Plastic Domes

. . . is how Abbie Hoffman referred to it.

It’s a distinctive phenomenon. I’m certain it doesn’t apply to any other creature. All the others live in a world of immediate sensation, reaction, instinctual motivation.

I think humans were driven out of that world as imagination developed.

Animals experience fear. But, beyond that, humans experience anxiety. We can imagine the miseries of infirmity, the exasperation of frustration, the pain of social ostracism, the terminality of mortality; how vulnerable we are. On the other hand, we can imagine the triumphs of victory, the rewards of aggrandizement, the satisfactions of lovability.

The spectrum of precarity is awfully hard to face!

Each plastic dome is different, but there are some common places for our minds to dwell: The Future, Washington, Hollywood, Heaven; now Cyberspace. Media (mediates … “comes between”). The present-immediate is just too fraught.