Degenerations

I’m holding my breath, trying to contain the shock and keep my muzzle on (I was told I needed it for voicing my disgust at our “evolving” mentality too often). The teachers workshop I am documenting is nearing the end, and I am sitting in the corner cradling my camera. I’m checking the shots I’ve taken when one of the teachers describes an alarming trend among students, and although I’m quite informed on the dystopian nature of our nation’s mind set, I am genuinely shocked. She spoke of how the school had taken the students to the cinema to see the Bohemian Rhapsody and, casually as if it’s normal, explained how kids could not handle as little as two men holding hands, let alone an embrace or god forbid a kiss - even on screen. Apparently, there is also a trend of total intolerance to proximity of others. In classrooms, they often sit behind their desks, at 26 degrees Celsius, in their winter jackets, just so they have a buffer between them and their schoolmates. It’s not that they are shy, they are repulsed.

Here’s an intro to a series of rants from a continent away. We seem to have a pathological need to hate anything that’s not us. Anything different in fact. I guess it’s a residue of our former regime. But where I live, racism and fear of migrants is so 2016. Back then, thousands of “patriots”, including those relatively fresh migrants that, after at least a decade of living here, hardly spoke a word of our language (often because of refusing so), furiously protested against refugees, riding in their tractors or wielding signs they made from cardboard boxes the night before after a 12 hour work shift that pays less than monthly expenses. Since then, we’ve taken our intolerance to whole new levels. We hate everyone. And worship ourselves. "beyourownhero" gone seriously wrong, like so many global notions we’ve degenerated before.

We’re afraid of our own shadow, let alone someone different. Teachers’ school trip reports speak of parents psyching out their kids with continuous warnings of streams, dirt, trees, water, rain, storms. No more wishing them a great time and lots of fun with their friends. They call them on their phones every half an hour to see whether they’re still alive or perhaps already half devoured by a bear. At the sign of first little clouds they call in to make sure their god’s miracles haven’t been electrocuted by a lightning. They prohibit their kids’ picture being taken in school as if they’re some kind of a government secret project. Their faces are whited out in class photos, but they do participate - after all, they will see everyone on their photo! What a wonderful memory! The parents of these “classified” kids forbid other parents from filming a school play, because their kid is also in it. Imagine what the world will be like when these kids grow up.

Photo by Thijs Schouten on Unsplash

Everyone is an enemy. If you eat meat, you’re destroying the world. Vegans might attack you in front of a meat counter in a grocery store. Parents feed their babies vegan food, deny them of milk, so pathologically selfish and against doctors (who are also enemies bytheway!) that they are willing to seriously risk the baby’s health despite warnings or even serious orders. If you tell people the truth, you’re an enemy. If you look different, you’re not one of us. If someone is nice to you, they’re looking to hurt you. If you are of no benefit to people, they won’t even look at you. People antagonize others for the most banal reasons. Forget LGBT or race, we’re down to basics now. And all it took was 20 years of dumbing people down through mass communications, the media, advertising and social networks, simplistically producing content without the need of the slightest brain power, making oversimplified, often wrong causal connections and delivering them straight up as a matter of fact to viewers who have by now abandoned all but basic thinking (except elaborate contemplation on how to break laws). The most viewed news programs are predominately antagonistic and conflictive, hostile in tone and convictive. They have abandoned culture reports for pop culture news, spreading degenerated values of stardome, winners, heroes, beauty, trivialism, power and popularity that are causing numerous problems in our society, mostly among younger generations.

In a world where people don’t read much anymore, people learn from mass communications and rows of billboards along every city road. Often you would hear them quoting commercials in their daily interactions, failing to separate fictional, superficial and obscenely unrealistic advertising from real life. You would tell them to go right, and they would go left. Some don’t know how to open doors when pushing them doesn’t work. Would rather go home and call in to argue with the reception why they were closed, only to be politely informed that if the door doesn’t open by pushing, it opens by pulling (IDIOT!). Step outside and you’ll witness at least one true idiotism in five minutes. Drive on our roads! Meet our bureaucracy! And just when you think it cannot get worse, the mass communications outlets begin feeding the retarded with flattery that fuels the fire of egotism and relativism that has been burning strong for decades in this country. They begin proliferating and soon all these idiots are self-proclaimed heroes, winners and stars of their own existence, above everybody else and increasingly often above the law.

Breaking the law is a national sport, swindling and corruption in official business is deemed resourceful and ambitious. Government agencies and ministries join in. Our jails are five-star hotels, inmates have better care than guards. Our legislature is written or interpreted in favour of crime. Morals and values have rotten. We worship our public celebrity image. We value fashion magazine bodies while second-rating all others. The pathological marriage of ego and power is cramming millenials through doors of gyms where they spend their days weightlifting and planning their catwalk on the beaches of Croatia. Every other dog in our town is a pitbull, because they radiate power. MMA fighting gets more airtime than winter sports where we excel. And above all, everything seems to be allowed. From destroying property to breaking traffic laws, endangering other people, let alone stealing (another national sport) and nepotistic advances in official applications.

It’s almost impossible to keep your sanity in a world degenerating so fast. Almost.

#society #stupid #values #mentality #sanitycheck