Brave New World

2015 is, in every sense of the phrase, a "Brave New World". Increasing concerns over privacy, an alarmingly widening income disparity, Soma (Big Pharma), heightened societal pressures and stigmas, demanding private lives, higher cost of living, unprecedented rates of violence, the looming threat of climate change, all combined with the most volatile, uncertain, and rapidly-changing economy in recent history (quite arguably all of history) -- there are certainly plenty of problems facing our modern World.

It seemed only yesterday that the world was so much simpler and held more substance than it does today. Granted, this is partially so because I held a much more innocent, ignorant perspective on life and the modern world. But there must be some other underlying factors -- societal, cultural, religious, generational -- which also are contributing to the disastrous state our World is in presently. In this post, I outline a multitude of factors which I think have all played a role in altering our modern society into our social Darwinist moral wasteland whereby individuals possessing any sense of moral virtue are immediately crushed by their uncaring and self-consumed peers at any given opportunity.

1) Society and Corporate America Imposing Individualistic Values Onto Us
 -- for the purpose of allowing individuals who are benefitting the most from the current system to gain some comfort in the belief that, somehow, they have been deemed superior by the god of the "Free Market" economics.

2) Social Media Promotes an Individualistic Attitude and Focuses on Superficial, Visible traits rather than actually important ones -- which are internal and thus cannot be seen in a picture or 120 characters.

3) Everyone is dependent on "the system" and must maintain their own foothold within that system at all costs.

--this allows us to be puppets of the corporate conglomerate and perpetually enslave our bodies and minds.

4) The technological revolution -- although it has empowered many people to achieve financial success who otherwise would not have been able to -- it also facilitated the extreme wealth disparity that is becoming more evident each day, as Google, Amazon, and Facebook combine to control the world.