Ancient Wisdom and Pagan Spirituality

Oh yeah, that feeling, I know what you're talking about. My friend Viktor used to rant a lot, and one of his rants was inspired by something he got from the Church of the SubGenius. They called it 'technoboredom'. That feeling you get when you turn on the radio/TV/(and now Internet; damn, his rant was outdated), when you hear the news SCREAMING, endlessly talking about wars, rumors of wars, bloody murder, famine, death, pestilence, death, hunger, pain, suffering, death, corruption, scandal, horror after horror, and OMG, YOU'RE NOT SAFE, and OMG, THEY'RE OUT TO HARM YOUR CHILDREN, and OMG, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!1!!!!!
......
all from the nice, air-conditioned comfort of your nice little electric-powered home, cozy in your chair or couch of bed, listening to the radio/watching/TV/Internet, at the current technological apex of civilization, etc, etc, etc.
This is nothing new. People have been saying the world is going to hell for years and years. Romans and Greeks were bitching about 'kids these days' and 'the world's going to Tartarus in a handbasket". I once watched this gawdsawful movie about some schmuck who tries to escape his Suthern heritage and rebel by going to a Northeastern film school, then getting a fascination with Sherman and his destructive, genocidal march to the sea. He interviews the crazy locals. Let me tell you, the politics haven't changed, the religious eschatology hasn't change much (just the addition of a bit of Islamic eschatology, that's all). It took me a while to realize the movie was shot in the 1970's because I was watching it in the age of original Netflix.
The world keeps grinding on, the cycle keeps on going on.