I do not mean the “dumbing down” of the nations (although that is happening too), but the numbing of the nations - or, making nations and societies and families literally numb to the unfolding disasters and atrocities around us.
As my Dad used to say, “you hit the nail with your head!”…with this opinion piece.
From news to more news. From one podcast to another to another to another, then back to more news….rinse and repeat….. day after day….month after month. Ya caught me!
What did I accomplish? Are my neighbors and community better for my efforts?
This is an essay that needs to be read again….slowly…with a highlighter….and room for notes in the margins. Thank you, Good Sir!
Tucker Carlson has been pointing this out so well. He says we need concern / action in concentric circles. Start with those closest (your family loved ones) moving out from there...
Our concern for the world encourages inertia and lack of action as there is "nothing we can do about it"
Neighborhoods decline when we don't mow the grass or paint the peeling trim. Neglect of the small issues develop into to large messes over time.
My method of cleansing the conscious and subconscious is reading the Bible.
This helps me keep a grasp on reality.
I used to think the Bible was a religious book, but have since learned it is a story about the history of the world.
The origin of everything, the failure of humanity, the redemption through Jesus and the coming restoration of all things.
If you are interested in a resource that will make your journey toward understanding the Bible , simple, vivid, and compelling, then check out this resource.
I totally agree, I feel like I am living in dystopia at times. People do not want to know. I am still upset with the Covid crimes and still no one held accountable, sad days
Thanks, Dr. Francis. A needed message. It seems I'm stuck in the tears stage. I'm angry, too, of course, but the sadness rules the day. It's the first time in my life that I find I have nothing to look forward to; no cool trips, no adventures, no great hikes. The world just seems so tainted to me now.
I’m not numb to the atrocities. I’m exhausted by them BECAUSE I am like every other citizen everywhere, I’m powerless! What can I do but shout into a hollow log in a deep dark forest. Nobody hears. Nothing I do will matter. What else do you expect then if there is nothing to be done for your pain than to suffer in silence. Give me some power and I’ll use it.
If nation state and corporate propagandists and manipulators weren't cranking up and steering much of the material most people encounter today, and if it was not the social norm to find snippets of the encountered material and post it to social media so friends, family or fellow travellers in some field of interest or endeavor would take it in as well, the new means of information transfer would still frazzle our brains to the extent that we allow it.
Writing, reading and the the printing press were the starting point in the last few thousand years - but it was language itself which put humans, alone, on this trajectory.
"The humblest village inhabitant has to-day a wider geographical horizon, more numerous and complex intellectual interests, than the prime minister of a petty, or even a second-rate state a century ago. If he do but read his paper, let it be the most innocent provincial rag, he takes part, certainly not by active interference and influence, but by a continuous and receptive curiosity, in the thousand events which take place in all parts of the globe, and he interests himself simultaneously in the issue of a revolution in Chili, in a bush-war in East Africa, a massacre in North China, a famine in Russia, a street-row in Spain, and an international exhibition in North America. A cook receives and sends more letters than a university professor did formerly, and a petty tradesman travels more and sees more countries and people than did the reigning prince of other times.
"All these activities, however, even the simplest, involve an effort of the nervous system and a wearing of tissue. Every line we read or write, every human face we see, every conversation we carry on, every scene we perceive through the window of the flying express, sets in activity our sensory nerves and our brain centres. Even the little shocks of railway travelling, not perceived by consciousness, the perpetual noises, and the various sights in the streets of a large town, our suspense pending the sequel of progressing events, the constant expectation of the newspaper, of the postman, of visitors, cost our brains wear and tear."
Then there were phonograph records, the telephone system, motion picture and newsreel films in cinemas, public address amplification systems (Hitler have had much such influence without amplification, radio and film with sound) broadcast radio and most dramatically, broadcast television.
He died in 2003, at the age of 72. He would have seen the Internet, built with the only computer networking protocol (TCP/IPv4) which could scale globally, in its most common daily manifestations of email, websites, real-time chat conversations and increasing use of video as DSL and HFC cable modems delivered megabits per second to homes, rather than the tens of kilobits of dialup modems.
He would have seen the early days of Internet search - Alta-Vista and then Google - and the early email discussion list and chat aspects of what became "social media". These were mediated through desktop and increasingly laptop computers via wired data links
I am not sure if anyone foresaw Facebook, Twitter and the like or the almost ubiquitous adoption of always on, usable in bed, pocket computers in the form of mobile/cellular "phones".
Now we have pocket devices mediating the reception and sharing of typically copied memes and the like among friends, work-mates and family, with highly effective policing of expressions - and so, generally, thinking - by those individuals who lead the charge for eradicating wrongthink among their peers.
Even without government and corporate censorship and generation of text, audio, image and video, we are totally immersed in a torrent of stuff which is generally twisted in ways which steer and constrain our understanding of the world.
The Internet is a marvelous thing. It enables people to raise awareness, globally, about neglected matters of importance, as I do from rural Victoria, Australia, about the need for vitamin D3 supplementation, for 70 kg 154 lb body weight, in quantities ca. 1/8th of a milligram a day (5000 IU - ~8 times what governments and many doctors recommend) in order to provide sufficient circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D for the immune system to operate properly. Without this, most people have half or less of the 25-hydroxyvitamin D they need to be healthy.
I have been doing this intensively since early 2020: https://vitamindstopscovid.info . Only last week did I meet any other people involved in this effort face-to-face.
Pointless talking about the fires in our failed society without exposing the arsonists.
The left-right paradigm has long since been hijacked and used to sow the seeds of animosity and division through identity politics. The corruption is so rampant that Americans have long been justified in acting upon the Second Amendment, as the scenario we have been living through for the past 25 years is exactly why the Founding Fathers created it.
We need to rise up, expose the arsonists, overthrow, and revamp the entire system. Any deviation from this simply means we watch our grandchildren suffer horrifically for our cowardice and willful ignorance. There is no compromise.
They will never let us vote our way out of these problems.
To put this in context, replace arsonists with Israel.
Dr. Francis, you always write such compelling articles. There is no doubt whatsoever, that society is being dumbed down and in turn this makes us numb.
Despite of or because of the internet, we need to spend more time than ever to synthesize information from many sources to determine what we think might actually be happening. For sure, atrocities are not new but the numbing of nations, is.
Dr Francis,
As my Dad used to say, “you hit the nail with your head!”…with this opinion piece.
From news to more news. From one podcast to another to another to another, then back to more news….rinse and repeat….. day after day….month after month. Ya caught me!
What did I accomplish? Are my neighbors and community better for my efforts?
This is an essay that needs to be read again….slowly…with a highlighter….and room for notes in the margins. Thank you, Good Sir!
Ken. Upstate SC
Tucker Carlson has been pointing this out so well. He says we need concern / action in concentric circles. Start with those closest (your family loved ones) moving out from there...
Our concern for the world encourages inertia and lack of action as there is "nothing we can do about it"
Neighborhoods decline when we don't mow the grass or paint the peeling trim. Neglect of the small issues develop into to large messes over time.
My method of cleansing the conscious and subconscious is reading the Bible.
This helps me keep a grasp on reality.
I used to think the Bible was a religious book, but have since learned it is a story about the history of the world.
The origin of everything, the failure of humanity, the redemption through Jesus and the coming restoration of all things.
If you are interested in a resource that will make your journey toward understanding the Bible , simple, vivid, and compelling, then check out this resource.
www.thebibleproject.com
I totally agree, I feel like I am living in dystopia at times. People do not want to know. I am still upset with the Covid crimes and still no one held accountable, sad days
It is the negative fear. They know something is wrong, but afraid of consequence... so they keep the head in the sand..
They see it all, but invente excuse.
Thanks, Dr. Francis. A needed message. It seems I'm stuck in the tears stage. I'm angry, too, of course, but the sadness rules the day. It's the first time in my life that I find I have nothing to look forward to; no cool trips, no adventures, no great hikes. The world just seems so tainted to me now.
I’m not numb to the atrocities. I’m exhausted by them BECAUSE I am like every other citizen everywhere, I’m powerless! What can I do but shout into a hollow log in a deep dark forest. Nobody hears. Nothing I do will matter. What else do you expect then if there is nothing to be done for your pain than to suffer in silence. Give me some power and I’ll use it.
As always insightful and filled with truth.
There is only one answer to the monster of control the globalists wield-
And that is the rising of the sons of god with Jesus as the head - taking back what belongs to the king of kings
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/silence-church-deafening-dan-moody-bczbc
If nation state and corporate propagandists and manipulators weren't cranking up and steering much of the material most people encounter today, and if it was not the social norm to find snippets of the encountered material and post it to social media so friends, family or fellow travellers in some field of interest or endeavor would take it in as well, the new means of information transfer would still frazzle our brains to the extent that we allow it.
Writing, reading and the the printing press were the starting point in the last few thousand years - but it was language itself which put humans, alone, on this trajectory.
In his 1892 rant "Degeneration" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degeneration_(Nordau), (ca. 242,000 words in English translation: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/51161/51161-h/51161-h.htm) Max Nordau wrote:
"The humblest village inhabitant has to-day a wider geographical horizon, more numerous and complex intellectual interests, than the prime minister of a petty, or even a second-rate state a century ago. If he do but read his paper, let it be the most innocent provincial rag, he takes part, certainly not by active interference and influence, but by a continuous and receptive curiosity, in the thousand events which take place in all parts of the globe, and he interests himself simultaneously in the issue of a revolution in Chili, in a bush-war in East Africa, a massacre in North China, a famine in Russia, a street-row in Spain, and an international exhibition in North America. A cook receives and sends more letters than a university professor did formerly, and a petty tradesman travels more and sees more countries and people than did the reigning prince of other times.
"All these activities, however, even the simplest, involve an effort of the nervous system and a wearing of tissue. Every line we read or write, every human face we see, every conversation we carry on, every scene we perceive through the window of the flying express, sets in activity our sensory nerves and our brain centres. Even the little shocks of railway travelling, not perceived by consciousness, the perpetual noises, and the various sights in the streets of a large town, our suspense pending the sequel of progressing events, the constant expectation of the newspaper, of the postman, of visitors, cost our brains wear and tear."
Then there were phonograph records, the telephone system, motion picture and newsreel films in cinemas, public address amplification systems (Hitler have had much such influence without amplification, radio and film with sound) broadcast radio and most dramatically, broadcast television.
In 1985, Neil Postman wrote of TV, and especially TV "news", in his widely cited treatise: Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death.
He died in 2003, at the age of 72. He would have seen the Internet, built with the only computer networking protocol (TCP/IPv4) which could scale globally, in its most common daily manifestations of email, websites, real-time chat conversations and increasing use of video as DSL and HFC cable modems delivered megabits per second to homes, rather than the tens of kilobits of dialup modems.
He would have seen the early days of Internet search - Alta-Vista and then Google - and the early email discussion list and chat aspects of what became "social media". These were mediated through desktop and increasingly laptop computers via wired data links
I am not sure if anyone foresaw Facebook, Twitter and the like or the almost ubiquitous adoption of always on, usable in bed, pocket computers in the form of mobile/cellular "phones".
Now we have pocket devices mediating the reception and sharing of typically copied memes and the like among friends, work-mates and family, with highly effective policing of expressions - and so, generally, thinking - by those individuals who lead the charge for eradicating wrongthink among their peers.
Even without government and corporate censorship and generation of text, audio, image and video, we are totally immersed in a torrent of stuff which is generally twisted in ways which steer and constrain our understanding of the world.
The Internet is a marvelous thing. It enables people to raise awareness, globally, about neglected matters of importance, as I do from rural Victoria, Australia, about the need for vitamin D3 supplementation, for 70 kg 154 lb body weight, in quantities ca. 1/8th of a milligram a day (5000 IU - ~8 times what governments and many doctors recommend) in order to provide sufficient circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D for the immune system to operate properly. Without this, most people have half or less of the 25-hydroxyvitamin D they need to be healthy.
I have been doing this intensively since early 2020: https://vitamindstopscovid.info . Only last week did I meet any other people involved in this effort face-to-face.
Pointless talking about the fires in our failed society without exposing the arsonists.
The left-right paradigm has long since been hijacked and used to sow the seeds of animosity and division through identity politics. The corruption is so rampant that Americans have long been justified in acting upon the Second Amendment, as the scenario we have been living through for the past 25 years is exactly why the Founding Fathers created it.
We need to rise up, expose the arsonists, overthrow, and revamp the entire system. Any deviation from this simply means we watch our grandchildren suffer horrifically for our cowardice and willful ignorance. There is no compromise.
They will never let us vote our way out of these problems.
To put this in context, replace arsonists with Israel.
Outstandingly put.
Dr. Francis, you always write such compelling articles. There is no doubt whatsoever, that society is being dumbed down and in turn this makes us numb.
Despite of or because of the internet, we need to spend more time than ever to synthesize information from many sources to determine what we think might actually be happening. For sure, atrocities are not new but the numbing of nations, is.
I thought it was a pubic triangle?
The author seems to think it is a square.
That being said, we can define who wields the instrument of propaganda most viciously, its originator being Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew.
I love that Czech saying!! I will use that here and there, especially with our provincial election (BC) in 7 days…