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Monday, June 3, 2013

Bring Sense Back!

If you're like me, then you sometimes find yourself amazed at the impudence of ignorance. It doesn't really matter the occasion, location or time, it seems that one can be assured that ignorance will have a  'neon light' and be on full display. What's interesting is that it will always be loud, boisterous and confrontational. Whether you're minding your own business in a store, restaurant, at work or riding the bus. It's intruding, obtrusive and unapologetic. 

There's something to be said about the bravado of a fool. Something in the human characteristic that places the chemistry of stupidity higher on the scale than the neuron movement of sense. Maybe it was meant to be a safety mechanism, one that allowed at least one human to be eaten by prehistoric beasts so the rest could escape.

Don't get me wrong, ignorance can be innocent too. Unknowing, demure, scared and ashamed, but this is not the type that mesmerizes. No, we are drawn to an effusive ignorance that reeks of blatant disregard. The curse filled rantings of a marijuana laden rapper, who's song chorus always seems to rhyme with itch. The dalliances of some ill clad woman who has done absolutely nothing to achieve her fame except make a sex video. To the banter of politicians whose greatest achievement is they have managed to turn us into the same ignorant cacophony, as we join their congress. Which by the way, is another name for a group of baboons.  

I'm amazed and amused at how society seeks out these people. How news reporters will hone in on them and get that life long soundbite, "Nobody got time for that!" We've been immersed into this cesspool of mediocrity. It's in our offices, our schools, on the train, at the bus stop, at the grocer store. Ignorance is becoming harder and harder to escape. Our minds are programmed to look for it, to troll the news like zombies looking for duplicity in its ignorant wardrobe. 

The scent of sense bears no attraction. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing. For it has no scandal, no noise, no sense of raucousness, it's mundane, unobtrusive. It's too polite, asking for permission and with perfect manners. "Excuse me, thank you, please." Who needs that? We are literally a click away from our brains being fried with nonsense, yet we're just as many clicks away from enlightenment. It's all available, sense and foolishness, ours for the taking. What we choose unfortunately is being decided by people in an ivory tower somewhere who are  deciding on what it is we will hear or see. They engineer, they steer. As our eyes gaze at the television screen, the computer, the iPhone, the iPad, they flash, "ignorance, ignorance, ignorance," it's imbedding deep in our psyche through images, music, words and billboards.

We're zombies to this ignorance, transfixed in the infernal dance of the digital age. We're surrounded by robotic people who hold their devices tight in their hands like another limb. People don't talk anymore, don't make eye contact. We're oblivious, ignorant to what's around us, bumping into each other and always listening out for that one always obnoxious voice in the crowd.That's what gets our attention, anything that we can film and upload to YouTube. Maybe we'll get a million hits. Like a crackhead we're addicted to the 'likes' on Facebook, the more hits the better.

Escape is hard to come by. How do you extricate yourself from this cycle of foolishness? Transfixed on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp, there's an app readily available to take us all away from reality. Many are useful, but we've become the Anhedonic set, addicted to being distracted, with our senses tuned only to raise our heads at sensationalism and ignorance. Time to dust myself off, and get on the walk back to sense. If you happen to meet her before I do, let her know I'm looking for her, urgently.