The video starts, you see the face, you hear the music and you determine if you are going to stay or swipe.
It’s a baboon licking a pole, he froze his tongue and now he’s stuck.
He’s squirming and screaming, and how funny it is until the caretaker comes and releases him.
Time is up, move along to the next reel. Hey, it’s a beautiful woman complaining about how men don’t understand how to treat women.
Swipe!!
Oh, now it is a woman who pulls the blanket over herself and her husband and “Dutch Ovens” him! Oh wow, let’s go!
Swipe.
We are now entering the edge of a true dystopian reality. Science fiction writers warned us about this, but we don’t learn.
When Covid started and the world started to shut down but we had people flying on planes and bringing the virus everywhere, I realized or started to realize the world we are living in.
I don’t want to say “stupid”; I don’t think that describes it properly, but I will say that reality and what people think about reality don’t align. As a result, since the time of Covid, we have accelerated into what I am calling “the age of THE DUMB.”
Why?
Well, it is pretty simple, if you are bout ready to swipe or close down this thread, it is because I didn’t hold your attention.
I didn’t fill that need of dopamine or anger or whatever it is now that feeds us mentally.
Maybe I am and you are curious of what will come next.
Well, here it is.
We have global warfare, famine, disease, death, destruction. We have people killing themselves to look good. We have children distracted and chasing electronic. We have a threat to human kind with AI. We have companies that are killing us with toxins for wealth.
People living on the streets. The wholesale and accelerated teardown of America.
We have abandoned our allies and friends.
We have a divided nation.
We have literal chaos.
Business are falling apart, prices are up, inflation is up, and ..
What are we worried about?
We are concerned deeply about controlling what other people do in their lives.
We are concerned about following people and watching them.
We are concerned about equity only when we feel that we are personally not being treated fairly.
We are worried and concerned about the 46th second. Why??
Because after 45, there is nothing to see here.
If you or anyone you know is concerned at all about the state of things and you are waiting for the someone or something to happen that will change things, you may be waiting a long time.
The same people who are flicking the screen and moving on are everywhere.
They can’t attend to that which they have no attention.
What will happen? I have no idea but if you are with me, thank you, I have exceeded my time.
Spot on Howie
I believe the distraction isn’t the disease. It’s the symptom. People swipe because the problems feel too big, too structural, too far above their ability to influence. Famine, AI risk, democratic erosion, corporate poisoning. You can stare at all of it and nothing moves. So people retreat to the Dutch Oven video because at least that delivers a small, reliable feeling of agency. I chose to watch. I chose to laugh. I chose to move on.
But that’s a lie we tell ourselves. There are things people can do right now, today, that actually matter.
Show up physically. No Kings protests are happening across the country. Local government meetings, school boards, city councils, zoning hearings. These are where policy actually gets shaped. Most Americans have never attended a single one. A handful of engaged people in a room can change outcomes that affect thousands.
Get literate, not panicked. AI isn’t magic and it isn’t a monster. It’s a tool being built and deployed by people with specific interests. Learn what it actually does. Understand the governance gaps. Then advocate for specific policy instead of vague fear. Same with surveillance, data brokers, corporate consolidation. The less you understand these systems, the more power they have over you.
Redirect your money. It sounds small but it scales. Local food systems instead of industrial supply chains. Credit unions instead of megabanks. Independent journalism instead of algorithmically optimized outrage. Every dollar is a vote for the world you’re either building or letting someone else tear down.
Write and teach. If you understand how positive governance works, explain it. If you understand what democratic norms look like when they’re functioning, write about it. Most people have never been taught what healthy institutions look like, so they can’t recognize when those institutions are being dismantled. That’s not stupidity. That’s a gap that people with knowledge have a responsibility to fill.
Build locally. The loneliness epidemic you’re circling around isn’t just a feelings problem. It’s a structural collapse of community infrastructure. Someone has to rebuild it. Dinner groups, neighborhood coalitions, mutual aid networks, regular gatherings where people talk face to face about things that matter. Nobody is coming to do this for us.
The 45 second attention span isn’t a character flaw. It’s a trained behavior. And I believe trained behaviors can be retrained.