Ah the good old status quo (no, not the band). Everyone wants to maintain it because everyone is afraid of change. Nobody wants to let go of the stuff and the life they have, in fear of losing out.

I'm not sure how we sleep walked into this disastrous life, this walking nightmare. I suspect it has to do with salesmen constantly selling the American Dream and convincing us we can all have it. The bigger car, the bigger house ,the bigger burger. Buy, eat, consume, you know it's good for you. When in reality it was always only good for the rich who were selling the stuff.

There has always been an alternative lifestyle, often derided as hippiedom. The media made us laugh at it, made us despise it and made us not want it. Their way was always better, cleaner, cheaper and higher status. You just had to work for it.

Now people are living out of vans, or on the streets, the hippy lifestyle no longer seems terrible. Now that people are having to look after each other, or share their goods through food banks, or help each other with health-care, socialism no longer sounds like communism. Could it be that we were lied to by a media owned by the wealthy elite.

Sadly I think the brainwashing has become so complete that people will violently resist letting go of the current status quo. It is going to get ugly and dangerous out there. Not because of the people trying to change the status quo but because of the people who want to resist it. And I'm not just talking about the fossil fuel industries or big agriculture (though they have the most muscle to do it), I am talking about every salesman trying to make a sale to get their own little commission. I'm talking about every business that makes plastic crap for children. I'm talking about all the fizzy drink manufacturers that make a profit out of destroying lives. This is why it feels like all of us are trying to go back to the old normal, back to working 9 to 5, back to commuting into offices, back to eating takeaways and fast food. These are the people all around you on the bus and train and at the shopping malls whining about the shortages and price hikes.

You don't see the people living alternative lifestyles because they aren't trying to sell you anything. There are no fat profit to be made, so media hype, no billboard adverts and no 24/7 infomercials. They have become the invisible people, hidden from view by a media that doesn't want change.

Dang it Jessica, this was going to be a two sentence comment agreeing with you. Now its a full page rant.