Anyway, this Bewitched show featured a neighbor named Gladys Kravitz. Gladys had a fuddy-duddy husband and a vanilla lifestyle that was so empty and meaningless that she spent all of her time watching the neighbors. She was convinced that everyone else was having more fun than she was, and was determined to put a stop to it.
The whole world has turned into a bunch of Gladys Kravitzes. For the most part, people are so bored, so empty and so unable to entertain themselves, that they have turned to watching everyone else. Reality shows on TeeVee are just a form of legalized voyeurism. Most entertainment - movies, TeeVee, even the internet for the most part - are completely passive activities that generally involve spying on other people's lives.
On top of that, we are all saddled with governments that have nothing better to do than to catalog, categorize and investigate every last minute detail of our lives, down to the size of our toilet tanks, which light bulbs we use and what we say to whom and when.
Is life really so empty and devoid of interesting things to do that the only form of entertainment left is to watch each other for signs of having fun? If so, then let me off this merry-go-round from Hell.
Once upon a time, you could put a child in a room alone with a stick, a rock and a book and they would entertain themselves for days at a time. Now they go hyperbolic if they don't have something that plugs in, lights up and makes a thousand nerve-jangling sounds. And that's just the first five minutes, then they get bored and need new stimulation.
We've become a world of people incapable of introspection and self-occupation. We can no longer carry on inner dialogues and generate extended mental exercises. We have lost our imaginations. If it isn't manufactured for us, it doesn't exist. And we are suspicious of anyone who can think and act independently.
When you think about it, the whole War on the Noun Terror is about demonizing independence. All of the All-Star terrorists are non-state actors who live transnationaly and off the grid. The message is consistent and undeniable.
If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about, right? In other words, you should not think or carry on internal dialogues because those things are hidden. You should turn in anyone who looks suspicious - in other words, they enjoy being alone sometimes and pursuing hobbies that are self-enriching.
To ensure that you never have a moment alone with yourself, you are now surrounded with cameras, microphones, drones, online surveillance, and people who have been brainwashed into turning in anyone who deviates even slightly from the proscribed social life.
Go to a modern church. They are nothing but non-stop noise, preaching, music, and distractions. There is no time or desire (apparently) for quiet meditation.
Go to a school. There is no reading or thinking, just constant activities and stimulation. God forbid a child should have a moment to digest the blazing onslaught of information.
Go to a typical home. There is no social interaction or conversation, just people frantically gestering and punching at their iFads and SmackBerries.
Lurking over all this are the electronic snoops, the infrared scans and the unceasing obsession with identification. By the time a person is 18 years old, they have been carded, papered, stamped, and numbered. And God help you if you venture outside your door without the approved ID documents.
All of this because we have become a world of Gladys Kravitzes. We can stand the thought that someone else might be having more fun than us. We have to quantify everyone's possessions and make sure that each individual has the opportunity to buy the same goods. If your kid is smarter than mine, or your dreams more vivid, then by God there'll be Hell to pay!
Why do so many people feel compelled to climb all up in everyone else's business? I suspect it's because those people are deathly afraid that you and I might have something they don't. It's a game of 'keeping up with the Jones' gone completely awry. It's me-too-ism taken to psychopathic degrees. If you are exceptional in any way, then you are a terrorist and must be destroyed.
It used to be that everything was geared toward the lowest common denominator. Now we have the greatest surveillance culture ever devised to ensure that everyone gets pounded into LCD compliance.
It reminds me of when I was a kid and there was the really annoying brat that checked everyone's stuff and if you had just a tad more, he would whine and complain until he got the same amount. It's kids like that who have taken over the world.
Gladys would be proud.
