There is a question that has haunted me ever since 9/11 and the events that occurred after it.
That question has been “how does Bush and gang get away with all this shit?”
Then today the answer came in a blinding flash of insight into today’s typical average American.
A Eureka moment of complete understanding!
I’m on the freeway going from point A to point B on a quest for a scrapper blade for my paint scrapper.
So here I am driving along and the question pops into my mind once again. Looking out the drivers side window is the answer I’ve been searching for all these painful years.
Next to me is an SUV with Dad and Mom in the front and a couple of kids in the back. It’s one of those expensive SUV’s with all the bells and whistles. What caught my attention about this SUV is that it had started to swerve into my lane.
The reason for this is that Dad is trying to dial a number on his cell phone which he is holding up above the steering wheel. He’s wearing a headset with a microphone but apparently he’s having a problem finding the number or something on it.
Mom who is sitting next to him is talking away on her cell phone which is a standard hand held type unit. She has one hand cupped over her other ear to block out whatever sound is interfering with her conversation.
The kids in the back of the SUV look like they are watching a TV Station or something on the LCD screen mounted to the roof of the interior of the SUV. They are wearing audio ear bugs which must be plugged into the DVD player or whatever it is that is being viewed on the LCD screen. Two of them seem to be fighting over whatever it is they are watching.
The third one is a young girl who is maybe fourteen or so. She too is wearing an audio headset which must be plugged into something other than the DVD both her younger brothers are fighting over watching. I’m assuming this is the case because she has a far away look and her mouth is moving slightly as she rocks back in forth in what I assume is the beat of the music she is listening to.
I’ve taken in all these observations in a couple of heartbeats as I move over in the lane to avoid being hit by this SUV which has swerved out of it’s lane. I slow down and let them get ahead of me.
That is when the answer to the question of “how Bush and Gang get away with all the shit they have gotten away with” slaps me upside the head.
Given that the occupants of this vehicle represent the typical American today. The answer is so simple anyone would miss it because it is so obvious.
We are so connected that in reality we have become disconnected from everything that occurs outside the created reality of total self absorption and immersion.
No one in that vehicle was interested in a conversation of substance of the type that occurred when I was growing up and traveling with my family. Everyone is existing in isolation from each other totally oblivious to the real world a conversation would expose them to.
America is paying so much attention to the gimmicks of this age of multi-media infotainment that the road we are all traveling down is completely ignored until we reach our individual destinations. Even then those who have bought into this techno-nightmare will still be mobile and connected to the leash that follows them everywhere during everyday.
Reality is defined by who and what you are connected to at the moment. The road America is traveling down no longer gets any attention at all. There are no conversation about the scenery or anything that occurs outside the vehicle.
That is the reason why there is only a limited amount of outrage by a limited amount of people.
It’s how Bush and Gang have gotten away with this shit for so long.
It’s going to take a major serious accident that shuts down the freeway to force America to pay attention to the reality of the road America is traveling down and end the free ride Bush and gang have had.
I’ve been concerned about this for a long time now; how so many people seem to be interacting more with technology than with each other. (They are even making IPODs for BABIES now!)
As a recovering alcoholic, I am (now) quite familiar with the coping mechanism called “denial”. I watch families like you observed rushing around like crazed gerbils on a spinning wheel, filling every momentof every day with activity, putting in 60 plus hours a week at work to afford all these electronic toys they plug themselves into so as to multi tqsk every second, leaving NO time for reflection or intropsection or communication on any segnificant community level, and I see what appears to me to be some kind of massive societal denial going on.
One well fostored by corporations who make thier profits off the sale of all of this stuff, drug companies who profit off the effects of it, (who have convinced the America public thorugh TV advertising that NO one needs to ever hurt or be uncomfortable for one minute longer than it would take to get a prescription filled,), and by a government who protmotes rampant materialism as the only meaningful evidence of sucess.
Then add the high levels of total disillusionment so many Americans feel about a clearly corrupt and for- sale-to-the-highest-biddder the political process, and here we are. The expensive toys, the technology, the frenetic pace so many choose..can insulate people away from painful reality as surely as booze or any other addiction can.
Good diary.
When I drive somewhere, and we out here in the Small Western States drive a lot because places are spaced out and not all on top of each other, I am continually surprised and concerned about the large numbers of folks driving with a cell phone plastered to their ears. It doesn’t seem to matter what time of day or night or middle of the night it is. . .far more drivers have that phone slapped against their heads than don’t.
When I took a shuttle bus to Salt Lake City to fly out to California for the Meetup in April, two of the 20 something aged passengers were on their cell phones the entire 3 hour trip. . .and it was 3 damn o’clock in the morning. Who were they talking to and why???
When most people are at home, they seem totally glued to the television and its normally “of no value” type of programing.
You are right scribe, all of these things and gadgets are apparently used just as drugs would be used by others. The great escape, eh.
I once heard a recorded lecture in high school by this guy who taught a class in “love” at UCLA.
He stated “we are so much together, yet we are so alone.”
Today I think he’ld modify this comment to state.
We are so connected to each other by communications technology we have no time to be alone for thinking.