On American Indifference

RageTheory12 years ago

Dear friends, followers, confidants, and concubines,

I’m worried about America. Seriously, I am. I’m not worried about the economy, politics, national security, or terrorism. I’m not worried about Edward Snowden, the royal baby, or how many drug overdoses North West is going to have by the time she’s 12. I couldn’t care less about the daytime MTV marathon that most people accept as reality. I’m worried about an ideal — a dying dream of America that comes to mind when you scream, “fuck yeah!” at the top of your lungs.

I’m worried about America because fewer and fewer young people understand the implications and responsibilities of being alive during this transitional phase of evolution.

In just a matter of decades, technology has fundamentally altered the way in which we interact with the world. We have access to more information and knowledge than all other generations combined. It’s not even important to teach kids anything anymore unless it’s advanced concepts or methods. Google and Wikipedia have essentially turned most test answers into trivia.

“Fucking sweet,” most people think. “Fire up the Xbox and download a degree.”

The problem is that a neo-Cambrian explosion brought on by the internet is inundating our collective unconscious with information. There are trillions of websites online featuring every absurd thing you could think of. All of it is available within seconds. Only about 1% of the Internet is actually worth two shih-tzus in a shitty-China restaurant. The other 99% is erroneous, irrelevant, or entirely outside the realm of acceptable media.

Seriously, have you seen Mr. Hands? That dude died. After filming that video, he walked into a hospital and died. A doctor had to come out of the emergency room and told Mr. Hands, “I’m sorry, we did everything we could, but your friend has been fucked to death by a horse. You should probably put it on the internet.”

Kids today grow up in a digital cradle that bathes them with instant interactions and answers. They are exposed to massive amounts of information and most of it is complete bullshit. That’s the basis for one of the largest problems that has ever existed in America: Inalienable indifference.

People are giving less and less of a shit about what’s going on around them in the world at large. They are bombarded by bullshit all day long. Computers, social media, and video games are giving meaning and value to millions of young adults. The technology is getting more immersive and the graphics are getting more realistic.

The virtual world that young Americans are so intertwined with is more entertaining than the real world. Kids born today already have Facebook pages. Their whole lives will be documented online. As they grow, they will no longer play outside with their friends, but play online with them. This behavior will carry into adulthood. They won’t know any better because that’s the way the world has always been to them.

I was part of the first generation to sign up for Facebook, back when you needed a valid college email address. I can remember a time before smart phones. Remember those invincible Nokia brickphones? Remember Snake?

Most teens today cannot. I might as well be discussing ancient history. They are completely immersed in a constantly evolving info-sphere that contains the sum of all human fuckery to date. Most people don’t give a shit about history, politics, or government. They’d rather discover unexplored parts of a video game than reveal fundamental truths about corruption or tyranny.

It’s an entire generation that’s been mesmerized by the pretty lights of paradigm shifting technology. Hundreds of millions of people constantly update their status. They willingly provide information about themselves to anyone who might be watching. It’s an Orwellian wet dream.

Based on what you like on Facebook, intelligence algorithms can categorize individuals and identify political persuasions, personality types, affiliations, and criminal tendencies. All digital communication, including the content of phone calls, is currently being recorded. Don’t believe anything the NSA says about “just the metadata” or any of that bullshit. Metadata is contained in a super tiny file size. If they were just saving the metadata, they wouldn’t have built a 1.7 billion dollar data center in Utah.

That facility has one purpose. It is designed to record the content of every phone call, text, email, picture, and video message as fast as it possibly can. Currently, its computers are estimated to be able to store data at a rate of 20 terabytes per minute. That’s the equivalent of copying the entire Library of Congress every minute. Think of the porn!

Every call, every dick pic, and every Google search, every thing — it’s all being recorded by the NSA. Most young people do not understand the gravity of this revelation. This is the largest middle finger to the American people since the unconstitutional Patriot Act that authorized it. The NSA isn’t accountable to Congress because Congress doesn’t even understand what they do. The NSA thinks it’s above the Constitution and outside the law.

A secretive shadow government is not part of the American dream, but unfortunately it has become part of American reality. It’s no longer a conspiracy theory. It’s a fact. The real tragedy is how few fucks are given about this. This isn’t a problem that needs more goddamn oversight. The Panopticon is here and it threatens the very fabric of American freedom. Do you think if the founding fathers were here today they would be like “every body chill, it’s just the metadata.”?

No. They would burn that shit straight to the ground. They wouldn’t be blinded by the bullshit for one second, so why are we?

Tyranny is not what’s destroying America… It’s indifference to tyranny. That’s the cancer that’s corroding the greatest nation on earth, but you probably don’t give a shit… so just change the channel.