Y'know? Something rang a bell today...

Doing IM with Annti.

About how freaking FAST memes get spread world-wide nowadays, whether they are true or not.

Corporations. I was a corporation kid. And I KNOW that those corporations really know how to keep you down and 'in your place'. So I bucked the wave, and fought. I made a little progress...

And everything was sooo unbearable, and dull.. it was horrible. I think I lived in the first city that outsourced... to Taiwan. It was a vibrant city.... once. Thursday nights were the high point of the week, and the main street was packed with people, just out strolling, maybe buying something, but it was a social thing.

And that died.

Malls, people isolated in cars, the beginning of no social contact. It was slow, but inevitable, and the city became a desert.

Well, if you are 'different', it sort of gets unbearable... and you run away, and think you find a 'safe' place.

Except over decades... it turns out you didn't. How is that for a kick in the pants?

Second verse, same as the first, hey.

A tightly-knit society, vibrant, caring, and whaddaya know.... encroachment begins in the most insidious way. At first, memes would come out of 'Murka, and it would land with us in a year or so in a mild form, and I would shrug, brush it off, and think, 'Well, that is sort of crazy...'

But they stepped up the pace. Nowadays we're on a 24 hr news cycle, and the absolute CRAP coming out of those people... seem to be out to destroy Western civilisation for profit.

And it is creepy. My safe haven became a bloody TRAP.

There are DAYS... when I think running away wasn't exactly the best choice I made. On the other hand, I could have been killed just for being who I am.. It happens. And I wouldn't have had the most amazing experiences in myriad countries, or experienced the huge amount of difference other cultures have to offer. I've loved every minute of it.

But all of a sudden... we're back to corporations, and they are more eeeevil than ever. It isn't an exaggeration. They are.

I have enough on my plate at the moment, but where are the ones who get out and protest, huh?

This is gonna sound 'weird', ok? But something has caught my attention over the past year or so. Gadgets. Sounds harmless, right? Riding the busses and trams, I keep seeing something I do not like. (No, not the crazy lady today..) It's the young people. They purposely isolate themselves with gadgets.

Wired for sound, Ipods, checking their cell phones every minute, writing messages on their Blackberries, and boy how their thumbs fly on those little keyboards.

Sure, you can shrug, and sort of think, 'oh, crazy kids'... but I don't think it is healthy. There is no more personal interaction that I see on the public transportation system. I can remember that much differently. There was conversation, people talking about what they saw on the tee-vee the night before, people talking politics, and being really engaged and involved with one another. It could be a hell of a lot of fun.

But you know what? It changed. Zombies. Self-absorbed, wired for sound, and totally isolated.

That is sort of frightening. Give everyone gadgets, wean them from one another, and you get... little zombies.

And it seems that is a goal of corporations as well... Always look for the next best gadget, always be self-absorbed....

I hate to say it but the world hasn't become a better place. On the contrary...