Futurismic

Living in a constant state of fear is not good for your health on an individual level. But scale up to the level of entire towns, states or countries, and the problem can be exacerbated by the psychology of mob behaviour. [image by krystenn]

According to documents from the Department of Homeland Security, not only is it possible for fear of terrorism to create a contagious psychosomatic epidemic, but it’s also already happened a couple of times - in the US and elsewhere.

Now, that may not be surprising in and of itself. But take a look at some of the comment reactions on this BoingBoing post about a riot in the Congo that was triggered by accusations of witchcraft; quite a few people find it ridiculous that anyone could be scared of witchcraft at all, let alone riot because of it.

And in our world, that’s probably true… but what we fear is a function of the culture we live in. The people of the Congo can blame their witchdoctors and priests for their irrational fears; I suspect our Western paranoia comes from an entirely different sort of story-teller.

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No matter how far we advance technologically, there’s one product that has always sold to the easily alarmed …. and snake-oil still shifts units to this day. Point in case: MummyWraps, a garment designed for pregnant women made from a special fabric that purportedly shields the developing baby from those possibly-lethal-and-cancer-causing-depending-on-who-you-ask cell-phone signals. It’s not clear whether or not the company intends to make a matching bonnet for the expectant mother … perhaps it’s too late for her, and the Illuminati have already rewired her thoughts with microwaves. But then surely they’d tell her not to buy shielding for her unborn kids? Sounds like a job for Occam’s Razor … [Via Engadget] [Image from MummyWraps website]

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Tom Doyle’s “Art’s Appreciation” is a delightfully paranoid, anti-consumerist dystopia - so step inside, but please ignore the ads.

Art’s Appreciation

by Tom Doyle

Arthur knew they were after him. He was smarter than they were, but they were everywhere. They were disguised, but he had learned to spot them. And he had his Voices to help him.

A smiling tourist flashed the crowd periodically with a digital camera. Arthur froze. “That looks like one of them.”

The Voice he called Welles replied, “Right again, Boss.”

Arthur put on his ad-blocking polarized glasses to guard his vision, but he could make out the ghost image that had been aimed at his optic nerve. A soft drink ad — Stim Cola. He looked away as he hurried past the tourist.

An attractive young woman dressed in army surplus played a love song on her keyboard. “Mahler, this song is evil.”

“I’ll block it, Boss.” Arthur heard a combination of Bach with white noise countermeasures against the pop ballad’s overtone subliminals for fashion wear. But he couldn’t get the tune of the love song out of his head — he had heard it before. Continue reading “ART’S APPRECIATION by Tom Doyle”

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