Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Productized Society

I just coined a new term.  Feel free to use and abuse it whenever possible:

Productized ('prɑdəkt-taɪzd') Society:
A society wherein the range of acceptable behaviours becomes so narrow and superficial that it produces only undifferentiated shrink wrapped drones (aka. "people")

My biggest grudge against this slow motion clusterfuck, beyond the hideous fact that it has failed well over half of the population on this planet, is this relentless productization of society; no doubt spawning the dunced groupthink driving the Ponzi blow off that we are now witnessing in real time. And no doubt why every other advertisement is for a boner pill or testosterone, so corporate waterboys can vaguely experience what it's like to be a man. Unfortunately, the Idiocracy is attracted to productized "leaders", like a moth to a flame.

(Full disclosureI am no doubt by many purist standards, highly productized myself, which only adds to my latent rage for having been put through the meat grinder forwards and backwards...)

[Original Post: Jan. 11/2013] Phony Society, Seeks Phony Solutions...
Everyone is getting wrapped around the axle now because their favourite assault weapon, video game, happy pill, talk show propagandist, or political stooge is in some way being blamed for the burgeoning psychosis sweeping society.

Unfortunately, no one factor is at the root cause of this latent mental breakdown.  All of these above mentioned diversions are merely symptoms of a much deeper issue with this society, which is its overwhelming preoccupation and fetish with maintaining superficial appearances over confronting reality...

Perfect is the Enemy of the Good
When a society puts more time and effort into maintaining the illusion of "perfection" than in dealing with the inevitable problems that occur in daily life, then it's no surprise that those problems will accumulate under the surface, requiring yet more effort, pharmaceuticals, propaganda and bullshit to make them magically seem to "go away", however temporarily.

That's where we are now, everything is merely about maintaining appearances. How did we get to a point where we literally accept the fact the almost every politician has become a game show host spouting non-stop bullshit while assiduously avoiding at least half of available and pertinent facts? How did we morph into having infotainment TV stations devoted only to one point of view or way of thinking? How did we end up with a surplus of man boys who can tell you every statistic about a former pro athlete, but can't find Iraq or Vietnam on a fucking map, and have no interest in knowing? How did we get to having so many health issues and so many pills when 99% of the food in the grocery store is devoid of nutrition? And how did we decide that handing all of the jobs to foreigners and printing money was a substitute for a real economy - even as the fucktards of the day scratch their heads as to why there are no jobs.

All because maintaining the illusion of success is far more important than actually achieving it. A society obsessed with "perfect" apples that look good on the outside, but on the inside are denatured hollow mush. Which is the same way this society likes its politicians and its daily enema of infotainment bullshit. 

Stag-nation
Like a 400 pound fat man who can barely get out of his own way, this society is too bloated and stagnant to face reality on any dimension, much less to make progress. That of course explains why there are so many perma-smiling buffoons running amok in leadership positions, because the concept of actually doing anything concrete, is anathema to both them and their constituents.

Bought In and Sold Out
Some people say the issue is bad data. Bullshit. We've never had so much data in world history. Good data is just a click away for anyone who wants it. Granted, there is way too much junk data floating around, generated by the various vested interests; yet sorting out the good from the bad is by no means impossible. What it requires however, is the energy, willpower, courage and objectivity to do so, all of which are sadly lacking from this couch potato society that can barely muster the energy for yet another day of toiling away like lifeless drones. Worse yet, some abject comfort seekers actually enjoy this mind numbing rat race to nowhere and therefore want nothing to do with ascertaining the truth behind its ever-dwindling sustainability - they are bought in and sold out. They don't want to get unplugged from The Matrix.

Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge, this world is not a computer-generated Matrix, so maintaining phony appearances at the expense of a well rounded sustainable and healthy way of life will only work fine, until it stops working entirely. At that point, we will all be unplugged from this debt sponsored fantasy, into the harsh light of back-to-basics economic reality. Suffice to say, it will be a big adjustment for all of us, but an even bigger adjustment for those who actually think all of this is real....