I have been staying with my parents after my rental contract ended. I’m waiting for my travels to begin after the summer of working. I have a lot of time observing what is going on in here. I find it hard to believe my eyes and ears sometimes when I’m around my parents because they remind of a certain way of being that I tend to forget to exist when I’m on my own. It’s the desperate need to make sure to belong in every possible way and it’s something that is so automatic and conforming that there is absolutely no awareness of it’s existence and that’s why it’s even a bit hard to detect yet it’s ever present in every little detail of everyday life.
I walked in to the living room today to hear the new Finnish PM giving a talk and I saw my parents just nailed to their seats and every sense laser-focused on the message, the appearance, the tone, the gestures. It was the most serious moment to hear what he had to say as if there was going to be any surprises. I just find it hard to grasp how important a talk can be that’s content everyone already knew. I see people absolutely addicted to the news. So much so that the same news are being checked many times per day in hopes that nothing important would be missed. I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun and say that nothing new really happens, just the actors and sets change within the same plot. In the bigger picture it all plays just as it does by the laws of nature. I find this kind of need to see “what is going on in the world” interesting because it actually gives out many delusions that are needed to be maintained just to keep one's interest alive for the show.
First of all news are a kind of reality filters chosen by the collective mind, the mass hypnosis that makes us all see in consensus in order to make our experience feel more real. We crave for agreement for what is real because it simply feels too scary and vulnerable to realise that all of this is merely interpretations and best guesses. We seem to think highly of this kind of knowledge. Not knowing about the world affairs or having no opinions on immigration or other current issues is considered ignorance even if adding opinions to the vast sea of opinions just doesn’t make any difference and the current issues are themselves are just based on the principle of what brings out the most emotional reactions which in itself is completely relative to what we hold important at any given moment and what we can relate with. News agencies decide what is new in order to sell their product and causing cheap emotional rollercoaster rides is what people respond to. We think that gathering as much input from the surroundings as possible is the highest kind of wisdom and will ultimately lead to more perfect understanding. Actually the need to collect all this knowledge is just a hollow attempt of the tiny human mind in trying to control and make sense out of this vastness surrounding us. We feel the need to deploy our attention in gathering all the information from the outside mostly so that we can place ourselves correctly in the picture, so that we have meaning, purpose.. that life makes sense and we can keep on doing what we do. There is just one issue with that.. life doesn’t really make sense, we cannot really control or understand it and in trying we are seriously limiting ourselves which naturally causes pain.
News and scientific interest is mostly the male way of keeping one connected to the mass mass consensus but more feminine way of doing it is more in the everyday life.. what the neighbours are up to? who has lost weight and which celebrity wore which dress and did it make her look fat? In this case the news is replaced with gossips. There is a need to know every single detail of how other people are living their everyday life even if the actual use for knowing what someone's cousin is doing for a living remains a mystery. Maybe it just gives a sense of social coordination and where to belong in the more pragmatic way so that the network of people and their hierarchies keeps safe and predictable. Whether it's the more masculine big lines or feminine small details doesn't matter. The tendency is exactly the same.
Actually this holding on to the common world view is a great imprisonment because one has to define oneself into a a tight compartment in order to maintain this point of view. If there is something that doesn’t fit into the picture it causes great turmoil because it shakes the very ground that the self-image is built on. So because there is such deep and intimate identification with the picture of who we are related into how we perceive our surroundings and what beliefs we hold it is so devastating to stop having the kind of input that we are accustomed to. That’s why it would be an absolute shock for example to drop someone from a very closed community into a culture with completely different set of principles and beliefs. Imagine getting someone from West Borough Baptist movement and suddenly planting them in a place like Christiania in Denmark. They just couldn’t handle it because they are used to a certain kind of constant input of information and values. They would simply have a breakdown.
It’s easy to laugh at the whole idea but the truth is that the same situation is with the whole world with varying degrees and we all have our own cultural operating systems that need constant update in order to work. That’s the main reason to all the wars when you strip it down to the core. It's the reason for us having opposing sides on politics and simply not being able to agree on anything. It’s all about different operating systems causing shocks to each others which are handled usually with such and sophisticated tool as dualism and blaming. It’s all about who’s right and who is wrong. Who is justified in having their operating systems and why they should not be questioned. We love to keep in our little wombs of culture, our familiar little sufferings. We don’t like the growing pains that are necessary in order for maturity to happen.
The holding on to the one world view and defending it also means a submission and fear of authorities. It's the kind of thinking that because someone holds a position means that they are more wise and understand things better and their voice and reasoning becomes the only truth. They are given the role of the parent who automatically knows better and the best thing to do it to conform in every possible way because they must have valid reasons behind everything they do and certainly are not looking world through any distortions, right? They wouldn't have been chosen by ALL those people for no reason other than that their appearance and way of talking just makes people feel a certain soothing way. They just seem the kind of people that fill the characteristics of how a person who knows what they are doing should look and act like so they must, right? We just love to have that safe feeling of everything being wrong and scary in the outside world and having that reassuring parental figure leading us through the darkness because we simply could not rely on our inner wisdom.
The holding on to the one world view and defending it also means a submission and fear of authorities. It's the kind of thinking that because someone holds a position means that they are more wise and understand things better and their voice and reasoning becomes the only truth. They are given the role of the parent who automatically knows better and the best thing to do it to conform in every possible way because they must have valid reasons behind everything they do and certainly are not looking world through any distortions, right? They wouldn't have been chosen by ALL those people for no reason other than that their appearance and way of talking just makes people feel a certain soothing way. They just seem the kind of people that fill the characteristics of how a person who knows what they are doing should look and act like so they must, right? We just love to have that safe feeling of everything being wrong and scary in the outside world and having that reassuring parental figure leading us through the darkness because we simply could not rely on our inner wisdom.
We also need to police each other and make sure that everyone around us is contributing to this nation and community and doesn't cause trouble. We feel bitter if someone is not confined within the beliefs that everyone must suffer for the greater good. It feels bad if others are not suffering alongside us not only because they make us doubt our own choices but they are destroying the foundation of our common wellbeing that is only accomplished if people don't feel well... that makes sense, right? Man, I wish I had a chance to meet someone from another part of the universe and explain this to them. I could become the new big intergalactic comedian making tons of space coins.
What was I talking about?... Oh, right... the sum up..
We live in a misunderstanding that life happens from outside to inside. We think we need to create ourselves, that we are not already there and for the creation of that self-image we need all possible material from the outside to keep the house of cards rising up. Thus we feel the need to accumulate more solid evidence of the reality we believe to be true and convince ourselves by saying "yeah, well everyone else seems to think so too" and then we try to convince all the others that it is so.. you know.. just in case someone forgets to remember. This is how fragile it all is. It's just a matter of constant repeating and reminding that keeps us chasing the outside input in order to paint the picture on the inside. The real wisdom is understanding that it works exactly the opposite. Everything is already there inside and the construction of identity is not needed in life. Everything that needs to happen is already happening perfectly without the need to try to predict and control it. If something needs to happen there will be a sufficient feeling, energy and circumstances for it to happen. When this understanding settles in then the need to gossip, follow news or try to keep up with the latest trends, have more money and stuff becomes uninteresting in itself because the warmth that is emitted from inside and the restful joy of letting the inner guidance do it's work becomes too big to be overshadowed by the constant need for that outside fix. It's a kind of snowball effect that when you trust yourself it just feels better and you become more calm about the outside world and it's movements. It's rewarding unto itself to follow it and it creates and authentic self-respect when you trust your inner being and see how perfectly is functions. Then the interest in how others are leading their lives loses it's significance because the flow of energy has morphed from an endless black hole sucking all the light and energy from it's surroundings into a natural spring that cannot help but overflow and nourish it's surroundings.
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