"That we do not know what is happening to us: that's what is happening to us," said Spanish philosopher and essayist José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), who also said that he was himself and his circumstance.

So much for him. What's happening here is this: we are overloaded with pseudo-information to the point that not only do we not know what is happening to us, we don't care that we do not know.

Before, ignorance was based on not having or wanting to have access to information. Now, ignorance is based on consuming whatever information appeals to us and accepting it as gospel. And thanks to the Internet and cable channels that broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week, this out-of-control, hyper-ignorance reaches Himalayan levels and spreads at the speed of light.

We are in trouble. But it doesn't matter, because what we also don't know is happening to us is that our memory is shrinking and we only remember information that we downloaded yesterday or the day before yesterday.

As a result, we see an increase in the percentage of Americans who believe President Obama is a Muslim or communist or an undocumented foreigner. And as a result, we see how people forget the wounds caused by the disastrous decisions George W. Bush made during those eight long years.

But selective amnesia will not serve as a lightening rod if, for example, the hordes advocating mass patriotism and distorted Christianity that Faux News commentator Glenn Beck and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin gathered on Saturday at the National Mall in Washington D.C. get their way and turn back the nation's clock.

The November elections could return Congressional majority into the hands of conservatives and extremists who aim to obstruct any progressive attempts of the Obama administration and reverse the little the administration has achieved, like healthcare reform. And they will lower taxes for the wealthy even more, eliminate restrictions for corporations, and dig trenches and put up walls on the border.

And on top of all this, they would force us to kneel over grains of corn and pray two times a day while saying good-bye to immigration reform and any other form of "social justice," a concept that Glenn Beck has turned into an anathema.

I don't know exactly what is happening to us, but whatever it is, it is happening and it is frightening to see a growing number of people who, like absent-minded ferrets walking up to the precipice, are convinced that there exists a time machine that can transport them from the 21st century to the 18th century, from reality to a fantasy that the past was better because there did not exist even the remotest idea that there could be a black president in the White House.

And that is perhaps part of what is happening. That's what I say.