Everyone is Depressed and No One is Doing Anything About It.

Everyone is depressed and no one is doing anything about it - Part 1

We live in a society where nihilism is the implicitly promoted point of view. Schools, government, media, jobs, and our
interpersonal relations all reinforce the idea that nothing is truly important. With this de facto state of being underlying
all American lives, people naturally manufacture their own meaning. While many are successful in finding the worth of
their own existence and a reason to move forward, most never come close.

The culture at large that exists in the United States of America in 2016 is devoid of meaning. The actors mostly follow
illusions of importance that only possess the power of dedication because there is no actual underlying truth to be had.
The result of this unfettered abnegation of truth is an environment where violence is the most attractive quality
of entertainment. Our news media has held the motto, “if it bleeds, it leads,” for decades. We are always shown the most
gruesome actions of the human species time and time again. The systematic desensitization to violence left a space for
nihilism to grow inside the American psyche. A steady and forceful detachment from everything outside of any single person’s
own sphere of experience allows for us all to sit back and easily laugh and chuckle at violence while constantly repeating on
the inside our mantra of, “this isn’t really real and no one is hurt.” While the mantra is technically true, it also further
reinforces our willed ignorance to what is going on outside of our respective immediate spheres. We are mostly incapable of
of realizing that if we are all detached from any sort of truth, then we are strengthening the psycho-spiritual simulacra
in which we live.

The United States government has instilled a nihilistic perspective in its people through policy action. Back in the 1960’s,
our president mandated that we would walk on the moon before 1970. Even though he was assassinated shortly afterward, we
accomplished his boast. We also invaded Vietnam and sacrificed thousands of our own citizens for oil. Then we endured the Nixon regime which ultimately came apart when Nixon stopped honoring his masters and Watergate was brought to public attention. A few years later, we elected Ronald Reagan because he successfully presented an image Americans could believe in. He spoke of the superiority of
democracy and religion in a world of evil and communism. All the while he was authorizing the import of South American cocaine,
the sale of weapons to Iran, and the arming of Nicaraguan rebels.

The idea that Ronald Reagan was a good-hearted Christian who worked hard to champion democracy was a bold illusion that Americans
were eager to buy because there was a lack of meaning and truth in the country’s psyche. Even today, most Americans are unwilling to
believe that Ronald Reagan was the creator of The New Jim Crow. The country’s collective nihilism in the 1980’s allowed for this to
happen. The majority of those with money and targeted by mass media did not care that Americans were being fed drugs imported
by the government which started a witch-hunt bent on imprisoning
for long periods of time anyone who didn’t just say no.

Barack Obama was another great illusionist to live in The White House. He touted change and hope for his presidential campaigns. He
implemented a poorly-designed version of universal healthcare that benefitted a lot of people. He also killed more people by executive
order than any other American leader in history. His drone program grew to an unprecedented size and wrought
collateral damage on a scale the public will not fully comprehend for some time.

Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan were both very charismatic gentlemen who spoke in such a way that their people were captivated and were
more than happy to throw support toward whatever was being discussed. Both ended up wreaking havoc while the electorate was mesmerized
by the glow of their personalities.

The leaders of America have, for decades now, been nothing more than a facade of rhetoric hiding the truth of the government’s intent and
action. Those who buy into the narrative recited in presidential speeches are drawn into a false reality and deeper into the simulacra.
Our government is complicit, knowingly or not, in the rise of nihilism in American culture. It feeds the engine that carries us all away
from truth and meaning.

Our education system and most employment do not give Americans any meaningful purpose. People are educated for jobs that either no longer
exist, are diminishing quickly, or serve no meaning or contribution to society. A perfect example is the rise in gender and race studies as
a stand alone degree and curriculum. While these topics are very valuable and important for individuals to be educated about, one cannot
serve her or himself, anyone else, or society solely on the skill of having read and discussed these social issues that have no objective
relation to future economic, scientific, engineering, or medical advancement. Even a skilled person with an art degree can enrich his or her
community and provide for those who depend on him or her. A person who has no real skill and fills his or her time with reminding everyone
of past inequality and injustice does not enrich the community and does not help us to avoid those past mistakes as a society. There is no
meaning or purpose in that work.

Finally, the way we treat each other has reached a point where nothing is meaningful. We frivolously express our love for one
another but our actions do not agree. A lot of us make a living out of exploiting the kindness of others and a lot more of us
have no kindness to give to those in genuine need. We generally do not feel any meaning in keeping our neighbors above water.
We tell people we love them without truly meaning it. Likely because we have by and large lost any relation to the truth of love.
Now we manufacture our own approximation of love hoping desperately to stumble upon something real like what our ancestors knew and
immortalized in the works of art and literature left for current generations to make sense of.

We must not assume that the above observations are true for everyone. Plenty of people have been fortunate enough to break free
of the simulated reality imposed by our culture. Plenty of individuals have found meaning and purpose in their existence.
Mostly, these people possess qualities of skill, caring thoughtfulness, and a desire to share with others.

Unfortunately, most of us will never find an escape from the lonely reality we discover upon the willed dissolution of
the phony reality imposed by American culture. We will continue to watch society blindly spiral downward through
delusions of righteousness and illusions of truth which have no relation whatsoever to anything that was ever really true.

Thus, depression is a natural reaction as we beg for something to mean anything at all while knowing fully that it will
never come. There will be no mass awakening, apocalypse, or revolution of thought and morality. Those things are
no longer possible when there is no meaning or truth. Our destruction will be long and slow followed not by a grand rising
from the ashes, but a weak whimper as our light burns out once and for all.

Step out of the simulation. Slow down. Think about what you are saying and never misrepresent the way you feel about the people
around you. Even if your only feeling is rage or hate, at least it is real and true. A real and true rage is far more meaningful
and valuable than a simulated love. And most of all, never get caught limiting your awareness and thought
processes solely to your immediate vicinity for long periods of time.