Humanity's Worst Threat to it's own Survival
Why do people seem to need doom and gloom?
What is the reason that the above feeling of everything is going down and that everything is fucked so essential to human life?
It seems everywhere I go and everyone I meet is down about something.
Take today for instance. I headed to lunch, pretty down already about my work. At the table, I didn't mention it, because I'm typically the one who makes the depressing comments and that I hoped that other's conversation would get me feeling better (as they typically do when I make said comments). This was not to be the case, since all bar two of the group I was with started talking about the very real possibility of the world annihilating itself. What's worse, is that this did not simply crop up as a logical continuing of the conversation - rather it felt forced. It felt as if the person who started this topic had to say something propagating the doom and gloom - just to bring the conversation back down to the right amount of depressed feeling.
Now this lunchtime could have just been coincidence, however this has been happening a lot around me and to other people recently - and the more I think about it the more I realize that it has been happening for quite some time - perhaps most of my adult life. That means that everyday, in almost every way, someone I meet, somewhere I am has a hopeless, gloom, depressed, down feeling. Worse still, as I reflected on this fact, I realized, even my leisure activities - the things I do for fun and time out have a fair amount of this feeling present - even some of the ones that are not fantasy.
If I'm not delusional, and this is happening to everyone, then this is a problem, because at least in the case of myself, the doom and gloom feeling is being reinforced by everyone else's relation of the same emotion - even when I'm not depressed. We are all feeding off and feeding each other on depression - and keeping us all low - and that's a scary thought.
Think about this for a bit. Examine your day with this in mind, and I'm sure you'll find it to be true.
For instance - my yesterday:
Negativity and depression from house mates, news, work, university associates, girlfriend, girfriend's workmate, friends, internet, email, role playing games & probably more.
As you can see above, some of the things listed are not people - but I should point out that they are information services created and maintained by people - people who are spreading the doom and gloom.
This all has a history too. It has been going on for far too long in the scheme of things, and what we know of the past shows it. Religion has used and propagated it for centuries. Leaders use it to manipulate. Companies and corporations use it to get work out of people and sell their products. Perhaps these things also have good and joyous points? Maybe, but if they do, they do so by advertising the bad - reminding us of the bad. Leaders emphasize threats to life in all forms in their speeches about how they are or will be doing good, companies use bad imagery along with the good to sell their products - and it goes on and gets worse. Each one reinforcing the feeling, making us more and more depressed.
And we are all accepting this as normality...
If I am correct about all this, there is one very scary conclusion.
This reinforcement of ours is building exponentially. It's getting greater and greater, and doing so faster and faster. All other emotions are now second rate, and last for less and less time. We take what enjoyment we can, but this never lasts because the depression feeling is propagated again, and we are back at the horrible norm. We pity others, but in doing so we find more depression, and are re-set and reinforced again. How long will it take to grow to the point where there is no other feeling?
I am worried that day is not so far off - and yet again I am reinforced.
I believe that this constant psychological reinforcement of 'doom and gloom' is the greatest threat that the Human race faces - and I m worried that we will not survive.
What is the reason that the above feeling of everything is going down and that everything is fucked so essential to human life?
It seems everywhere I go and everyone I meet is down about something.
Take today for instance. I headed to lunch, pretty down already about my work. At the table, I didn't mention it, because I'm typically the one who makes the depressing comments and that I hoped that other's conversation would get me feeling better (as they typically do when I make said comments). This was not to be the case, since all bar two of the group I was with started talking about the very real possibility of the world annihilating itself. What's worse, is that this did not simply crop up as a logical continuing of the conversation - rather it felt forced. It felt as if the person who started this topic had to say something propagating the doom and gloom - just to bring the conversation back down to the right amount of depressed feeling.
Now this lunchtime could have just been coincidence, however this has been happening a lot around me and to other people recently - and the more I think about it the more I realize that it has been happening for quite some time - perhaps most of my adult life. That means that everyday, in almost every way, someone I meet, somewhere I am has a hopeless, gloom, depressed, down feeling. Worse still, as I reflected on this fact, I realized, even my leisure activities - the things I do for fun and time out have a fair amount of this feeling present - even some of the ones that are not fantasy.
If I'm not delusional, and this is happening to everyone, then this is a problem, because at least in the case of myself, the doom and gloom feeling is being reinforced by everyone else's relation of the same emotion - even when I'm not depressed. We are all feeding off and feeding each other on depression - and keeping us all low - and that's a scary thought.
Think about this for a bit. Examine your day with this in mind, and I'm sure you'll find it to be true.
For instance - my yesterday:
Negativity and depression from house mates, news, work, university associates, girlfriend, girfriend's workmate, friends, internet, email, role playing games & probably more.
As you can see above, some of the things listed are not people - but I should point out that they are information services created and maintained by people - people who are spreading the doom and gloom.
This all has a history too. It has been going on for far too long in the scheme of things, and what we know of the past shows it. Religion has used and propagated it for centuries. Leaders use it to manipulate. Companies and corporations use it to get work out of people and sell their products. Perhaps these things also have good and joyous points? Maybe, but if they do, they do so by advertising the bad - reminding us of the bad. Leaders emphasize threats to life in all forms in their speeches about how they are or will be doing good, companies use bad imagery along with the good to sell their products - and it goes on and gets worse. Each one reinforcing the feeling, making us more and more depressed.
And we are all accepting this as normality...
If I am correct about all this, there is one very scary conclusion.
This reinforcement of ours is building exponentially. It's getting greater and greater, and doing so faster and faster. All other emotions are now second rate, and last for less and less time. We take what enjoyment we can, but this never lasts because the depression feeling is propagated again, and we are back at the horrible norm. We pity others, but in doing so we find more depression, and are re-set and reinforced again. How long will it take to grow to the point where there is no other feeling?
I am worried that day is not so far off - and yet again I am reinforced.
I believe that this constant psychological reinforcement of 'doom and gloom' is the greatest threat that the Human race faces - and I m worried that we will not survive.