunting for online and I have no answer other than, "I'll know it when I see it!"

Yes, AutummW, I found myself doing that also. I wonder if its a kind of senses that there is something in the quantum field of information, it out there and I need to find it. Those searching actions have been reinforced. Sometimes I think there is nothing new and someone posts info that explodes for me and I find it connects dots and answers so many questions. Thus the dopamine hit, the hi of finding something important. Where a book is very slow, I already know what its going to say. The book starts with an ide and then provides the evidence and later the conclusions. Don't get me wrong here, that's vital and important in our learning process, but I have already accepted the hypothesis most of the time, or I would not have bought the book.

I'm just trying to make sense of such a radicle change in my personality. Something I felt was so fixed. It is info overload but much more than that. It is how we are now finding information and processing that information. Is it just due to computers?