Trump.

Read a long article on the rise of depression in 1^st world countries and that most of it is more accurately described as demoralisation. Demoralisation is a logical response to insurmountable odds, to where the battle is lost and there’s nothing one can do. It was attempted by both sides in WWll by bombing civilians but to little effect. It’s strange then that it should be happening in the richest countries without any organised intention to cause it. So what is this battle that so many people believe they have lost? What can be more intimidating than many tons of high explosives? In a word, reality. In the long lineage from Freud or more accurately the abuse of his work the unconscious of our societies have been mined to manipulate us. What began as marketing levers has become internalised. I might rationalise a need for an iPone6 but why I want one is from an inner sense of self that has been surgically inserted, or a pristine car when that quality is unnecessary in getting from A to B. This surgery of self like a face-lift doesn’t alter the underlying state of being. It’s a deflecting manipulative imposition only perceivable by the cardboard sustenance it provides. As this mind infection spreads through society people find themselves clucking like chickens at a hypnotist’s show. ‘Sure it’s stupid but I can’t seem to stop doing it.’ But now it’s not just an individual thing. Management, politicians, the media all subscribe to a mass communal un-truth impossible to avoid. We want out but can’t find the door. And in this state of demoralisation we lose our mind to shellshock. We choose Brexit, xenophobia and so possibly Trump. ‘Maybe Trump will get us a bigger TV, he says he can.’ But why do you want one? ‘I don’t know I just do.’