The information generation

I grew up in a society were I’ve lived to see the computer become as common a household item as a telephone. When you’ve had access to the web from such a young age, It is a strange, and often unnerving concept to think that once upon a time, we lived in a world without the wonders of the world wide web.

Back in the day, information was channelled primarily through newspapers, televisions and books. The library was of cause our internet, before it evolved into he digital realms. The problem is, it’s neon impossible to keep books up to date on a daily basis, so up to date information was left in the hands of television producers and news corporations.

The masses, even now, have grown quite passive of this fact, and often don’t stop to think about who controls the flow of information, and the power this responsibility encompasses. The media (controllers of information) have a huge impact on how the population of a country thinks and holds it’s values. The way to control a nation perceptions, is to control the information in which they consume.

Now this is a very dangerous game we are playing. Especially when you consider that every person has there own belief systems and ideologies. These grouped with the responsibility of controlling what the masses are exposed to, often breed agendas. These agendas are especially questionable when you take into consideration that the ones controlling the information, are high up in society with an innate drive to maintain wealth and stature. Therefore, with our only mainstream sources of understanding the world around us having questionable intentions, another generation was doomed to idly perceive the world, the way that the powers that be want them to.

In comes the internet.

Now we have a wealth of endless information from a range of varied sources at out fingertips. No longer are we bound by the pre-conceptualized opinions of the mainstream media. It’s un-regulated and uncensored, anyone from a fascist to a patriot can publish there spin on the happenings of society to the entire world. This is a beautiful era we live in, were the people control the information in which they consume.

Sadly… It’s clear that the powers that be are growing increasingly nervous, as they lose there steely grips on the control of information. We are seeing more and more desperate efforts to infiltrate the unregulated nature of the web, with the likes of NET NEUTRALITY and other methods of blatant censorship.

Of cause… we could have seen this coming, after all history repeats itself. Any movement that breeds a generation of free-thinkers, is often stamped out. Look at the counter-culture of the 60’s. Thousands of citizens take this strange new hallucinogenic drug and decide they don’t want a war in Vietnam. Instead, they want love and peace. It’s the same now, except our mind-altering substance is the internet rather than LSD, and the war were fighting? The information war. The final  decision of who controls our perceptions. The people, or the government.

The problem with past counter-cultures, is that they remained as the ‘counter’ of cultures. The media controlled the way we saw these groups people. The internet on the other hand, regulates itself, by the entire worlds varied perceptions of society. With the decentralized nature of the network, we stand a very good chance of winning this battle, and with groups like anonymous popping up it is clear that the people can have the power.

Of cause, it’s not all good times, like with any great power there is responsibilities, and negative consequences if we do not fulfil these responsibilities.

Like anything, there’s a dark side.

With society and technology getting more and more fast paced, the demand for more condensed and precise information is growing. Were starting to live in a world of instant gratification. High speed porn, encyclopaedia of encyclopaedia of information, flying at us at an unfathomable amount of terabyte’s a second. Again and again were beginning to skip straight to the reward.

The way motivation works is that a human being is rewarded for his hard work by feel good chemicals blasting around the rewards centre of the brain. With the the way the internet’s heading, we are increasingly bypassing straight to the reward as a society. The need for hard work is unnecessary.

Yes, consuming more information at once can be good, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed and as humans we will eventually grow comfortable with skipping straight to the gratification. This could land us in an even bigger trap of never progressing, and having our attention cnsumed by companies with agenda’s such as Facebook. Thus making the internet, nothing more than a method of advertisement consumption. We need to be very careful how we approach this new influx of information, or we might find our selves in an even more darker system of perception control, flawed by it’s own design.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Avengers: Age of Ultron – A prime example of everything wrong with the film industry

With everyone on the planet seemingly becoming a marvel fan following an impulsive influx of superhero films, it was clear that at some point I would be exposed to this film. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing inherently wrong with superhero movies, but with the current state of cinema, is it really necessary? I mean, it feels like a sickeningly large majority of Hollywood films in past few years have been sequels, remakes or a slight variation on an overdone selection of superhero related action. The avengers series is yet another boring and dull spectacle type film, bred by lazy writers who don’t care because they know you’ll buy it anyway. It’s time to stop vigorously masturbating over the trailer for next spider man film and listen, because this reproduction of done and done again films has to stop.

So, what’s wrong with Avengers: Age of Ultron? Well nothing particularly, I mean as far as films go it’s got a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s not a ‘bad’ film, it’s just basic. If one was to watch this with the volume down, it would not matter as the plot-line is excruciatingly boring, and the prime source of entertainment is the visuals. To be fair in terms of spectacle, it is pretty fantastic visually, but you just end up zoning out at the relentless and seemingly pointless action. It’s predictable and every scene just seemed to be leading up to another cringe-worthy one liner by characters that have the emotional capacity of a tomato that’s been left out in the sun too long. So yeah, in terms of a movie, it’s just boring and doesn’t leave much to the imagination. There’s this guy called Ultron that wants to destroy the world, and all these people in strangely erotic costumes stop him from doing it. That’s about it. What I did find amusing, is that Ultron decided to destroy earth after having one look at the internet. Maybe he saw the trailer for Avengers 3.

I guess I don’t hold a grudge against this specific film itself, more the way in which the industry pumps out this repetitive trash. All I see on social media is people is people in euphoric states over the next superhero film. Why? In my opinion, there all pretty much the same deal. The public continues to consume these products because it’s easy watching and the companies have a huge budget for marketing. Hollywood just produces what makes money. I mean, you don’t HAVE to go see these films, but if we continue to buy into these overdone genres, nothing new will ever come of it. We progress in any creative outlet by experimenting. The mainstream, isn’t necessarily what’s good, it’s just what makes money. So if you want to continue filling the pockets of boring writers and watch repetitive dumb films, then be my guest. However, all this does is put huge budgets on sequels and uncreative feature films. Do you wan’t something new? Or will be doomed to watch computer generated explosions and Megan Fox’s tits juggling about in slow motion for the hundredth time this millennium. It’s your choice.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Altered states

I recently quit drugs. As someone who’s experimented from a very young age, memories of the outside world were somewhat foggy. From age thirteen my life became a hazy and obsessive infatuation with unnaturally altering my neuro-chemistry, in strange and interesting new ways. Like many ‘recovering’ drug users, I struggled integrating back into the normal flow of life, so I began trying to engage in ‘normal’ activities that ‘normal’ people do. At first it was painfully boring, but as the mental fog rose above the damage blatant stimulant abuse had caused, I began seeing clearer. Amidst the fuzzy brain-numbing morning television shows and awkward sober meals, I saw the even awkwarder truth. Sober life is no different.

“Needs more LSD”

There’s a lot of self-righteous people out there that like to pride themselves as being ‘t-total.’ The completely sober and high on life types, who shift away and give you stern looks as you light up a cigarette. ‘Oh, I don’t need alcohol to make my boring personality more interesting.’ In other words, judgemental assholes. However the problem is, on a basic level absolutely nobody is sober.

People seem to forget that every activity we engage in alters our neurochemistry in some way. Other methods ‘healthier’ than some, but all in all the human experience seems to be a constant pursuit for feel good chemicals. That’s all life is. Altering our current state of conciousness.

Junk food, the internet, television, gambling, sex the list goes on of ways you can alter your brain chemistry, and make yourself feel good. Why do we dismiss chemicals, and see them as bad? Well we see alcohol as okay, but lets not get into the madness and Hypocrisy of drug prohibition.

All I’m saying is, everything we pursue in life is a way of altering our baseline state. Everything IS an altered state, and will eventually end, drugs just give us some time to move around in that state. If used in the right setting with good intentions, many substances can facilitate personal growth as we can take away quality’s we like from this altered state, and try to apply them to our baseline state. However, like everything, it is a double edged sword and spending too much time in an altered state can bring on crippling addictions and make normal life less fulfilling. An occasional escape from reality or a change in perception however, is what everyone needs. Without this we remain stuck in the same ideals and forget how to think outside of the box.

So next time your ‘off your nut’ in front of a stack of speakers, jaw swinging and sweat pouring down your face, maybe take a step back for a moment. Realise that it is not the drug doing this to you, it is your mind and you can think like this any time you want. Think ‘what can I learn from this experience’ rather than ‘Shit I’m going to comedown soon’ and you’ll bring a little bit more love an prosperity with you everywhere you go, even when your too old to handle a strong coffee, let alone anything else.

–THE LONELY WEST–

Life and the search for purpose

As humans we like to think of ourselves as different from other species. After all, we can build cities, make beautiful art and then wage a war that can plummet a century’s worth of our own creation into a pile of dust. The truth is though, we as a singular person, are nothing more than an animal. A fleshy vessel controlled by a brain and made up of microscopic cells that conveniently and fit within this universe by complete chance. The only thing that sets us apart from other beings is a curse that’s plagued our race for generations. Self-awareness.

I call this a curse, because it is. The clock is constantly ticking and so is our morality. Life has no real purpose and eventually we will cease to exist. Nobody likes to mention or acknowledge this, but it’s right in our faces, and we get so caught up in our meaningless lives that we ignore it. Due to this,we’ve spent centuries coming up with methods to distract ourselves from the uneasy truths our own existence. From televisions to smart-phones we are always running away from ourselves. Being alone brings boredom, so we find other meaningless beings to spend time with. We can collectively lie to ourselves that what we are doing matters, within this constant cosmic joke we call life.

Really it doesn’t matter. When we are thrown into this world, we know nothing. All we know is that we are this thing called a human, in a three-dimensional plane surrounded by other things. When were young we’re forced into educational institutions, so we can work towards getting a job. We assume that when we turn into an adults everything will make sense, and spend our whole lives searching for purpose within the boundaries of societal institutions. We go on to become doctors, lawyers or what ever else, in the desperate hope that these external things will give our life meaning.

But when we get to the end we find nothing. Nobody has a clue what’s going on, and no amount of money or power in the world is going to change that. Life. is. Pointless. Many find this out sooner and go on to become drug addicts, suicide statistics and unemployed watchers of game-shows. It’s the truth, and it’s hard to swallow.

So, if life is completely pointless why don’t we just give up and kill ourselves now? After all, everything we achieve means nothing because we will eventually die. Well there lies the problem. If life ends then it cannot be without meaning. If life was to never end, then we could be everything and anything we wanted to because we have all the time in the world. Immortality in truth, would be a truly pointless existence.

The fact that life has a beginning and an end, already gives it’s meaning. You only have a certain amount of time to make choices and be who you want to be in this world so you have to make it count in the short time you have. Why spend your life in a 9-5 job you hate, when you could be out there experiencing every feeling and emotion this life has to offer?

At the end of the day life is about experiences, and you won’t find experiences within the cold walls of an office cubical. Neither will it be found constantly dwelling on the ideal that life is pointless. So what if it’s pointless? You can’t change what is. As you read this, your biological clock is ticking. Yes, you WILL die at some point, so why not make the journey there as thrilling as possible. We’ll never now what happens at the end, neither will we know what happens next. It could all end tomorrow, but if when we get to the end and it’s nothing more than an endless void, then you’ll surely regret doing nothing while your within a reality that you have concious control over.

–THE LONELY WEST–