Basically, the fairly short article's conclusion is that many spend half their day "day dreaming." That instead of focusing at the tasks at hand, consciousness takes a back seat and the unconscious takes over. As Dr Matthew Killingsworth, one of the researchers, says: "Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities. This study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the non-present."
So we have two trends that are dominating society at the moment, one of them is not included within this article, but is a commonly held fact:
- People are "day dreaming"
- More pharmaceuticals for "anxiety" and "depression" are being used than ever before
Now, the important question is - is there a link between the two?
I think we can conclusively yell, yes.
Society is only formed when the individuals that make up society go through instinctual repression, that is, they forget that they forget that they want to act out their instincts. As Freud says, civilization began the day that man stopped pissing on the fire. To build civilization man needs the fire and as you can obviously see here, the instinct to relinquish the fire is not acted upon (moreover, it is more than non-acted upon, the man doesn't even realise he has this instinct - although he does).
So, all society, by its very manifestation, means instinctual repression, if you follow its codes and practices. Today's society, or our society (that is in its last crumbling phase) is a society that is completely dependent on technology. Most, practically 99%, of our entertainment is mediated by the television. Our food comes not from the earth, soil or directly from our labours, but from the nearest supermarket. Our clothes are not made by us, but for us. We do nothing. And if technology was to crash or falter, then many people would not know what to do, and many would die - no joke, homeland security in America has predicted that if technology was to go off-line for a considerable amount of time, 90% would die.
Present-day society is even worse than the template society, not only are we instinctually repressed, we are also completely dependent on the technological leviathan. We are not in control of our lives; control would be independence (here I'm not going to talk about why we agree to not be in control - but its an interesting discussion - a later post for the blog)
So, all society, by its very manifestation, means instinctual repression, if you follow its codes and practices. Today's society, or our society (that is in its last crumbling phase) is a society that is completely dependent on technology. Most, practically 99%, of our entertainment is mediated by the television. Our food comes not from the earth, soil or directly from our labours, but from the nearest supermarket. Our clothes are not made by us, but for us. We do nothing. And if technology was to crash or falter, then many people would not know what to do, and many would die - no joke, homeland security in America has predicted that if technology was to go off-line for a considerable amount of time, 90% would die.
Present-day society is even worse than the template society, not only are we instinctually repressed, we are also completely dependent on the technological leviathan. We are not in control of our lives; control would be independence (here I'm not going to talk about why we agree to not be in control - but its an interesting discussion - a later post for the blog)
To perpetuate society we have to work jobs that we absolutely despise, to continue the instinctual repression. And the very reason we hate the jobs, because the jobs themselves are a form of instinctual repression: the work we do has absolutely no bearing on the life you wish you could lead, or want to be leading right now).
No wonder most people "day-dream" and access their unconscious where the instinctual urge lies, to get through the tedium and droll of a job in society. The depression and anxiety is directly linked to this, people get depressed when they are leading lives they do not wish to lead. It's a sign that their is a problem within their lives. Correlatively and interestingly, a neurosis (Freud-style), like anxiety or depression, results from the denial of an overwhelming and powerful instinctual urge.
Lets realise how "bad" depression is when no other exerting forces are a reason for its existence. Normally a person might get depressed because a friend died, or they realised that all life is sorrowful and pain. This is to say then, the life they are leading as a human being is so "bad" that they feel dead inside.
God! I love social progress.
No wonder most people "day-dream" and access their unconscious where the instinctual urge lies, to get through the tedium and droll of a job in society. The depression and anxiety is directly linked to this, people get depressed when they are leading lives they do not wish to lead. It's a sign that their is a problem within their lives. Correlatively and interestingly, a neurosis (Freud-style), like anxiety or depression, results from the denial of an overwhelming and powerful instinctual urge.
Lets realise how "bad" depression is when no other exerting forces are a reason for its existence. Normally a person might get depressed because a friend died, or they realised that all life is sorrowful and pain. This is to say then, the life they are leading as a human being is so "bad" that they feel dead inside.
God! I love social progress.
The biggest mockery of the whole thing, is that the academics surmise that the reason people are unhappy is because they are "day dreaming!"
ReplyDeleteNo, you idiots! They are "day dreaming" because they are unhappy.
But, then again, did anyone think that the BBC would go against its status quo and criticise society ... thought not
Right! and they're unhappy mostly because they're not discharging themselves as much as before.
ReplyDelete