An interesting but unfortunate take on what's happening in our country

[PaulRevere08]

[link:https://imgur.com/dtB8rh8|

[Newest Reality]

1. That was an excellent insight...

Although we talk about gullibility and sheer stupidity, a vapid, superficial, confused and highly conditioned, (by the capitalist Gestalt) life seems to be what you would expect from people who have not been exposed to alternatives, deeper insights, illuminating meaning and values that transcend the catechism of the Simulation, or The Spectacle.

The carrot before the horse effect is like a trance-inducing litany that preserves ignorance and breeds a variety of hedonistic behaviors that serve the basic dopamine cycle, stimulates the limbic, (lizard brain) and detracts from anything outside of the boundaries that might serve to liberate them from banality and a covert servitude from cradle to grave.

"Wake up, Neo. The Matrix has you."

[lunatica]

5. Very nice!

The ultimate power is the power to consume. Things! More things! It is Capitalism! More American than apple pie.

[alwaysinasnit]

19. +1000

Besides, it takes effort to think about things.

[smirkymonkey]

2. I don't see anything.

Just a black screen.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

6. Here ya go, SM....

--------------------


KY.........

[smirkymonkey]

11. Thank you KY_EnviroGuy!

Very interesting take on the situation. I never thought about it that way, but I think there is something to it. Maybe that is why I am not having such a hard time with this. I am not much of a shopper, and I don't really like it.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. Yes, it's simplified but much core truth to it.

For far too many Americans, as the old (partial) quote from Marx, "religion is the opium of the people" but today it's more like "religion and consumerism are the opiates of the people".

I'm an introvert and like you, not much bothered by the isolation but I think many have made shopping and going out to eat to be their entire social life. The evidence here is heavy traffic during the day and full parking lots at shopping centers and restaurants almost every day (before COVID-19). When I was a kid, we felt lucky to eat at a restaurant once or twice a year and only one major shopping trip to Nashville during Christmas.

It's so sad how we have lost our sense of old-fashioned small town close-knit community.........

[GoneOffShore]

20. Damn, and I thought that Marx said: La pizza est l'opium du peuple.

[TeamPooka]

22. The Mall is their mega-church and the dollar bill is their God.

[patphil]

23. Unfortunately, in our society, both religion and consumerism are just forms of entertainment.

That's the real truth of it. People just want to be entertained.

Simple self-gratification.

[c-rational]

13. Sounds like she is a neoliberal, but like most Americans does not know what liberalism is.

[luvtheGWN]

15. Trump is a transactional president

so he would fully agree with little miss Karen.

[enough]

3. Exactly. NT

[Brainfodder]

4. How about this take?

Corporations are people removing personal responsibility for actions.

Religion is a control mechanism for people.

[Newest Reality]

8. Interesting take.

The bind here is the virtual chain to corporations that own and control the means of production. If we consider the reality of how we are chained to them. How much do you own, or can see right now in your surround is not provided by a corporation?

That puts it in a more direct and intimate context because we can complain and criticize the bottom-line, profit-only model of said companies, but are we able to deal with the bondage of the chains they have gently wrapped around us using commercial lubrication and addictive anesthetics? Did anyone complain, scream or cry during their slow indoctrination into the brand of life in capitalist America? Yet, this was foreseen.

As for religion, it is only a control mechanism for the gullible. There are deep and mostly ignored values to it, (though using the word tends to be just a broad brush they paint with in order to justify a screed). A very broad and careful investigation to the various kinds of religions, (not just a myopic view of Western ones as if they ARE all the religion is) reveals that our treatment of the subject here is rather superficial and myopic, to say the least. The fundamentalists are literally killing religion in that sense and crucifying Christianity by way of a gestalt of pure hypocrisy as per Evangelical McChristianity which simply takes advantage of the people, who may also respond well to corporate and political manipulation which brings about a convergence of the two and is not in line at all with the teachings they profess, if one looks into the matter.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

7. So, prostitutes without sex involved?

With unhappy and unfulfilling lives, but which allows them to pay bills and buy stuff?

[qazplm135]

9. it's a take

but way too simplistic of a take in my opinion.

There's probably partial truth there, but only partial I think.

[dlk]

10. Excellent insight

Too many Americans have no involvement with their larger community and derive their meaning & purpose in life largely as consumers. When their ability to shop and consume is unavailable, the ensuing fear and confusion at the loss results in the often irrational and aggressive behaviors we/seem to be seeing everywhere.

[PaulRevere08]

16. Exactly. We have been moved away from civic engagement so that we no longer

feel any connection. We want immediate and personal satisfaction and are unwilling to work on the hard, longterm items.

[dlk]

24. One of the many downsides of vulture capitalism

Americans are viewed as profit centers, first and citizens of our communities second. The indoctrination into being a patriotic consumer starts very early. I remember after 911, we were encouraged to go shopping, as though that was any kind of a real solution. We need a seismic shift in our country, if we are to remain a republic. How that best happens is anyone’s guess. Those at the top, vacuuming up all of our resources, are laughing all the way to the bank.

[Roc2020]

12. It's a unique paradox for Americans...

why dress up when there is nowhere to go and no one to see you.

[jalan48]

14. I consume therfore I am....

[rainin]

18. Even church is transactional

YOU pay and God will answer YOUR prayers

[Grins]

21. I don't know about this one..

My first thought, and looking only at the title,

”An interesting but unfortunate take on what's happening in our country“

my first thought was “another Reich-wing meme”.

I constantly get emails from those on the Reich with titles exactly like this. THEY know the problem! THEY have the answer! It is so simple!

Change this one from the transactional world to, say, the “lack of prayer in schools”, or a “permissive society”, toss in a “unlike our parents and grandparents” and maybe a “greatest generation” and it’s the same.

I’m leery of this one...

[eppur_se_muova]

25. i.e. we are being trained to think of ourselves as economic units, not citizens.

I've heard it said that American doesn't have a culture, it has an economy.

Too much truth in that.

[GoneOffShore]

26. This is so true, and so sad.