Remember the “Twilight Zone”?
There was always an ironic twist to every story… A surreal — almost too real — quality about the characters and the situations they found themselves involved in.
Lately, more and more people I talk to feel that a same kind of surreal quality about the “real world” out there.
I heard a story recently that really fits the surreal “Twilight Zone” flavor of the times we find ourselves in. I heard it on a late night radio program just a couple of days ago.
One of the talk show hosts was talking about his father — who’s job was to go into factories that were scheduled to close and purchase equipment so it could be used elsewhere…
Every time he would go into a factory and buy the equipment he would always run into factory workers who he would urge to contact the outfit who just purchased the equipment because they needed employees.
And to his surprise he would always hear the same response:
“No thanks, I’m going to stick it out here”
This astonishing answer coming from workers who could not believe that the plant they had been working in for years was going to close for good — in a matter of days.
It’s called denial.
They couldn’t accept the fact that their day-to-day reality was just days away from changing permanently. The writing was on the wall, the equipment was sold off the factory floor yet they still couldn’t accept it… They were going to hang around and see how things were going to work out — instead of going down the street and getting a new job.
Of course this true story was one of those you can only shake your head in disbelief when you hear it… How could anyone be that deluded about what was going on?
I think the answer is simple:
Most people will not change anything in their day-to-day reality unless they are forced to by situations beyond their control. The real irony is that the situation usually gets beyond their control because they refuse to do anything about it until its too late!
Life is a dichotomy.
-Bob Baran
