Introduction

We’ve been narcotized.

That’s right.

Not some of us, not most of us.

All of us.

And you can blame Trump, Qanon, NASA, Budget People, Wall Street, and the millions of other nouns (People, Places, and Things) to pass judgment on.

But the simple problem is we’ve been tricked.

I know, how about that for starting off a blog?

Vonnegut’s Hypothesis

We have an inherent need for drama in our lives and when that need is not filled, we create the environment, circumstances, or solutions that will bring drama back into our lives.

Kurt Vonnegut captures this issue completely when he says that “People have been hearing fantastic stories since time began.

The problem is, they think life is supposed to be like the stories.”

Vonnegut charted out life like this:

Vonnegut 1 — The Cinderella Story

Vonnegut 2 — Disaster Story

And now look at our lives, is it any wonder teens and young adults are always fighting the status quo?

Many they aren’t fighting us as much as fighting the seemingly boring-ness of the rest of their lives…

Vonnegut 3 — The Need for Drama

As a result, many of us were consumed by radio shows (Soaps, Thrillers, Sci-Fi, Detective Stories, etc.) and that didn’t quite give us the fix we needed.

So along comes TV shows and that captivates us for awhile, but again, we couldn’t get the high we needed.

Someone remembered the soaps from the days of radio, so many of us were consumed by Soaps for years and when that wasn’t enough, they started making “soaps” for Teens and the WB took over (now it’s the CW, go figure).

And our fix still wasn’t met.

Reality TV

Movies took off for a few years, but movies delivered an appetizer, not quite the fix we needed, much less the one we wanted.

And someone else has a brilliant idea, let’s do Reality TV!

And yes, it satisfied the cravings of many people, millions to be exact, as Reality TV blazed throughout the world.

And somehow, it tickled our fancy, but never quite hydrated our fantasies.

And someone said, let’s do more Reality TV, and hold on, how about more kinds of Reality TV?

So we added Police Drama, Police Procedures, and other shows that “simulated” the real lives of people who led exciting lives.

From Police, Surviving in the wild, Making over Homes, Cooking, Towing Cars, and Talent shows, Reality TV expands its horizons and continually abuses its iron grip on TV.

We are bombarded with more and more Reality shows and I always wonder, when will the madness end?

I’m left with knowing this has been going on long before I was born and it will continue long after I am gone because this need we have, this emptiness we seek to fill, it will not diminish.

And you ask, why?

Well, our insatiable nature comes from the fulfilling of dual pleasure: we are given fulfillment of our senses and the massaging of our Egos.

Disagree?

Here’s another example.

Destroying the Arts

Music calmed and soothed the “savage beast” for thousands of years until we came along and it wasn’t enough.

We wanted more and after pirating music for so long, we became “numb” to the healing properties of music and we turned our eyes to movies.

Blockbuster started the fix, Netflix continued the craving, and Redbox delivered the final blow as we became “numb” to movies as well, especially the mythological power and possibilities of movies to educate, entertain, and enlighten.

Now I look ahead and cringe at how people are pushing this as an all-encompassing end to the world.

Conclusion

Have you looked at the world lately?

Makes me shake my head and wonder, will we really “lose” anything by ending what we have now?

Will we ever “quench” this insatiable need for drama, desire, and feeding our Ego Bodies?