Secret societies? UFOs? Numerology? Transhuman cyborgs? Strange occult symbols showing up on cereal boxes and toy commercials? Rumors of arcane rituals lurking behind the headlines?Pedophile priests and rabidly anti-gay preachers on the downlow? Vampire cults, suicide cults, polygamy cults, body modification cults...?Welcome to the New Normal. A jaded public, a ravenous media beast (that reaches into every corner of the globe every minute of every day), terminal disillusionment with the old certainties, and extreme economic anxiety have all conspired to unleash a host of memetic contagions (that were once safely ensconced in the underground) onto the mainstream.
Strange ideas once kept hidden from the public have reached into every home via a digital barrage of movies, TV comedies, radio shows, video games, bestselling books, magazines, podcasts, blogs and whatever up to the minute form of digital media I haven't been made aware of yet. It's all happening all at once and slowly but surely rewriting the rules of respectable public discourse....read more...