Title: Awakening in the Age of Distractions
Category: dont know
Blog Entry: There’s a moment in the Disney movie Pinocchio when Jiminy Cricket arrives on Pleasure Island , takes a look around, and declares, “There’s something phoney about all this!” I believe this new era that we live in today is just such a scene. Somewhere around the end of the 20 th century, there should have been large roadsigns posted, saying, “Beware – you are entering the Age of Distractions”. I have heard others echo this sentiment. We live in a modern-day Pleasure Island , where our senses are constantly stimulated with distractions to keep us from ever thinking about what’s really going on. Feeling worried? Turn on the TV! Feeling like something isn’t quite right? Have another glass! See your therapist! Go out and have Fun! Party yourself silly – just don’t start thinking. And whatever you do, don’t you dare start messing around with the status quo. We’ve got you right where we want you: quiet, afraid, apathetic, guilty and defeated.
Yes, just as Pleasure Island was a place of pleasure and distraction, increasingly is the society in which we live. Eventually Pinocchio realized that the activities that so appealed to his childish whims were meant to keep him busy and occupied, so that the operators of his new-found lifestyle could slowly turn him, and the other boys, one by one, into little donkeys bound for a life of slavery. The donkeys who can still speak sob, “Let us out! Please let us out!” But they are frightened into silence with the crack of a whip. Lampwick, Pinocchio’s companion on Pleasure Island , begins the transformation before his eyes, alerting Pinocchio to the fact that everything he had consumed was tainted . It is only during Lampwick’s violent and frightening transformation that we can see the exact moment Pinocchio wakes up to the reality that he is immersed in. Only once he has seen for himself can he begin to deliberate an escape. Before this knowledge is within him, all of Jiminy’s warnings fall on very deaf ears. Anything and everything that derails productive thought, that hinders clear, critical thought, is a distraction. We are submerged in an ocean of it. Everything is engineered to keeping people not only distracted, but from sharing ideas with each other should they actually form those ideas. One serious challenge is the television. A non-productive item of distraction, it keeps people isolated and entertained. I have heard that before television, there was something called “visiting.” This was a practice wherein individuals went to each others’ houses to talk and socialize. I have heard some people say that if they did not have a television, they would not know what to do with their time. I am greatly worried when I hear statements like this.
How convenient, then, that those who want to maintain the status quo have got us seated each night, right on time for our own brainwashing. Sitting in front of a television, how can one argue back? How can one say, “I don’t believe this! I disagree!” while each message is so quick as to preclude the amount of time needed to form an opinion? We are not allowed to have opinions. We are told to accept what we are told, because that’s the way it is. And what better way to sign oneself up for a load of brainwashing than to sit oneself in front of the TV? They couldn’t have crafted it better themselves.
There is, indeed, something “phoney” about all this. The belief systems we have, that most have, are engineered and artificial. We did not develop them, they were spoon-fed to us. We begin this journey with a realization that all the media we consume is tainted with a particular worldview.
But that smallest of doubt is enough. A doubt can lead to a question, a question to research. Don’t sit alone and just be angry. Actively seek, and share, information. This may lead to a new opinion, a different perspective. A new perspective may lead to a new belief system. And new beliefs, a different life. In the end it is how we live that will determine our collective destiny. We will either be enslaved, or we will wake up in the nick of time, and clamber off of Pleasure Island before it is too late.
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