This is the extent to which we have deadened ourselves... we find reality TV amusing. We like dignity on sale. We like to feel superior to people who are brainwashed to act their worst when really we fall for the same trick ourselves each day. Only it is called laissez faire - allow to do. Allowed to shop at supermarkets, allowed to be stuck in traffic jams, allowed to consume overpriced, over-processed filth. Allowed to have miserable, small existences. For that you get the prize money. Money to go consume some more. And because our existences are so narrow, so lacking in real experiences, we want the hyper-real world of soaps, movies and serials. Where births, deaths, love, sex, marriage, infidelity, blood, struggles, fights and betrayals play out in a blur. All our collective experiences played out in fast forward in a blinding succession of images crammed into 30 minutes or less. Our lives drained away to create that extra clear, high definition, unreality.

It is always about that. We've been told repeatedly in many languages, in many tongues, in a million different persuasive arguments to back down. The poor are brave because they have no choice. The rich are brave because they can afford to lose. The middle class has just enough to make it scary to lose it all and little enough to squash any grand moves. The cities are the perfect reflection of this grey deal of compromise. Masses of men and women living from day to day, embracing all the numbing agents they can afford because they know something is wrong and they don't know how to fix it.
It is possible to fix it though if you decide to be fully conscious of your every act. But here's the catch. How do you switch off the darn auto-pilot?