The Downside of Living in the First World

The meme I am opening this post with was taken from Facebook. I found it amusing and disturbing simultaneously.

I found it amusing because it speaks to a larger truth about ourselves in this country and indeed in the western world. I found it disturbing for exactly the same reason.

We here in the so-called “first world”, the majority of us anyway, are an easily excited lot which makes us easily distracted by the most mundane and trivial things.

Before I go on, let me just explain that “first”, “second”, and “third” worlds are anachronistic terms nearly two decades into the 21st century. Additionally, those terms are even more misunderstood now than they were when they were actually relevant.

The first world simply describes nations that aligned with United States and other western powers that embrace capitalism. The second world aligned with the former Soviet Union and its allies that embrace communism. The third world represents those nations that didn’t ally themselves with either. Third world countries are not all comprised of poor hell hole nations. Switzerland is a third world country, given the proper definition of the term, but I digress…

I find this “first world” gullibility for the mundane that feeds consumerism and idiocy on a societal scale disturbing because it makes us as a society far more malleable and susceptible to chicanery than we should be.

I’ve never understood the logic of standing in a long line for hours to buy a chicken sandwich (or the latest trendy whatever) because the internet said so.

Most people couldn’t tell you where Area 51 is located, much less what goes on there, why it is secretive (they test military aircraft concepts and other technologies), or how or why they’d storm it.

Far too many people emote rather than think. Because of this, they are quick to believe or lend notoriety or credence to obviously absurd things.

If that fact doesn’t disturb you, then you are probably part of the problem.

-The Rational Ram