Below is the intro to the first installment of a new series of pieces I did with Dr. Rob, author of Shrinktalk, titled “Is America Psychologically Devolving?”:
Unless you’ve been in a cave on Mars for the past few years, you’ve probably asked yourself, “Is America beginning to unravel?” Has this nation finally gone mad? Drooling and staggering ahead like some lost ward of a sanitarium – its faculties all but destroyed, crushed under the weight of a society defined by its sloth and ignorance… its greed, envy and mendacity?
This is a dumb, rotten age, and allusions to Rome aren’t extreme. Imbeciles and thieves at every turn, stalking us in all the headlines. Wall Street a gentrified dog track, television filled with common fools and Washington driving the Republic headlong straight off a cliff. And as the flames get higher and higher, the fiddling only gets louder. Self-help pimps rule our literature, mega-churches swell with frightened masses and the “MySpace Nation” soldiers on, blissfully unaware as it consumes its diet of Kardashians, Ritalin and low carb Mango-tinis. A country “doped,” as Lennon sang, “with religion and sex and TV.” Welcome to the New Dumb, the United States of Decline.
It’s said these times test faith. But that misses the crux of the issue. Other than possibly laughing, God’s nowhere to be found in this mess. This is a scientific matter, better addressed to Darwin, and the question at the center is simple. Is the cause of our failure and embarrassment a medical, clinical regression? Is America Psychologically Devolving?
You can read the rest of the discussion here.
I think Maynard James Keenan sums this up pretty well:
Eye on the TV
’cause tragedy thrills me
Whatever flavor it happens to be Like:
“Killed by the husband”
“Drowned by the ocean”
“Shot by his own son”
“She used a poison in his tea,
Then kissed him goodbye”
That’s my kind of story
It’s no fun til someone dies.
Don’t look me at like I am a monster
Frown out your one face, but with the other
Stare like a junkie into the TV
Stare like a zombie while the mother holds her child,
Watches him die,
Hands to the sky cryin’ “why, oh why?”
Cause I need to watch things die from a distance
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies
You all need it too – don’t lie.
Why can’t we just admit it?
We won’t give pause until the blood is flowin’
Neither the brave nor bold
Nor brightest of stories told
We won’t give pause until the blood is flowin’
I need to watch things die from a good safe distance
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies
You all feel the same so why can’t we just admit it?
Blood like rain fallin’ down
Drum on grave and ground
Part vampire, part warrior,
Carnivore and voyeur
Stare at the transmittal.
Sing to the death rattle.
Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men.
But pull your head on out your hippie haze
And give a listen
Shouldn’t have to say it all again
The universe is hostile
So impersonal
Devour to survive
So it is, so it’s always been …
We all feed on tragedy.
It’s like blood to a vampire.
Vicariously, I live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I.
PL: Imabic pentameter? What can I say but “Apt”?
Ok, I’ll bite…
“Texas is an outrage when your husband is dead… Ride Jackie ride!”
I wonder if society is getting dumber or if we have a broader access to the stupidity. Maybe its building momentum like an oily Alaskan algae spiral. Slowly taking over the earth because its no longer isolated and fragmented. PIZZA! PIZZA!
PL: Combination. It’s like there are speakers on every corner, in every wall of every office and someone’s turning up the volume on a broadcast of screams and idiot ramblings from the hall of a psyche ward full of dangerous mutants. Slowly, relentlessly turning madness and abject imbecility into our permanent background soundtrack.
FYI, the RSS feed subscription button that’s next to the FB and Twitter icons still points to the old site’s RSS. The Posts RSS button works fine though.
America is not regressing. America is simply returning to its normal state after a 50-year manic episode.
PL: I disagree. I think we’re coming into the manic period. And since I know you’re coming to it from an economic angle, even if only subconsciously, I’ll address my views on that: It’s a good thing. Instability creates opportunity. This is where we’ll get innovation outside the realm of mere financial products. And in the realm of finance, you’ll see greater volatility-driven profits. No harm in people being forced to work harder and smarter for their money, and a structure whereby the less effective get blown out of the system more effectively.
I think the real risk is in populism/protectionism coming back. I don’t need to explain all the reasons why. We don’t have the bandwidth and, hell, you know them all, and probably many more than I could ever imagine.
For the record, those were lyrics to the Tool song Vicarious. MJK does the vocals.
I think we are seeing a growing gap between the dumb and the intelligent, much like the lower and upper classes. Smart people are are actually smarter than they’ve ever been, but dumb people seem to be more ubiquitous than ever. They have quite possibly devolved into an unprecedented state of ignorance. Industrial civilization has, and always will be, a detriment to human psychology.
PL: There are more people now, and with it, more dumb people. And as we run out of revenue sources in this country, a more and more promising stream seems to come from serving larger and larger audiences of lowest common denominator consumers cheaper-than-dirt idiot entertainment. And so a downward cycle starts… Get the masses trapped in debt, doped and conditioned to buy crap with garbage entertainment and milk them from cradle to grave, through every step of their paycheck to paycheck existence.
I agree with the above, with a footnote: Being dumb or ignorant is not exclusive to the lower classes or the reason someone is in that class, and may in fact accrue as a result of the social isolation and indifference to others that can occur during the pursuit of great wealth. Yeah, I listen to the first Clash album a lot, fuck you.
PL: Absolutely. Excellent point. The “striving” class in this country is probably more narrow minded, myopic and dull than any other. When was the last time anyone came away from the average gathering of upper middle class professionals with some grand epiphany about anything?
All of these changes are making everything worse.
It was so much better in the good old days.
Urban poverty didn’t exist until Riis picked up his camera.
Rural poverty didn’t exist until a bunch of unemployed artists were told to document it for a decade.
Seeing the world working is a function of getting your head out of your rectum. Seeing that the world functions is a being able to wipe the shit out of your eyes.
Go ahead and talk about this when public execution is the main form of lower class entertainment. Right now you just sound like you’re prepping for your “Get off my lawn” years.
PL: And you’re arguing a point that has nothing to do with what was written. Reread it. You;re taking something away from it that isn’t the thrust of the discussion.