Before the world ends...

[rooftoprevolutionary]

...I have a question...
Has anyone even fucking noticed?
You know in those "end of the world" movies where an overpaid actor trudges through the snow looking like he just walked out of a spa, complaining of frostbite and the ignorance of the few who could have done something?
I feel for him right now...not the actor, the actual character.

Although I'm sitting in sunny California, my scope is turned towards the literal and figurative rumblings across the globe.
I am not at all superstitious. I do not subscribe to the bat shit crazy wailings of extremists and loony tunes; that we'll all be judged and 2012 is it so get your shit in order.
I think that is just another example of the psychotic projections of our shortcomings onto the past and/or a higher being.

For example, all the hullabaloo surrounding next year. Many historians claim that the ancient peoples of South America who we credit with this prophetic observation, just got tired of fucking counting so high, and figured they'd continue later. There is actually no hard evidence to suggest that they thought it was going to be the end of the world.
I stopped writing in birth control reminders once I got to December 2011 in my calendar. That does not mean that I expect to wake up pregnant on December 1st. It just means I can fill that in later. However, this is not how we, the people, think.
There is no need to take care of our ills and sins now, because the world will simply end whenever it wants to ; God will simply pull the plug when he feels like it ; mother nature will shrug us off when we get too obese and dirty to carry, etc, etc. The problem with these ideas isn't necessarily the fact that people believe them, it is that they feel it relieves them of any sort of responsibility in crises, from the local level to the global level.

If I had a dime for every time I heard some religious nut say "It's not in our hands," I could probably single-handedly bring this country out of debt.
And while I enjoy picking on religious extremists, it's not just them. Even people who are not extremist (either secular or non), find it easier and more convenient to rest on the assumption that their actions will make no difference in the impending doom of our species and our world.
So, we sit and watch with detached apathy, thinly veiled with a facade of care, as the world takes a swan dive.

New Zealand experiences two major quakes in less than half a year...oh, shame.
Libyan civilians are fired upon from helicopters by their own people...oh, bummer.
Our own government is ready to literally just fucking shut down because nobody can agree on a damn thing other than the fact that we're broke and in deep shit...oh, well, I'm fine.
From the Pyramids at Giza to the royal palace in Jordan - like dominoes along the Northernmost countries of Africa, civil unrest marks the end of an era in the mid-east and all Americans care about is whether Steven Tyler eye-fucked the next candidate for musical poser of the year.
We have had the most fucked up weather ever this year and all people do in response is crank the heat, keep the engines running and buy some more fur.

Why?

How?

Is our apathy a sign of devolution or of evolution? Is it a sign that our brains have progressed to the point that we are able to use it as a defense? Is it, like I said, a conscious projection? because somewhere we fear the truth - we fear the outside confines of our cuddly bubble? Or is it subconscious or not even? Is it more cynically the simple dumbing down of a nation? Is it just the continued idiotization of the great U S of A?

These questions aren't rhetorical. I would really LOVE a response.
Although, I don't expect anyone to really have the answer. Even if I knew exactly why, the question needs to be how can we fix it?
How do you get people to care about their own lives and world?
It seems an asinine question to ask. But that's where we're at.

My heart goes out to the people in New Zealand, Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, Afghanistan, the homeless man I passed today, the man I saw commit suicide last week. My heart goes out to the people who can not help their situation, who are born into mayhem or it is cataclysmically brought upon them.
I have no pity, however, for the people who do nothing, who pray for change. Who sit and wishfully think about a better future but don't DO anything. That's pathetic and ultimately, psychotic.
It is up to the people to change the fate of this world. It is not up to the Mayans. It is not up to God. It is not up to the Tooth Fairy or Santa or Obama or Palin. It is up to you. It is up to me.

Let's Do Something.

[shraby]

1. I'm 68 years of age and I can't enlighten you one iota. I've

wondered such things myself. Things sure are going to hell in a handbasket aren't they? Boggles the mind.

[Speck Tater]

2. I'm 65 and just as puzzled.

The human race seems to possess a positive genius for denial. It's why people smoke, overeat, and fail to take care of their health and fitness. Everyone believes they are immortal and that bad things can only happen to "the other guy".

[wizstars]

3. It's overload for most people....

They feel incapable of changing what they see and don't like so they deal with it through denial.

[Rabblevox]

4. I'll take a shot at "why"

It's not a simple answer.

Part of it lies in human evolution. We are hard-wired to respond to immediate threats "It's a LION! RUN OR GRAB A SPEAR!" will always get attention, where "Antelope population is down, if we don't do something about the lions soon, our kids might not have enough food" rarely does. This one isn't anybody's fault, it's how we're built, and even if we're conscious of the phenomenon, it's hard to resist.

Part of it is the deliberate dumbing-down of America that's been going on at least 30 years. We make teaching one of the lowest-paid professions, then we force teachers to teach only out of a state-approved curriculum who's only aim is to produce scores on a standardized test, and then when kids are out of school we give them video games instead of books, musical instruments, sports equipment, etc. Kids by nature love to learn, explore, think, question, and we drum it right the f*ck out of them until they are good little sheep ready for a job at Walmart.

Part of it is the constant drum-beat of the major media telling us what to think and what's important and what to buy. Of course, that's been happening at least since the days of W.R. Hearst, but with media consolidation into fewer and fewer hands, it's reached a fever-pitch that makes movies like "Network" look positively tame. An alien analyzing our media would conclude that our biggest priorities are the size of J-Lo's butt and the latest NBA trades.

Part of it is the absolute failure of the left to provide a coherent alternative to the neo-con vision. For almost 60 years, the left has been driven primarily by "identity politics". It's been black rights, gay rights, women's rights, worker's rights, immigrant rights, etc. Don't mis-understand, each of those is an important issue, but it's left us splintered. The activists for different issues too rarely talk to each other and find points of agreement.

And part of it, I'm convinced is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. When a person has suffered too many shocks or stressors, they can literally shut-down and go virtually catatonic. And anyone who's not a member of the ruling class is getting shocked and stressed many times a day.

As to what to do?
I'm all ears.

[rooftoprevolutionary]

5. Thank you -

Damn good response.
I couldn't help but focus in on one particular aspect of your response - the fact that the moderate or slightly left leaning Americans can't seem to find common ground.
What's so frustrating is that there is a unifying agent, something that we could all agree on - regardless of whether you lean left or right, up (excluding the top 1% of course) or down. There is a corporate stranglehold on this country. Like you said, it doesn't have the same immediate effect as "holy shit, there's a lion!" It has the more slow, sick spread like a frog being boiled in what started out as luke warm water.
All the issues at hand: the environment, the economy, human rights, social issues, infrastructure, can all be huddled under the umbrella of corporate interest. If it really was the people who decided, as it says on that old weathered piece of parchment, we wouldn't be in this cluster fuck.
A republic is not perfect, but a dictatorship run by the top 1% is way less perfect.
I agree with you that it is a form of shock therapy. We have been shocked into not being able to deal with it. Like after Katrina when 107 out of 128 public schools were privatized. The nation was reeling from the devastation and didn't think to look at school legislation.
So, as a long winded response to your question (not sure if it was rhetorical), we have to think. I know that's a tall order in a place where education serves standardized tests.
We have to think and then we have to act, educate and create common ground where there is none.
If you asked anyone, whether they be a bleeding heart for gay rights, whale rights or black rights, none of them will say they like being robbed, none of them will say that they like seeing their rights pulled quietly from them. Their battles lie in those corporate chains, all our battles do.
It may sound lofty and unrealistic, utopian and wishful thinking but there you have it. Thanks for the insightful response.

[Rabblevox]

6. +1. "It may sound lofty and unrealistic, Utopian and wishful thinking but there you have it."

actually, +1000 for lofty, Utopian, and unrealistic.

Realism fucking sucks these days.