Hey, hey! Look here! No, not there! Over here! Look, look, look at this shiny object! Look at this new gadget! Have you seen this game? Have you watched this new show? Have you bought the new trinket yet? Hey! Look here, not over there! Here’s a catchy tune and some vacant dialogues so you won’t have to see what you don’t want to see anyway! Here’s a new gameshow, reality thing, contest, TV series, a new channel, a new IN color, a new thing to own , possess and be immersed in or afraid of. Look at it! Look! Look!

Why don’t we want to see in a world that is so crazy that it actually considers itself sane, enlightened, calls itself a “knowledge” and “information society”, the utmost sophisticated era in human history? Because once we see, once we really see, there is no going back. You can sit back in front of the TV, go to an amusement park, or be bombarded by FUN FUN FUN or distracted in various ways… but what you have seen somehow just won’t go away now if you have a trinket of empathy and soul, and now that you see, this makes you responsible to do better as well, and doing better is hard since it demands change and sacrifice. This is why we don’t want to see. So we like and follow only happy go lucky optimistic vacant motivational things, influencers, fashionistas, why we follow the unboxing of things, indulge in pawn shop realities, reviews of new products… This is why we watch humoristic shows in which even the laughter is done for us, so you don’t have to or maybe don’t know what is funny and need to be retaught. We look at empty people doing empty things, talking about nothing even remotely meaningful at all, although we know that afterwards we’re left with an empty place inside. So you’ll go out and kill that empty feeling for a while, shut the voice up by a new app, shirt, bag. The manual for manipulation: “Silent weapons for the quiet war: How to manipulate the population” says -“Keep them busy, busy, busy, back on the farm with the other animals”

This is very convenient for the “economic growth”. They’ve capitalized on the useless thing you distracted yourself with to not see the price of those things being made and delivered to you, and the subsequent gnawing feeling of nothingness you were left with. The moment you get out of line fear manipulation swoops in to get all the ducks in line again and you’ll be bombarded by big words and talk of dramatic situations but as a dismal statistic you’re powerless against, you’ll be threatened by not being able to get the socially approved dream of being rich, famous, successful adored… If you have no power over it the best you can do is not to think about it, right? To distract yourself again and reaffirm that this is the right path by collecting a like here and there, by being envied a few seconds on your new coat or a car or that vacation you spent more time making insta friendly pictures of than actually enjoying. Is it fun? Are you sufficiently distracted to not take any action that might impact the real? Do you have enough channels, enough stuff, enough envy? Are you bothered by the amount of food you threw away last week? Did you really need that new phone case, does it make a difference in your life? When was the last time a picture from the real touched you as strongly as a scene from a movie or a show?

Stop choosing distraction over fact, calling the people to come and watch that funny cat, that gameshow where they are going for the car, reading tabloids and talking about superficial nothings. Stop trying not to see in order to avoid responsibility. Yes, you not separating your garbage is convenient, but a part of the problem. Yes, you buying things in plastic wrappers is a part of the problem. Yes, you watching Kardashians instead of a debate that will decide on the laws governing your town or state is a part of the problem… Learn to see, make yourself see. The chance you cannot do at least one thing to make one person feel better or improve their situation is absolutely zero. Turn off the TV, get of the mall’s escalator, stop buying what you don’t need or want to bulldoze over what you don’t want to feel. Take some responsibility for the imprint you’re leaving on the world and don’t allow yourself to be bullied by distraction, fear, mindless fun or entertainment. Learn to see – you can’t fight what you don’t see.