Solid Block of Ise

Yeah, the topic pretty much says it all. I think a lot. My brain is rarely quiet. Unless pre-occupied with something needing immediate attention it tends to fall back on common, heavy and almost unanswerable topics.

Most of these topics can roughly be categorized either as “What’s Wrong With The World Today?” or “What’s Wrong With Me?”

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Let me give you an example of a subject falling under the World-category that I think a lot about these days: Television. Karl Marx once said that religion is the opiate of the masses. Now, I totally agree with this –”religion” is also one of the many subtopics of the World-category that I think about– but I also think that technology that emerged in the mid-20th century has given us another opiate with which to dull our senses: Television.

When television started receiving wide commercialization and globalization in the 1970’s and 1980’s people (mostly parents) were worried that this thing would corrupt the minds of the young ones. Personally I think that television of that era is incredibly naive and innocent compared to the multiheaded dragon we have today, but none the less it was the seed for the abomination that now blares from millions of boob-tubes around the world.

Over the last two years or so I’ve become almost convinced that television is one of the pillars of what’s keeping humankind from evolving. Television of the early 21st century has become a drug, something to dull our senses so we stay docile and keep consuming. Television is the medium used to subdue people, keep them from asking questions, questioning authority and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

I don’t like using the word “conspiracy” because that word has become associated with nutters and people wearing tinfoil-hats to keep the rays out, but in a way television has become a conspiracy. A de-facto conspiracy, if you will. A conspiracy where we are bombarded with commercials, braindead “reality”-series promoting the lowest common denominators, celebrity gossip, sitcoms, generic humor, generic sadness, generic genericness. Everything fabricated and disguised as entertainment. Homogenated into a weird painting almost resembling reality but not containing one single ounce of it.

This conspiracy extends to some extent to the Internet. The numbing continues here. Look at blogs, for example. Most of the worlds most popular blogs continue the trend of television. Celebrity gossip, fashion, makeup. Admittedly this is medication that netizens themselves fabricate for themselves, but I think that we’re so fond of it simply because we’ve (and by we I mean you and me, the regular joe) been conditioned to think that it’s important. Since we believe it’s important we continue the indoctrination over onto a medium that isn’t controlled by higher-ups, and this in turn slowly corrupts this fabulous new medium after a while.

Everyone is expected to watch television. Unless you follow whatever current nonsense is being broadcast, you’re shunned by the rest of the tribe. If you don’t even own a television you’re considered a freak, an outcast, someone not to be trusted. I have a friend who a few years back tossed out his television due to lack of interest. When the swedish agency that registers ownership of televisions (yes, we have one of those) called him and asked if he’d registered ownership he of course replied that he didn’t own a television. Essentially they then treated him as a liar and a cheat.

Essentially that’s how my thoughts on television go. On and on I think about subjects like that, trying to deduce what they bring or take from our society.

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Another thing currently rolling through my head is the topic of “therapy”, probably best categorized under the “What’s Wrong With Me?” As any regular reader knows I suffer from anxiety-related depression and am currently taking medication to combat this. A few years ago I regularly attended therapy and it helped me a bit, but after a while I felt that I was only rehashing the same old things without making any progress, and slowly started reducing the amount of therapy I exposed myself to.

Therapy is a funny word. Really, it’s just a fancy word for talking. There are of course various forms of therapy, with therapists focusing on different methods of making the subject themselves realize things. I think that being a therapist is kind of similar to wrestling smoke - if you manage to get a grip you’re really, really good, but getting there is slow and difficult progress.

But in it’s most basic form therapy is simply talking about the things that make you hurt inside. And this makes me wonder; have we lost so much of our ability to communicate with each other that we have to designate certain individuals and certify them simply in order to be able to talk to them about how we feel?

Isn’t it kinda weird when you think about it? We have SPECIAL PEOPLE that we talk to. Any alien species coming to earth would probably be thoroughly confused by the concept. After realizing what purpose it served it would then assume that we’re a very primitive species who lack the skills to communicate with each other, and thus have to educate people to do it for us.

Because, that’s what I think one part of therapy boils down to. Communication. Have we become so distanced from ourselves that we’ve deprecated the most basic of our requirements? Because that’s what I view communication as - a requirement. Requirement not only to feel good about issues that trouble ourselves, but also sharing issues that trouble others.

Usually we talk to close friends, parents, relatives, sometimes even complete strangers. But maybe we’re losing that capability? I know I’m not good at it myself, being a very introverted individual when it comes to confrontational and direct communication.

Therapy is also about finding what works for YOU, the individual in need of help. In my case, my blog has over the years become the best therapy for me.

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There, I hope that wasn’t too scary.

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