The real truth is that people across the planet are fed up of

[Moostache]

74. Our world is more complex, but disturbingly simple minded at the same time.

All the people want, all over the world, isn't gold and silver and a mansion. They just want the basics. A safe roof over their heads, that's not going to leak or fall through when the storm comes. A job with good wages in exchange for a hard day's work. Healthcare. A car to get to work and the hospital and back.

I do not think this sentiment is level with the reality I observe.

People in dire financial situations may be focused only on the basics, but the rest of the populace (even those who are sliding off the decks and into the sea of debt and despair right now) is enslaved by advertising to an extent that is hard to believe. Phones alone are an amazingly depressing thing to behold with people "needing" to upgrade annually to keep up with their 'friends'. Blindly paying hundreds of dollars in extra fees and taxes to have a phone that in its primary function is unchanged since the last version and in many cases is barely different at all.

The amount of mental energy expended daily on things that truly do not matter - handbags, shoes, clothing, tattoos, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TV, Hollywood, mass media starlets of absolutely ZERO consequence and on and on and on - is truly depressing. The modern world is built on a foundation of telling everyone that whatever they have is not enough to be "happy", that whatever their 'net worth' its not enough to "be loved", and no matter what you accomplish, it is meaningless without material accolades that broadcast "success". One of the hidden reasons for the rise of an idiot like Trump is that he is the runaway, uncheck id... a bastion of non-introspection and bombast that tells everyone how great he is without anything remotely resembling an actual plan.

Our entire western society is profoundly sick.

The concepts that conservatives around the world find so hideous and offensive are the very things society needs to embrace if it is to survive the coming trials and tribulations. Accepting people FOR their differences, learning to coexist in peace and share pooled, public resources, moving beyond the concept of 'us' and 'them' as a dividing line of demarcation for the politics of the day instead of the solutions of tomorrow.

Reality has changed and conservative refuse to acknowledge it. Even many progressives are failing to see what is truly coming in the next decade or two. "Jobs" are disappearing everywhere. Manufacturing - outside of super-specialized and technologically complex operations - are being automated globally. The idea that "our" jobs were shipped to China and can be brought back is comically inept thinking in the 21st century. China is on a knife's edge of near collapse. Asia is likewise. There is no cheaper source of labor than a robot that cannot ask for a raise, does not take a break and never stops working. In the end, our entire social model - of partitioning value through money and allowing money to replace worth and utility in favor of advanced consumption and very advanced hording, is going to fail.

The question remains - will we destroy our very lives in an effort to protect the privilege of the few? Or, will enough people recognize the trap we are in, and crawl away in time? I am less optimistic with every Trump rally or fan I see...