These days, it is a massive challenge to avoid the influence of mass media, and for good reason. According to US Census data, advertising and “public relations” rakes in about 240 billion dollars a year, with a steady path of growth. 

But even worse is the entertainment industry. Spending  almost a trillion dollars a year, this sector ensures people are constantly bombarded with “experiences” to sate our appetite for thrills. This is dangerous. In our modern city life, it is very easy to keep our brains needlessly occupied with movies and television, while keeping perfectly stationary on our couches or curled up in our beds.

This new world is entirely manmade. Instead of forging social relationships, or consuming real, liveable experiences, we are content to be exploited and dulled by massive corporations with a perfect algorithm to catch our brains attention, and keep it.

Social media is not the only entity guilty of this. Politics is now rife with these exploiters. Everything needs a slogan, something quick to chant or chide the opposing side with. Trump, the perfect example of the rotting postmodern world leader (which many right-wing European politicians are now sadly emulating, seeing his success; Le Pen, Boris Johnson, etc.) used endless nicknames to reduce his opponents to commodities to be consumed.

Unfortunately, it appears that things will only get worse, until the whole system comes crashing down.