Halloween is just a day away, so I figured I would post about things that have me scared…and it has nothing to do with ghosts, goblins, or demons. I recently stopped paying attention to news programs and Facebook, other than for purposes related to my job. I needed to do it because the outlook for the future of the United States seems pretty depressing for me, and in fact…it scares the hell out of me.
I should just go right into the list, before I get side-tracked. What scares the hell out of me?
1. The death of the “family” ideal in the United States.
When 1 out of 2 married couples get divorced, the majority of the time for financial reasons, we have lost control of the one thing that gives us power individually to survive in an ever-changing world…family. I am lucky to have a wife no one could pry me away from for any reason, but sadly that makes me unique. There is also a new form of “cheating” in the US: Financial cheating, by having your own “financial life” separate from the marriage.
2. No one pays attention anymore.
The US has become a “screen-addicted” nation where we think all of our attention must be focused on the screen in front of us. For all the genius inventions that exist today, the dumbest thing I deal with is avoiding people crossing the street, while I am driving. It makes no sense. The smartest people in the world wear black clothing at night, and cross the street while checking their phones, as if the 2-ton machine driving at them will know they are not paying attention.
3. People feel no need to talk anymore to those in front of them.
We are able to communicate with people globally so well, that we have now replaced that for face-to-face interactions. The trickle-down effect has resulted in a nation of people who are rude, and choose to ignore those in front of them like spamming Facebook requests.
4. The US has become a nation that is purely “survival of the fittest”.
I tell you now…I am “Screwed Cross-Screwed Shield”, if I choose to live in the US forever. Why? I have a seizure disorder. Healthcare is high priced. Insurance is a legalized form of extortion that no business wants to pay for under any regulation, and inflation is so bad that the cost medical care is rising, as the average paycheck is decreasing. In 2005, a 9-day hospital stay cost $45,000 for me, and after insurance, I owed $6000. That same year, I needed dental work which ran me close to $10,000. After filing taxes, I realized I made a total of $15,000 for the year on a $38,000 salary. Even though I had insurance in 2005, it was limited. Keep in mind, I learned long ago not to feel entitled to anything. However, the current set up of today’s system favors people who can work 2 jobs, and never get sick. The US just scares the hell out of me. It has become a modern day “Logan’s Run”.
5. People today have no sense or urgency or thirst for knowledge or adventure.
Why should they? They have a smartphone. They can ask it questions like a trained monkey, and the phone provides answers. Meanwhile, the person aka. trained monkey, completely loses the opportunity to think for him or herself.
6. The Internet is bulls*** and no one has figured that out, yet.
The Internet has done more to kill the economy simply by turning us into productive machines. We can produce and produce all day because of it, but as a result the demand outweighs the supply in a short period of time, meaning that a person’s job becomes disposable in a very short period of time. In recent years, people are often hired on “contract” because they are so productive they are only needed for a short period of time. Since the Internet went mainstream, the economy has slowly tanked, as the Internet acts like one big digital Walmart. The Internet is bullsh** because most of the people building websites offer false promises in the beginning to get enough test dummies to get past beta stages. Words like “transparency” and “trust”, which once stood for something, are now used as tools to lie to people for the purposes of sales. We also build so much crap online that no one “needs”, and pass it off as a necessity, when the truth is if the Internet disappeared tomorrow, the world would be much better off.
7. The job market is a joke online.
I challenge anyone to start looking for work online. When you start getting phone calls and spam about training programs and schools, after applying for work online, you will see how your quest for employment online is just a way for websites to get your personal information to sell you classes. But you want a job, right? Not classes. Good ole’ bait and switch. All the technology in the world, and people use it to act like the typical ass***oles we have dealt with since time began.
8. Politicians involvement in the stock market.
How the hell can you have lawmakers buy interest in a company, when they are the very people regulating the market? Now, I know they are smart enough to see why this is a conflict of interest, and they do not care.
I was once told as a child, “Your taxes will pay for the services of the government”. I have now, as an adult, realized how the US economy is one big Ponzi scheme. Sadly, people in the US would sooner put a neighbor out of business than actually take a stand against wrong-doings of the government. Politicians involvement in the stock market has turned the US into the very monarchy the founding fathers fought against back in the 1700′s.
9. The truly apathetic government.
On the 1st year anniversary of “Superstorm” Sandy (another bullsh** tactic by insurance companies because if they called it a “Hurricane” they would pay out much more), I am reminded how Federal Aid did not reach victims until 8 months after the storm. I rag on people from the northeast for being rude, but if there was ever a reason to be angry at the government for not helping citizens in a disaster….this was it. 8 months??? We had a faster response time to the Tsunami in Indonesia!
10. Crappy job market.
In truth, I brought this fear on myself this year by quitting a job I had for nearly 5 years when I should not have without a plan. However, as I mentioned earlier with the “survival of the fittest” factor, I had gotten to a point where I was literally killing myself on the job, just to get it done. Working for websites is not a “job”. It is a “lifestyle”, which may explain why people with no family ties or connections enjoy it so much, while those with families only last a few years. The US is a “live to work” nation in a nation of consumers. We want and want and want and want, but sadly have forgotten what we need.
Myself, I have this seizure disorder and I was staring at a computer screen for 70 hours a week in a highly stressful position. I was committing suicide with a laptop. Thankfully, my belief in a family ideal is what saved me for now. The job market right now … I have never seen it this bad before in my life, and I regret spending all my life’s energy in a lifestyle job that was killing me slowly.
Finally…
11. We are getting dumber by the day.
I watched this commercial the other day for a Google phone where a person asks, “How do I get home?”, and is pleased the phone knows….and I cannot believe no one sees what is wrong with that. You see, when I was a child there was this thing my parents taught me called, “Learning how to survive on my own.” I was taught, “If we ever get separated, you find your way home {insert directions}”. What it taught me back then was the art of being “RESOURCEFUL”. Even to this day, I do not trust GPS for the lone reason that it runs on battery power that dies in two hours. However, I plan to be around for 80+ years, and that means as I get older I am going to need to know how to take care of myself, in order to survive.
There is one more point to this…I remember growing up that this elderly woman in our neighborhood used to walk around asking everyone, “Where do I live?”. She suffered from dementia. What if she had an Android? Would she find her way home? No. The last thing I want to have happen to me is to be forced to rely on technology to live and find my way home. I would rather rely on family and people who care about me. When I look at all the technology being created that encourages us to “think less”, “read less”, or “do less”, I quickly turn my attention to the creators of such technology and notice something very funny…They are always reading, always thinking, and always doing something new.
Therefore, what makes us dumber by the day is the belief that technology exists to “solve problems”, when it does quite the opposite, and does anything BUT make us “smarter”. It exists much like an alcoholic beverage…Great in tiny amounts for a buzz…dangerous if you have too much, especially when driving. You would never find the owner of Samuel Adams dipping into the company brew, and you won’t find creators of websites using their own technology.
I cannot help but look at the people who create technology encouraging consumers to “think, act, or do” less, and think of the words “hypocrisy”, “addiction”, and “gypsy”. A hypocrit always lies about his/her intentions. An addict always places a label of necessity on things they do not need. A gypsy always tries to pass off something as “amazing” or “smarter” to distract from the fact it is just a toy. Today’s adults and youth have more “toys” they think they cannot live without, and sadly they think it makes them “smarter” for knowing how to use them, when they are failing to use the very tool they were born with…their brains.
