Nearly all of us are bombarded with information tidbits from the time we awake until we retire at the end of our day. We live in the world of 24 hour news cycles unlike our forefathers. We have electronic access virtually no matter where we find ourselves. We are truly the 'plugged in' generations...and I submit we may well be too 'plugged in'.
If you're old enough, you may remember Mad magazine and the caricature character who graced its cover...Alfred E. Neumann. The caption that accompanied the picture was..."What? Me Worry?" This was published before we became so well connected, back when print was more the primary conveyance for information. I sometimes think back to Alfred E. Neumann and wonder if he would've been the happiest person on earth today, or if he would've also succumbed to what I've chosen to call "Subliminal Self-Fulfillment".
Again, if you're old enough, the term 'brainwashing' may carry memories. This was supposedly a technique of erasing certain memories and replacing those with new memories. It often involved the steady bombardment of the senses over many months and years. Prisoners of war returning from the Korean 'Conflict' (thank goodness it wasn't a real war) were sometimes thought to have been the victims of brainwashing.
You, me and most everyone else in our world are subjected to a steady stream of messages that cannot help but be absorbed by most of us. For example, 'Global Warming' has become "fact" even without scientific evidence confirming the theory. That has largely occurred as the result of constant hammering by the press and the rest of the disciples for that movement. For example, we seem to have talked ourselves into an economic 'recession' even though it very closely resembles an economic 'slowdown'. For example, we feel the need to reward people who made bad home-buying decisions by bailing out Wall Street bankers that knew better but also knew that Uncle Sam would most likely bail them out...and they were right.
We seem to now believe that 'ethanol' is the savior for our country's appetite for gasoline to power our vehicles even though it is costing us a tremendous increase in the cost of our food stocks as well as costing us in the decreasing 'miles per gallon' arena. Even though this product is being subsidized by our tax dollars and mandates since none of us would likely be inclined to pay more for something that delivers less than we were accustomed to receiving.
On top of all this 'noise', we find ourselves in that cycle of presidential campaigning...and there can be absolutely nothing good achieved by the administration currently in office no matter the political party involved. It seems that we no longer have three years 'off' in between presidential elections. Almost as soon as the President is sworn in, the opposition mounts the proverbial loudspeakers on the trucks and begins parading up and down the streets in our neighborhoods with the 'gloom and doom' message they desire to have implanted on our collective psyche.
This is what I choose to label 'subliminal self-fulfillment'. We have become like the sheep following the 'bellwether'. We have become like Pavlov's dogs. Are we now nearing the point where we give up thinking for ourselves and simply let whatever others will to happen because we simply don't want to be involved?
Have we neared the point of becoming a nation of Alfred E. Neumanns? Have we crossed over the mid-point?
