As we live more and more in the screens of our myriad electronic devices, and less and less in the face-to-face world, we find it easier and easier to dismiss each other with a swipe or touch of those screens, or an on/off button.
We are living more and more in a conjured world — “cities of our mind”. It is a dangerous, subconscious dehumanization, a subtle devaluation of each other as real. We’re becoming electronic entities we can make appear, or disappear, at whim and will.
We’re bombarded daily by supposition, even blatant scripted lies. We’re frequently immersed in the fantasy worlds of movies, TV, cellphones, and video games. Reality has become fluid — truth’s becoming relative. This leads further to that devaluation of human life. Likewise, I am bombarded, yet I stand on this “truth litmus” — I carefully test it before I ingest it!
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rob kistner © 2021
Poetry at: dVerse
Double bang-on, brother! Our present surreal and chaotic state has been a decade in its coming. The media and the Net have been/are critical factors; Trumpitis is another. Voting rights, global warming, and stupidity, some people’s need to follow and belong no matter what. Truth has become the four leaf clover. It’s out there, but it’s damn hard to find it.
Glenn, it has gotten to the point brother, that I sometimes forget what the fuck I believe! But I still seem to be able to sniff out bullshit. Sniff on!
I was nodding my head reading this, I liked your phrase “a conjured world,” because I think there is a fair amount of witchcraft involved in what we are served up on our screens. It is enough to make your head spin, but I stand with you!
Glad this resonated for you Tricia.
Nice! Good advice, to carefully test it before you ingest it. Many truths in this prose, relatively speaking. And thank you for the music, I did not know this song.
Thank you D.
“a subtle devaluation of each other as real.”
Fantastic wtite Ron
Much????love
Thank you Gillena!
The only thing we can do really.
Pretty much, but so many people just accept anything they are fed.
People seem to have forgotten how to converse with others who hold a different pov. One group thinks they are morally upstanding and think that other group is evil and/or ignorant. We are all shoved into groups and judged. I blame politicians and the media. We can’t trust any of them anymore, they lie to our faces and pit us against each other. It gets worse by the day. Sad.
So so true Charlotte — frustrating as hell!
I agree that defining reality is getting tougher every day.
Thank you Reena!
Absolutely wonderful piece!
Again Reena, I appreciate your kind words… 🙂
It’s a wise litmus test, Rob. I spend far too much time in front of screens. But at least some of that time is spent writing poetry and connecting with wonderful people 🙂
That is definitely the upside of the tech age Ingrid… 🙂
This is one of the wisest, best written lines I’ve read in a while, Rob.
Yours,
David
And we are permitting these distortions to happen, because our educational system is failing in this country. Look, you cannot blame people foe being ignorant, guidable, easily swayed — if they have mot been educated. They must be fortified with knowledge to recognize those that are full of shit and exploitive. Show them what a dick head looks like — and they will recognize one!
Brilliant and such truth here. Devaluation of people.
It is sad. Thank you Mary! 🙂
So true, Rob, and well said. I agree with you, and your “truth litmus” is perfect. We are definitely bombarded–and manipulated, too.
Thank you Merril! 🙂
Spot on, Rob ~~~ spot on! Happy to have been born in 1941.
I hear you Helen, I hear you. 😉
Such wise wisdom. Thanks, Rob.
You are welcome K… 🙂
I try to give everything I heard a liberal dose of farm girl common sense. Amazing how much detritus that sorts out!!
Bravo Bev. Common sense and basic logic, both seem to have been lost in the blur of technology. People have forgotten how to do and think for themselves, becoming so dependent on tech to do it for them. We are surrendering personal responsibility to devices. My son and daughter-in-law don’t dtive anywhere unless the Google Maps device in their car tells them where to turn — and this is just when they’re going across town!! WHAT!! Hell, we now have cars that will drive for us so we can sit with our faces smashed into our cellphones! Common sense and logic can only survive if people are forced to exercise these. We are turning over this control of these rudimentary functions of thinking to devices. If you can’t think for yourselves, you fall victim to the whims and will of others. You lose the ability to know when you’re being manipulated — because we are agreeing, step by step in our everyday lives, to being manipulated. “WAll-E” is a Pixar animated film from 2008. But to me the basic premise of the movie was not funny, it was frightening — because we are truly, and sadly, headed in that direction.
Isn’t reality wonderful? 🙂 Say it, Rob!
Yes, with this caveat — depends on WHOSE reality… 😉
What is worst is that the anonymity where almost everyone can be someone else… and though anonymity is important to protect it is also a grave danger
A tough weight to tote.