Boulevard of Broken Dreams
The International Institute for Dream Research (IIDR) collects dreams from around the globe via the Internet. People from 162 countries have come to the IIDR website, for the most part in search of an answer to the perennial question "what does my dream mean?" We are told that over 5000 languages are spoken on the planet, yet the dream remains a primal language which connects us all. The language and motivational process of dreaming began prior to the human invention of verbal speech. The tidal process of dreams and dreaming is washing over the planet as we speak. This daily tide of dreams and dreaming amounts to about 25-billion dreams (an average of four dreams a day, multiplied by 6.6 billion people living on the planet). Yearly, that adds up to potentially 9-trillion dreams, an ocean of dreams and mindscapes circulating in the Global Village.
We can anthropologically organize this tide of dreams creating a World almanac. This Dream Vision almanac can inform us about the everyday major conversational topics, its table of contents includes:
Cultural diversity and competence, cultural and human geography, history, philosophy, government, leadership, institutions, military, demographics, ethnography, agriculture, economics and business, industry, art, literature, film, theatre, music, families, science, sociology, education, health and medicine, religion, mass media and communication, popular culture, transportation, science and technology and sports. All these topics and more are found in the tide of dreams, this dreamtide can provide sociometric data. Within this daily tide of dreamers, dreams and dreaming we find dramatic psychological patterns of creativity and destructiveness. We find many living on the boulevard of broken dreams.
If we could screen these dark dreams of destructiveness and make a documentary screenplay, we would find the film noir side of Dream Vision patterns, revealing human rights violations and civilizations discontents. This noir Dream Vision film would expose an existential world view and world-weariness which is dominated by angst, anomie, alienation, cultural malaise, escapism and the evils of the world.
If we are to move away from destructiveness towards a creative, reparative, and reconciliatory culture based on the mediation of differences of interests by conflict resolution, we will need to reveal and understand the Mysteries of the Dream in the Global Village. This new mythic understanding of the dramatic communication process of dreaming is imperative for our survival. We need not be doomed to the vicious perennial cycle of destructiveness, we can work to restore our individual and collective dream and communication patterns to health.
We can view and read about the multitude of broken dreams being lived as we speak, these dreams can be scientifically and dramatically framed, indexed and organized by an ABC topic menu (I have included background information links for each topic);
- Abortion (as a philosophical question) (background information)
- Abuse (background information).
- Addictions such as addiction to pornography (background information) also found more recently in cyber-porn (background information) other addictions include drug addiction (background information).
- Adolescent confusion (background information)
- Social Alienation (background information)
- Cultural Imperialism (background information)
- Depression found in a variety of forms such as post-partum depression (background information)
- Educational Indoctrination (background information)
- The effects of Divorce on the family (background information)
- Environmentalism (background information)
- Economic Materialism (background information) and the Secularization and the Theology of the Marketplace (background information)
- Media influence and effects: The commercialization of the mind (background information) and American media effects (background information is provided by the German music group Rammstein, who have satirized the perceived global cultural Americanization in their video "Amerika")
- Militarism and War (background information) and CIA World factbook
- Varieties of Prejudice including;
- o § Anti-semitism (background information)
- o § Children's perceptions of discrimination and hate (background information)
- o § Machismo and the male codes of chivalry (background information)
- o § Sexism: Stereotyping of Women (background information)
- Mind Control (background information) and The Politics of Sleep Learning (background information)
- Political Protest (background information)
- Capital Punishment (background information)
- Rape (background information)
- Failure of Social Security (background information)
- Stress (background information) and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (background information)
- Terrorism such as that of 9/11 (background information) or the domestic terrorism seen with the Oklahoma City bombing (background information)
- Victims of violent crimes (background information of violent crime and victimology) This menu of the Boulevard of Broken Dreams is incomplete, the IIDR will continue to provide interpretations, articles and findings as part of its research program to mimic and reveal the total dream of those living in the Global Village.