As people live more and more in the screens of our myriad electronic devices, and less and less in the realtime, face to face world — we find it easier and easier to dismiss each other with a simple swipe or touch of those screens, or an on/off button. We are becoming more and more 2D “virtual”, and less and less 3D “real”. Even evolving 3D screen devices present a surreality. We are living more and more in a conjured world — in cities of the mind.
It is a dangerous subconscious dehumanization, and in that, a subtle devaluation of each other, as flesh and blood. We have become more or less electronic entities we can have appear and disappear at whim and will. The internet, cable, and dish onslaught of things to attract us and distract us, via the “instantaneous streaming” of significant elements of our reality(s), create fewer and fewer ‘whole’ things in which we are substantively grounded, making much of our daily life ethereal, temporary, and superficial.
We are bombarded daily by unfounded supposition, opinions, dogmas, and blatant scripted lies; as well as immersive presentations of fantasy realities via movies, commercials, and video games. This occurs to such a degree that reality has become fluid — perceived truth has become relative. All of this leads further to dehumanization and devaluation of “real” human life.
We face an incredibly volatile situation, perfect for abandonment of a sense of responsibility for the real world, our earth in which we physically live — hence the acceleration of ecological disasters and burgeoning environmental collapse we are now witnessing. It also makes it much easier, through mislead and subterfuge, for evil, exploitive agendas to take root. Agendas that can develop into very serious real world social exploitation — hence, the growing Trump nightmare, and the other demagogs that have begun sprouting forth in society. So just where are we now? These are tense, dangerous, and potentially explosive times in which we live. Ours has become an ever more fragile world.
reality’s now fluid
my life’s untethered
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rob kistner © 2021
Poetry at: The Sunday Muse