People Are Caught in a Time Loop and Don't Realize It

I first started to realize that people were having trouble parsing the passage of time in the 2000s when an acquaintance of mine opened a used car lot and asked me to build him a website to show pictures of the cars, mileage, price, etc.  As I began entering the data, I noticed that most of the cars were at least ten years old -- many older -- and all with pretty high mileage; but despite that, he was selling them for $10,000 or even much more. And, no, they weren't classic cars, sports cars or European imports, they were pretty much your run-of-the-mill American Chevy and Ford vehicles.

When I brought this up to him, he said that when he purchased them he didn't think they were that old being 2002 models, even though it was 2014 at the time. I then said, "but that's 12 years old!" He eventually agreed with me that there was something about the difference between 2002 and say 2014 that was perceived as being less time than 1988 and 2000 though the stretch of time between was exactly the same -- 12 years.

I began noticing this phenomenon all over the place -- particularly in our pop culture and politics. People were treating the passage of time of as much as 15 years as if it was maybe only five years or less.

Flashback... 

Bear with me for a moment so I can put things into perspective. Let's start by looking at 1942 to 1957 -- an example of a 15-year timespan.

1942 - The world was in the midst of World War II. The top songs on the Billboard charts were by The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Tommy Dorsey's band with Frank Sinatra singing and White Christmas by Bing Crosby. Casablanca and Yankee Doodle Dandy were showing at the movies. An average car cost $1,100, gas was 19 cents a gallon, a house cost $6,950, a loaf of bread was 9 cents, milk was 60 cents a gallon, postage stamps were 3 cents each and the value of the Stock Market was only 119. The average annual salary was $2,400 and the minimum wage was 30 cents per hour.

1957 - 15 years later... The Space Age began with the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite. Jailhouse Rock and 12 Angry Men were playing at the movies. Elvis Presley and Pat Boone were at the top of the music charts. The price of a house nearly tripled to $18,000, bread doubled to 19 cents a loaf, milk tripled to $1 a gallon and the Stock Market quadrupled to 436. The average annual salary also doubled to $5,500 and the minimum wage more than tripled to a $1 per hour.

Looking at this relatively short span of time of 15 years we went from a world at war to an "Ozzie and Harriet" lifestyle in the suburbs where Elvis and rock-n-roll had replaced the big bands. We went from a ruler-like President Roosevelt to Eisenhower who coined the phrase, "the military industrial complex." There were monumental changes both in our culture and the political scene, as well as the quality of life for the average person being improved dramatically over that period.

Let's look at one more span from the past, though it's the same no matter what decades you choose.

1969 to 1984 -- Another 15 years...

1969 - The year of Woodstock and "The Summer of Love." The Lunar Landing. Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 800, a new house cost $15,550., average income per year was $8,550., average monthly rent $135., a new car cost $3,270. and gas was 35 cents per gallon. Easy Rider and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were top movies. The Beatles were still on the charts along with The Archies, The Rolling Stones, Fifth Dimension, Three Dog Night and The Cowsills. The Vietnam War was in full swing and President Nixon took office that year.

1984 - Ronald Reagan was President. The U.S. was at peace (except for the CIA's private wars). Prince, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen and Culture Club were on the music charts. A Nightmare on Elm Street, Amadeus, The Terminator, This is Spinal Tap and Paris, Texas were showing at the movies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1211, Interest rates were at 10.75%, the average cost of a new house was $86,730. with average income at $21,600. and monthly rents averaging around $350. 

Over those 15 years we again went from war to peace, pop music to rock and funk, and from independent movies to the Hollywood blockbusters. Income nearly tripled and housing prices were steadily rising. You  could earn interest on your money in the bank and the cost-of-living was low enough that a single person could get by, with money to spare, with only an average-paying job.

Now let's look at 2002 to 2017 - The most recent 15-years...

The war on terrorism never ended and troops are still dying in the Middle East and elsewhere after 15 years. The same styles of music and artists still top the charts. Movies and TV shows are dominated by remakes and sequels of previous ones with an over-abundance of superhero action flicks. Salaries and wages have stagnated for most people, and the average house value has decreased or stayed the same (except for high-end properties). The internet hasn't changed all that much except for the amount of information it keeps collecting on everyone. In fact, advertising on the internet has slowed it down, and gets in the way of the experience for most people. And while, there have been improvements in cell phones and smartphone technologies, basically, people are still tethered to them, and consumed in texting, messaging, photographing everything and posting and tweeting to the point of living more to document what they're doing than "living in the moment." Dehumanization.

I put it to you that we are living in an illusion created by an artificial intelligence which has taken control of practically every aspect of our lives. We are being deceived, tricked -- even programmed into believing and behaving certain ways. From entertainment and politics to advertising and consumerism, to what we do, think, eat, buy and feel; life has gone beyond from being absurd to being surreal. In short, you are being controlled and manipulated.

People act as if they don't know what year it is -- not in the real sense of the progression of time and change. Many people are still living in the late 1980s or '90s. They don't know what the other 320 million people in the U.S. think, because social media is run by A.I. and can't be trusted (at all). There are too many bots, trolls and paid "influencers" out there to know that anything we see, hear and/or read is true or false. 

Advanced computer graphic technologies are capable of faking anything -- even visuals (and they do). Very few people have any idea of DARPA technologies and government partnerships with companies like Google and Facebook that have been, and are being, used for nefarious purposes. The health care industry is a fraud. It's a business of making money on sickness, not curing diseases. We're being poisoned by the processed foods we are enticed to buy and have come to crave and love. Organic foods are fake. Most fruits and vegetables are irradiated to kill pests which also eliminates the nutritional value. Unless you grow your own food, or buy directly from a farmer, chances are you're consuming garbage. Speaking of garbage... Very, very few recycled paper and plastics are really recycled. Most end up in landfills or the oceans. WiFi routers, smartphones, smart electric meters and 5G are literally cooking our brains with RF waves as bad as microwave ovens. And if all that wasn't bad enough, most of us are over-burdened with debt, stress and have very little savings. And the list goes on...

Unless you literally unplug from everything, grow your own food, disconnect from the smart-grid, you're life expectancy will continue to decline and you'll become sicker, poorer and more stressed out. And who wants to unplug from everything? Nobody, right?

Welcome to dystopia. Good luck!