GuidoWorld

Robots and Cyborgs and Droids Oh My!

Oh, oh Todo we’re not in Kansas any more.

The upcoming explosion of robot, cyborg and droid technology and their inclusion into day-to-day life is going to dramatically change everything.

Our very definitions of life, humanity and meaning are about to be challenged and radically altered.

Since the Winter Olympics are in the news, let’s start by looking at the effects of emerging technologies on human achievement in sports. If you think enhancement drugs are controversial now just wait a few years for some real controversy.

Currently we have no problem with the bulk of medical procedures conducted on athletes in response to an injury or defect. Yet, soon surgery on legs, arms, and eyes will not only be able to repair damage but improve and enhance strength, performance and skills to levels superior to pre-surgical levels.

Simple procedures could improve visual acuity and hand eye coordination to such a degree as cause a major gain in the performance of a baseball batter, fielder or pitcher. In a few years many body parts will be able to be replaced in a similar fashion to hip replacement surgery, but the performance achieved by these procedures will make a person a far better athlete than they were born with.

If high tech swim and track suits are destroying the record books, just imagine what effect muscular, joint and bone replacement procedures will do to performance capabilities. Finding ways of stimulating or implanting fast twitch muscles could make an average sprinter world class, or a mediocre athlete into a top level leaper.

Robot and cyborg technology is no longer science fiction and will be growing at levels rivaling advances in the personal computer within the next decade. Robots and cyborg technology will be finding its way into daily life and become just as common and vital to everyday life as the internet and personal computer. And it appears to me that we are doing almost nothing in preparation for this.

In a previous post The Great American Education Hoax Part Two, I discussed how robot technology will revolutionize the work force. A quick summation of how robots are better workers include:
1) robots never have to sleep (no down time)
2) workplaces can cut down on overhead due to no need to heat or cool workplace, or protect against human injury
3) robots will not suffer work related injuries or breakdown through repetition (no need for insurance or workman compensation)
4) robots can develop new skills and adapt to new technology almost instantly (via software)
5) robots can perform skills beyond human capabilities (micro surgery, detect material defects, speed and accuracy performance, etc.)

There is almost no area of life in which robots and cyborgs will not make for a more compliant and efficient worker or friend. Robots will be excellent teachers, therapists and physical trainers for they will be able to better read the capabilities of their clients and proceed in the most safe and efficient manner.

As a quick example just think of the advantages of a therapist or a doctor who could read all your biochemical responses to their every intervention. A robot constantly monitoring everything from galvanic skin response to blood pressure, to body language could become a very aware and effective therapist or doctor.

The effects of robotics in health care will not only involve doctors and hospitals, but revolutionize the day-to-day maintenance of health. Soon we will robots the size of a microchip which will be able to be implanted in the body or carried in the bloodstream. These microbots will monitor and maintain the healthy functioning of the body. Some microbots could monitor our vital stats such as blood pressure and heart rate. Some could help regulate blood sugar levels and cholesterol levels, or even erase plaque as it forms in the arteries.

In the not too distant future we should be able to download some of our memories and data from our brains as we do from a computer today. This data could be stored in a number of ways which would be accessible to us when we need it, just like any data file we have on our computer. Such advances could greatly enhance useable memory and depth of experience, as well as provide assistance for people with neurological injury or dementia.

The proper and ethical use of these technologies will and should be an important social debate. Yet, at this point we are just letting this technology filter into our society according to its commercial viability. Just as has been the case in many other modern technologies much of the most beneficial advances will most likely be delayed, modified or suppressed due to its potential economic ramifications.

Over the last few decades many potentially beneficial and life saving inventions and technologies in areas such as medicine, agriculture, ecology, transportation and education have been suppressed or degraded due to protecting the fiscal interests of major corporations.

I must admit it is hard to imagine much of the most humanitarian aspects of robotics being able to be implemented in our current capitalistic economy. Just as truly renewable energy sources are the death knell for oil corporations industry, so would true cures of major illnesses or healthbots destroy the profit base of pharmaceutical companies.

Its hard to imagine a single industry currently thriving in our capitalistic economy which would not be threatened by the free use of any technology that drastically increases efficiency, durability and longevity. It is just as hard to imagine any substantial use of robotics or nanotechnology not drastically improving efficiency, durability and longevity. (Any regular reader of this site is aware of my argument that the first casualty of reducing waste in our society (efficiency) would be the recycling industry whose profits are dependent on waste management and proliferation.)

There is no denying that the age of robotics is upon us. The only question is how it will be used and the role it will play in our daily lives. Though I’m greatly concerned of the ethical issues regarding robotics and its effect on human dignity and self-esteem, I’m even more concerned of how our capitalistic system will pervert and destroy its potential benefits regarding improving the quality of life of the average citizen.

Jim Guido

Depression, Fear and the War on Terror

In the last couple of posts I’ve outlined possible reasons why the US appears to lead the world in depression. I would like to talk a little on how the war on terror fits into this equation.

We’ve covered in depth how fear, uncertainty and being lied to contribute towards a person developing feelings of helplessness and hopelessness which often lead to depression. The war on terror is definitely filled with fear and uncertainty and appears to be filled with a lot of deception and inaccurate information.

One of the consequences on the war on terror is a sense of perpetually being vigilant and on alert. Our need to develop elaborate means of establishing security has only added to the irony of how our vaulted freedom is supposedly preserved.

Despite having the highest prison population per capita in the world we are told we are the land of the free. We are also told that we are free only because we fight for our freedom, yet if we are perpetually at war, how can we be free? In the war on terror we are told we must sacrifice some of our freedoms and rights in exchange for our safety and freedom. Hardly a month goes by in which some security measure invading our privacy is introduced or revealed.

In the last post we talked of how sophisticated and prevalent it has become for our government to sell the public on a war or the need for a military intervention. Ever since the early 1900’s with the advent of the Council on Public Opinion (CPI) our government has spent much time and money in the development of public relations and propaganda techniques to influence and manage public opinion. The bulk of these efforts have been to find ways to convince democratic voters to tolerate and support the aggressive military policies of our government.

Most military actions we have taken in the last century have involved public relations campaigns to foster public support. Creating feeling of fear and hatred have been found to be the most effective means of swaying mothers to encourage their sons to go to war. Public support for war has usually been fostered by focusing on a single horrific event. As mentioned before the more years that pass after the event, the more likely we are to find out the event was not only exploited but often staged or even fabricated.

With this in mind, the underpinning of the war on terror become increasingly doubtful. Much of the fuel and sustenance for the war on terror was created by the events of 9/11. We are told that on that day we were attacked by terrorists. Since that day and its many horrific images burnt into our brains we have been told that we are at war, with terrorists all around the globe.

We are told that terrorists are everywhere and that our security and safety is threatened until the vast majority of terrorist leaders are ferreted out and destroyed. Though anyone could be a terrorist the standard profile involves someone who believes that we are evil and is willing to do anything to accomplish their goal of destroying us and our society. As proof of this we’re offered daily news items and testimonials of suicide bombers and religious fanatics that believe violent martyrdom is the most certain means of acquiring everlasting life or entry into heaven.

This dire and constant threat has been used to justify our need to move unilaterally and violate international law, invade sovereign nations, threaten and impose embargoes on nations which may harbor terrorists, torture, use banned weapons and strip individuals of their right to trial. The result of which is the killing and starvation of hundreds of thousands if not millions of innocent people around the globe, the escalation of ill will towards the US for its policies and practices, and the introduction of homeland security measures which increased fear levels while decreasing personal privacy for many law abiding citizens.

Due to the fact that terrorists would gladly sacrifice their lives to injure or terrorize even one American we have stepped up measures to protect our shores and insure that no US citizen has to endure another terrorist attack within our borders. Air travel in particular has been the focus of homeland security. The invasive searches and high tech checks of our air travelers have apparently been successful since no terrorists attacks have occurred since 9/11.

Yet, when we take into account the long history of US exaggeration and fabrication of information to acquire public support of its military ventures we have to question the very existence of an actual war with terrorists. Just as was the case in the great red scare of the 50’s is the current great terrorist scare mainly a PR fiction?

Let’s think for a moment about the fact that no terrorist attack has occurred since the lone attack almost a decade ago. So in the last nine years not one person or group has successfully staged an attack on US soil. This amazing accomplishment despite the fact that legions of angry terrorists and fundamentalist muslims would literally do anything to harm and scare us.

How can the US which on a daily basis has hundreds of illegal immigrants cross its borders along with tons of illegal weapons be so perfect in preventing terrorist attacks? If millions of people, who supposedly hate us and our freedom, are being promised entry into heaven by attacking us, then how are they not getting the job done? Couldn’t they cross our border’s by land or water? Couldn’t they hire someone who does regularly cross our borders to do their work?

How is this a war? Our actions are consistent with a war? We’re bombing, torturing, threatening and invading foreign lands. But where are the counter attacks? How can we say we are at war with a people who haven’t taken the offensive and attacked our land in over nine years?

I have no idea what happened on 9/11 other than the towers were hit by two planes and they crashed killing a few thousand innocent people. I also know that a third sky scraper fell that day despite not being hit by a plane.

I do have difficulty accepting the explanations of how the towers fell because they defy the basic laws of physics. I have no belief that I know the real story, I only know that skyscrapers do not fall due to fires in such an manner in a few hours. Neither the planes nor fires pass logical muster as a cause, nor the small fires in the third building to merit its full collapse. Skyscrapers throughout the globe that have caught fire have raged for days sometimes leaving a hollow shell, but have never collapsed. Why were these the first?

The buildings themselves collapsed in near perfect demolition fashion, and almost at the speed of gravity (free fall). The pancake collapse we’re led to believe occurred would have taken longer to happen and the impacts over a number of floors would have been visually noticeable.

The towers were brought down by other methods. I can’t say how or why, or who did it, but it concerns me that we are not being told a reasonable explanation. Why we are being lied to is what is most alarming? Yet, the explanations for events which have been used to garner public opinion to go to war have always been distorted and inaccurate.

We live in a culture where we are being taught to fear and hate others and not to trust any other nation on the planet. We always have to be on guard and vigilant. We are seldom told the truth. Sometimes we are deceived to protect us, get our vote, or just to get us to buy one product over another. Yet, in most cases we are not privy to the truth, but rather given a healthy helping of spin and propaganda.

All of this helps explain why depression is rising in an epidemic fashion in the US.

I apologize to anyone offended by anything I said in this post. The purpose was to postulate some of the reasons why our nation is becoming a depressed one. I’m neither a republican nor a democrat, and the latter part of the post was not intended to be political, but rather an attempt to explore some of the habits and practices in our culture which could help promote depression as a social phenomenon.

Jim Guido

American Depression: Fear and Hatred

In the last post I talked at length at some of the possible reasons why such a relatively large portion of the US populace suffers from bouts of depression. In this post I want to expand on the potential role fear and hatred play in the US depression boom.

Stress, isolation and uncertainty have long been considered triggers for depression. Likewise so are feelings of inadequacy and never feeling satiated.

We’ve already covered how critical and pervasive a message of never having enough is to the success of a consumer based society. Happy satisfied individuals do not have as much of a need to buy and consume things as a person feeling a sense of lack. Though a truly depressed person overwhelmed by existence can be a poor consumer, the modern medicated depressed person is able to function just enough to consume in an attempt to fill their voids and deflect them from their real demons and psychological woes.

In the last post we pointed out that a lot of energy is put forward to influence and manage US citizens in regards to their dual roles as consumers and voters. Those yearning for power and wealth realize that in a democratic and free market economy successful influence of public opinion is vital to reaching their goals.

While the message to consumers promotes and exploits feelings of lack and isolation, the message to voters is dominated by fear and hatred. The US has been an ascending empire for decades in which war and conflict are used to expand and fortify the US’s role as dominant superpower.

The creation of history’s largest middle class and impressive growth in the average persons standard of living have made it difficult to motivate citizens to support an aggressive foreign policy. Content individuals enjoying wealth and freedom generally do not support getting involved in others affairs or willingly send their children off to wars in distant lands.

One could make a case that the US has become the most belligerent and ambitious empire in the history of mankind. During my lifetime the US has seamlessly gone from one police action or military conflict to another without a break. Oftentimes simultaneously being engaged in active warfare on a number of fronts.

The public’s reluctance and resistance to supporting its governments being militarily engaged has been almost as consistent as the governments desire to engage in war. This has happened to such a degree that the government has felt a need to sell the public on supporting almost every military involvement over the last 90 years.

Ever since WWI the US government has identified a need to “sell” wars and military actions to the public. The Council on Public Information (CPI) was the first documented organized attempt to manipulate public opinion to overcome resistance to their war aspirations. The following paragraphs are from Wikipedia:

The purpose of the CPI was to influence American public opinion toward supporting U.S. participation in World War I via a prolonged propaganda campaign. Among those who participated in it were Wilson advisers Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays, the latter of whom had remarked that “the essence of democratic society” was the “engineering of consent,” by which propaganda was the necessary method for democracies to promote and garner support for policy. The CPI at first used material that was based on fact, but spun it to present an upbeat picture of the American war effort. Very quickly, however, the CPI began churning out raw propaganda picturing Germans as evil monsters.

The committee used newsprint, posters, radio, telegraph, cable and movies to broadcast its message. He recruited about 75,000 “Four Minute Men,” volunteers who spoke about the war at social events for an ideal length of four minutes, considering that the average human attention span was judged at the time to be four minutes. They covered the draft, rationing, war bond drives, victory gardens and why America was fighting. It was estimated that by the end of the war, they had made more than 7.5 million speeches to 314 million people in 5,200 communities.[3] During its lifetime, the organization had over twenty bureaus and divisions, with commissioner’s offices in nine foreign countries.[4]

Both a Films Division and a News Division were established to help get out the war message. What was missing, Creel saw, was a way to reach those Americans who might not read newspapers, attend meetings or watch movies. For this task, Creel created the Division of Pictorial Publicity[5]. Charles Dana Gibson was America’s most popular illustrator - and an ardent supporter of the war. When Creel asked him to assemble a group of artists to help design posters for the government, Gibson was more than eager to help. Famous illustrators such as James Montgomery Flagg, Joseph Pennell, Louis D. Fancher, and N. C. Wyeth were brought together to produce some of World War I’s most lasting images.

Hollywood movie makers joined in on the propaganda by making movies such as The Claws of the Hun, The Prussian Cur, To Hell With The Kaiser, and The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin. These titles illustrate the message the CPI tried to convey.

This raw propaganda included complete fabrications, such as images and stories of German soldiers killing babies and hoisting them on bayonets. CPI pamphlets warned citizens to be on the lookout for German spies. Dozens of “patriotic organizations,” with names like the American Protective League and the American Defense Society, sprang up. These groups spied, tapped telephones, and opened mail in an effort to ferret out “spies and traitors.” The targets of these groups was anyone who called for peace, questioned the Allies’ progress, or criticized the government’s policies. They were particularly hard on German Americans, some of whom lost their jobs, and were publicly humiliated by being forced to kiss the American flag, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or buy war bonds.
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The US government’s involvement in researching and developing techniques designed to foster, influence and manage public opinion has been a constant over the last century. This desire to influence and control the human psyche has not been limited to fostering military support but has also branched into the areas of torture techniques and election campaigns.

In dozens of instances one see’s attempts to gain support of a proposed or desired military intervention through the focusing on a singular event. These events such as the sinking of the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor and the Gulf of Tonkin have been used to galvanize public support for aggressive military action and retaliation. In most cased the horror of these events were exploited to alter public opinion, yet in some cases the bulk of information suggests that some of these events were exaggerated or even staged in order to effectively gain public support.

Through the years the chief means used by the government to garner public support of its military force has been through fear, anger and hatred. It is not difficult to understand that a voter who feels that their freedom and very way of life is endangered will support a war.  Also, it makes sense that it is a citizens duty to support the good in its battle versus evil.

A good military depends on its forces to be able to kill opposing forces in combat. Teaching people to fear and hate their “enemy” is vital in training for the armed forces. In our dozens of wars we have had to train our armed forces and our populace to a lesser degree to hate and view a number of people’s as evil.

Since our military enterprises have brought us into conflict with hundreds of millions if not billions of people from hundreds of nations, our youth and general public have been trained and encouraged to hate and mistrust these various cultures and nations. Oftentimes previous allies become enemies and vice a versa, causing previous feelings to confuse or linger.  Trained hatred is often the same as any other prejudice and can be deep and long lasting, and not change as quickly as a governments foreign policy.

In an effort to justify some of its earliest actions the US had to make both American Indians and the black slaves into populaces deserving of maltreatment. The black slaves were viewed as animals whose lives were improved by leaving a primitive and savage world, and Indians were likewise, savages who refused to accept and adapt to our progressive and civilized life.

As the years passed the number of reliable and consistent allies has decreased. The tacit message has been the US versus the world. The US being the land of freedom and the wealthiest nation on the planet, is a threat to evil and the envy of all the world. Everywhere we turn we are confronted by evil and misguided people and ideologies.

Even our closest allies have fallen off the path. First we were battling the communists and dictators and all those opposed to freedom and democracy. Then some of the countries lost their way and became socialists and welfare states, making their populaces weak and dependent. Capitalism, we were told, was the only system capable of supporting freedom and sustaining economic and technological progress. Only the US had the strength and moral integrity to carve out and maintain a high standard of living honoring while rewarding the gifts and freedoms of the individual.
Each year the US is becoming more and more isolated, as the rest of the world becomes an increasing threat to our security and way of life. Unilateral action has become the norm rather than the exception.

We maintain a military presence in many nations throughout the world as our active armies go from one middle eastern nation to another.  We no longer are fighting a nation or even a political ideology but rather a concept. Terror is a synonym of fear. The war on terrorism is a war on anyone who can cause terror. The war on terrorism is the perfect war for a government who influences, manages and motivates its voting populace through the manufacture of fear.

First the US itself defies the traditional view of a nation or culture in that it has been around for just a couple hundred years and is a melting pot of other nations, tribes and cultures. One is an American basically though geography and little else. Almost all US citizens are or recently were members of cultures which we currently or recently despise, mistrust or view as our enemy.

A secondary definition of terrorism is “a method of resisting a government or of governing”. In this case anyone espousing any thought, belief or idea inconsistent with the official policy of the US government can be labeled a terrorism.

During the great Red Scare of the fifties many US citizens were demonized and considered a threat to the US by the very rumor that they were communists. The ability for the US government to once again use this fear tactic to control the actions of its own citizens is even more pronounced in, this current time period.

Terrorism, is even more vague than communism, and even an article such as this could be misinterpreted as an act of terrorism. In fact, it is almost impossible to imagine any article which asks questions or presents more than one viewpoint as being free from the potential label of terrorism.

Since terrorism can exist anywhere and at any time their can be no end to a war on terrorism, and the US is free to invade any piece of land on the earth. Since terrorism is literally a resistance to a specific form of governance than everyone on the planet who has a political opinion is a terrorist.

Anyone who supports a US policy could be defined as a terrorist to many other nations throughout the globe. Likewise, any person espousing a belief supporting any nation with an ideology different from the US could be considered a terrorist by the US government. Since no government on the planet completely agrees with the US and its policies, then there is no nation nor individual on the planet who cannot be viewed as a terrorist.

We are a nation of people being encouraged to mistrust, fear and hate millions of people throughout the globe and even inside our own nation. As consumers we are incessantly deceived and lied to, and as voters we are taught to fear and hate. Is it any wonder that we are a depressed people?

We are a people forever vigilant and on guard, and a people always in need of more things and objects in an endless attempt to fill the void or at least keep up. We are taught to seek goals and ends in areas that have no potential end point. In our world there will never be a final purchase or an end to terrorism. Yet, in both arenas our potential happiness and safety are dependent on a sense of their finality or completion.

In the modern world we are like children in a perpetual car ride plaintively asking “are we there yet” over and over again.

When viewed from this perspective it is easy to understand why so many American’s are depressed. In fact, it is hard to explain why the number of depressed individuals in the US is not higher.
Jim Guido

Why Americans are so Depressed

While the US is falling in respect to its world standing in everything from standard of living, to health care to education it is expanding its world leadership in terms of depression. The US currently claims over 1% of its populace as clinically depressed and this rate is on a geometric climb. Not surprisingly the US leads the world in the dispensing of medications to help its citizens manage and control their depression.

So this begs the question, why are US citizens so depressed and why are they so prone to depression?

One of the more glib answers put by the popular media is that US citizens have too much time on their hands, and one of the by products of having a lot of free time is depression. Americans, we’re told, have too much time on their hands. People who are struggling to survive do not have enough time to think about depression. The relative wealth of the US allows its citizens the luxury of depression.

Even though there is a sliver of truth in the statement, it is highly misleading. First, most US citizens are working more than their counterparts in other industrialized nations. Most European workers can count on at least twice as many holidays and vacation days as Americans and those nations with a higher standard of living are not as depressed as Americans. Hence the too much wealth and too little work hypothesis for US depression is a little weak.

Let’s tale a look at some of the supposed psychosocial factors which are reputed to engender depression or are its tell tale signs and see how these elements may be fostered in American life.

Clinical depression is considered to be a state whereby one feels helpless and hopeless. A partial list of some of the causes or elements of depression would include the following feelings and events:  isolation, non validation, poor self-esteem, chronic deception, betrayal, biochemistry, powerlessness, feelings of inadequacy/failure, lack of interests, lack of control, chronic stress, blame and guilt.

The US has long been considered a leader in having a chronically stressful lifestyle. When I was young the fast paced life style of the US was deemed a central component in the high rate of hypertension and heart problems of its citizens. The current pace of life now makes those times look relatively sedate and rustic. Not only does the US not have as much vacation time as other industrial nations, but we also now feel a need to be on line and do work even on our off hours.

In a highly competitive based free market economy it is hard to ever feel good about time off, or that you’re not losing ground anytime you aren’t in work mode. It is definitely stressful when you feel a personal responsibility to be successful and not let the competition pass you by.

Today’s professionals such as doctors and lawyers cannot produce the lifestyle offered previous generations. Since the 60’s the number of hours needed to maintain the income, standard of living and lifestyle of these professions has risen almost yearly.

In the late 80’s I had conversations with professional friends of mine (doctors, lawyers, psychologists, pharmacists, etc.) about changes in their field and how it affected their roles as parents and bread earners. They were unanimous in their assertion that they had to work 6o hours a week to accomplish what they use to in a 40 hour week. Now, they claim they have to work well over 60 hours week to
maintain a standard of living they had at the 90’s which was still short of the standard of living they had in the 80’s.

More work and less financial benefit would logically lead to more stress which in turn could lead to depression. Having a longer work week also has one have less time for family and friends and relationships in general, and one of the hallmarks of depression is the feeling of isolation engendered by a lack of relationships or a lack of time for intimate relationships. Considering this, it should come as no surprise that these professions are high up on the list of those being diagnosed with depression.

Not only professionals but many American’s are finding themselves too busy to have much time for relationships. Often times in two income families there is little time left over after work and other responsibilities such as house cleaning, cooking, banking, shopping and the like are taken care of. Add a couple of children in the mix and one and one time becomes an endangered species.

This lack of time together makes it difficult for relationships to survive, for either you grow together or you grow apart. When people spend more time with coworkers  than spouses it is not unusual for people to have an affair with a coworker and leave their spouse.

If you than throw in the fact that both members of two worker households have financial freedom, this makes their being able to leave the relationship easier for both people. This fact is demonstrated by the nations high divorce rate, and studies show that divorce and depression often go hand in hand. Likewise, the early onset of depression in adolescents or even younger children is often sparked by the divorce of their parents.
We are often told that anyone in the US can be become wealthy and successful. This belief also spawns a counter-belief, and that is that everyone in the US should be successful. If you live in the US there is almost no valid reason to struggle or fail. If you aren’t wealthy or successful you have no one to blame but yourself. This turns the possibility of success into a responsibility for success, and makes the pressure of success a constant stressor.

The tacit statement is that only the lazy and unresourceful do not succeed in our society. Since almost everyone in our society has some redeeming or outstanding quality they have no excuse for failure. A short list of the qualities a person could use to become successful include being clever, ambitious, talented or intelligent.

Finding a person who does have one of these qualities or a synonym for one of these qualities is rare. If not talented you could at least be skillful, productive, earnest or devoted. If not creative you could be resourceful, inventive, quirky or eccentric. If not intelligent you could be knowledgeable, informed, or an expert in a very narrow field of information. To be successful in this culture all you supposedly need is to have and use any of these or a multitude of other marketable qualities.

In a society espousing this belief while having the factual reality be that more and more money is going into fewer and fewer hands it can cause feelings of failure in a large percentage of people. Our current economic downturn with its booming unemployment only exacerbates the negative feeling of self inherent in the American dream.

Add to this the fact that in most arenas of competition in our society there are far more winners than losers. In every race their is one winner and the rest are losers. For every business that succeeds there are dozens which fail. Every actor, author, athlete, musician and entrepreneur who succeeds is met by hundreds or thousands who didn’t. Even those who succeed for a time being may fail in the long run.

Societies with set caste and class systems can breed their own forms of depression, but they pale in comparison to the vast numbers of people who find our competitive structure overwhelming and depressing. A little realism would go a long way towards reducing the high percentage of depression in our society.

One of the most pervasive success myths in our culture is the advanced education myth. If you want to succeed and get a good job the saying goes, stay in school and get an advanced degree. The truth of the matter is that our society and job structure cannot support a highly educated work force. There are not millions of jobs sitting out there waiting to be filled by people with advanced degrees. In fact those with advanced degrees attempting to get into the workforce are finding it impossible to find jobs worthy of their educational qualifications.
The above discussion outlines some of the basic reasons that depression is on the rise in the US. Yet, I have yet to talk about the two most likely reasons for why the US leads the world in depression. These two aspects are fear and uncertainty. The US leads the world in the production of fear and uncertainty and the knowledge of how these mechanisms can foster and maintain a state of depression.

I would have to say that lying and deception are central and endemic to both our politics and economics.

We live in the most blatant and proud consumer society on the planet. Our roles as both voters and consumers makes it central to both businesses and governmental bodies to manage and influence us. The key to their success is their successful management of public opinion, public perception, public sentiment and consumer confidence.

In order to get elected politicians must tell us what they think we want to hear rather than what they honesty think. Even if what they are saying is basically what they believe, the very words they choose and how they frame their ideas is done for a specific purpose. Their goal is to manage and influence our perceptions more than it is to accurately convey their ideas.

Most of what they say is designed for effect rather than truth, it is about form rather than substance. Political statements are more about inciting a desired reaction or preventing an undesired reaction than expressing a specific idea. Almost every statement uttered by a politician is done with the utmost care and craftsmanship. Citizens are being handled and their perceptions and feelings are being managed. We are never treated honestly or in a direct fashion, rather we are treated as voters and consumers of their rhetoric.

The fact that it is much easier to destroy than to build, results in politicians attacking their opponents position rather than articulating their own. This results in the use of fear, anger and even hatred as being the norm as opposed to positive feelings. Everyday politicians are telling us that we should support and vote for them because their opponents are bad, evil or a threat to our way of life. Everyday our being managed and deceived to hate, fear and be angry at the other side. Each day we hear a number of people talk out about the dangers of the others and the threat they pose.

How can that not be depressing? How can associations based of fear and hatred not diminish our feelings of happiness and safety?

We openly talk about spin, and that all politicians have a hidden agenda and cannot be trusted. Poll after poll show that politicians are some of the least trusted people in  society. Yet despite this we day-to-day lives are dependent on trusting them to make important decisions on our behalf. How can that not lead to depression and/or crazy making behavior?

In the political realm we also have the corporate media complaining about the media as if the media were someone else. We are being asked to believe these people on TV and in the newspapers are telling us the truth while the media is corrupt. And in the process not consider these media people not to be the media.

Though we all know that the entire corporate media is owned by a few families who own a handful of corporations, we are asked to suspend this knowledge and think that those reporting the news are objective and not representing the views of their bosses. Again, isn’t it logical that all this deception, perceptual management and misrepresentation could lead to the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness of depression? Doesn’t it make sense that a systemic and pervasive avoidance of truth and honesty would foster depression?

How can one feel anchored to themselves and others in a world of incessant manipulation and deception?

A chronic lack of self-validation is another stated element or cause of depression. How can one get validation is a society that is always treating you as an object to influence and manage? How can one get validation when reality and what we’re are being told is real doesn’t match up?

Misinformation and deception are just as predominant in our role as consumers as it is in our role as voter. Hardly a moment goes by in which we are not being coaxed or encouraged to buy something. In almost every sales pitch the benefits of our potential purchase are exaggerated and the drawbacks of not purchasing or buying a competitors product are likewise skewed.

In commerce as in politics we are forever the targets or spin, deception and manipulation. Any thing said to us has a purpose and seldom a truth. If we are being complimented is to often to help set up a sale. Likewise if we are being warned it is not so much about care and concern for our welfare as a reason or motivation to purchase the desired product.

Oftentimes people make a purchase to fill a perceived lack or void in their life, or to fit in with the group. Salesmen take advantage of this fact by trying to convince you that you need their product or it will make you happy. Many sales techniques focus on your being viewed as cool or in if you buy their product.

No matter what purchases you make there are more commercials and sales pitches coming your way.  A good consumer can never be content and satiated, and so the goal is to always have you wanting more and be dissatisfied. Isn’t the state of never feeling complete and satisfied a working definition of depression?

Being told the truth is a rare event in our roles as consumers and voters. In the rare instances when we are being told the truth, it seldom occurs without some spin or management agenda being attached to it.

When you consider how pervasive these two roles are in our daily lives you realize how rare simple honesty can be. This means is a very functional sense reality is never quite what is seems. It makes it hard for us to ever trust what we hear or the people who speak to us.  Not being able to trust others makes it difficult for us to get the type of validation we need to feel healthy and normal.

We are told we live in the freest society on the planet yet we are forever being watched and monitored. One wonders how we can rectify being the freest nation with the fact that we have the largest prison population (per capita) in the world. Again this sort of verbal contradiction with reality probably eats away at us in a not totally conscious way.

In my next post I plan on doing a more extensive exploration fear mongering plays in our nations tendency towards depression.

Before closing I would like to mention the negative role western medicine has in our feeling secure and validated. Due to how it functions the goal of western medicine seems to be to tell you something you don’t know about yourself, to surprise you. If you feel great and have no complaints they will usually run tests. Seldom do tests ever come back as perfect, whatever that means, and some recommendation or warning sign not identified.

In most cases most people by their forties are on some form of medication and on some stage of alert regarding some potential problem. This is just another off shoot of our consumer culture where we are never OK and complete. Yet, what modern medicine does is take away our ability to know ourselves or monitor our own health.   We become stupid and dependent on machines and technology to tell us what we don’t know about ourselves.

On the other hand if I go see a doctor regarding a specific complaints, and the tests see no problem, than I’m either imagining the malady or it just doesn’t exist. In either case my perceptions about myself are both unimportant and wrong. The fear of the unknown as well as not being to perceive reality accurately are precursors for depression. Our modern medical system is not very reinforcing or self validating.
The point of this post wasn’t to say that our society is the only one that promotes and fosters depression. Yet, it did strive to explore some of the reasons and characteristics which could explain why depression is so rampant in the US. In many cases stated above the US is not alone in what it does, but it may stand out by the degree and frequency in which these practices are utilized.

This post though long could have be a book. So, I ask your indulgence with the half statements and innuendo this format demanded.

Jim Guido