Get Inside my Head

I was trying to explain meme theory to my good friend a few months back when she stated, with a dismissive eye-roll, that such topics make her head hurt. I tried to impress on her the power of ideas and the importance of understanding how they work. "Everything you see around you," I said, "is a result of human thought. Every material object, religion, political ideology, and philosophy was born in the human mind. Every human crisis and its potential solution resides in the seat of our collective consciousness. You shouldn't let the complexity of the topic discourage you from studying it."

This was her reply: "You should spend less time thinking about thinking and more time doing."

What nerve! From where do actions emanate if not from within? Where does perception of the external world arise if not in the mind?

As you read these words your brain is literally and figuratively generating the world around you: literally because everything you see around you--cars, buildings, clothes, light-bulbs, carpet, furniture, windows, space shuttles, etc.--was derived from someone's mind; and figuratively because your brain filters external stimuli and generates what you perceive today, a tiny sliver of objective reality unique unto yourself.

No one experiences the world quite the same way you do. Isn't that a trip? We're all experiencing individual, isolated realities colored by our beliefs, biases, and past experiences.

Everything is a direct or indirect result of human thought. So to my friend I say: "Maybe you should spend more time thinking about thinking and less time doing."

Your mind is divine. It is the gatekeeper, the creator, the regulator. It can make your life a blissful paradise or agonizing hell. If you don't strive to understand its inner-workings and gain mastery over it you're bound to fall prey to its devious tricks over and over again.

Human history is the stock-market of ideas: intellectual commodities rise and fall in value, compete for investors, and combine to form the various ideologies that govern human affairs. We label these mega-memes "religion," "politics," and "philosophy" but in truth they are the amalgamation of ideas, the result of colliding memes and specific socioeconomic and cultural conditions. Humans are usually involved in the making of ideologies only insofar as they carry their various building blocks.

But some people, having gained a rudimentary understanding of the rules governing the human mind, conspire to manipulate and engineer memes toward selfish purpose. They have come to the important conclusion I tried to impress upon my silly friend: that ideas regulate the material world and that the mind, being the source and carrier of both, must be understood and controlled. And so, upon understanding this, the conspirators attempt to leverage the stock-market of ideas to their benefit. They establish ideologies that facilitate the control of the masses or interpret existing ideologies to the same end.

In order to restore balance to the world and repair the many deficient social, economical, and political systems that govern our day-to-day lives, we too must accept the potency of human thought and its ability to sway events this way and that. We must learn to manufacture our own ideologies, ones that seek to reverse the current trend of exploitation and raise as the highest ideal the greater good of our species and planet.

Since the dawn of civilization the multitudes have been exploited by the select few. At first they were god-kings, then the spokesmen of the gods; later we fell under the dominion of royal bloodlines and lineages who were supposedly sanctioned by God to rule over us. (On a side note, I find it extremely disturbing that monarchs still exist, even in a solely symbolic function, and that we continue to regard them as special somehow. In many ways, this is more confusing than religion's persistent grip on the masses. But I digress.)  Finally we arrive to the present day and the various top-down democracies of the developed world, where the multitudes have very limited control over the internal conditions of their respective nation-states.

Do you see a pattern? From pharaohs and divinely-sanctioned dynasties to our current paradigm, in which an elected group of oligarchs, swayed by corporate interests, greed, and selfishness rather than the will of the voters, engage in bloodless wars of words and power-plays financed by tax-payer money.

It's progress to be sure, only not as much progress as most people think. We've traded heavy shackles for slightly lighter ones. It's a step in the right direction but our true intent should be to break free of shackles altogether.

Despite the many anchors weighing us down, we are moving forward. The will of the people cannot be stifled endlessly and the turmoil we see today in Ukraine, Venezuela, the Middle-East, and everywhere else is the proof. These are the growing pains of our species. We can move past this dark time toward brighter horizons if we get our shit together.

We'll never be rid of conflict. So long as individuals exist there will be disagreements and the butting of heads. The key is to find ways to resolve conflicts amicably, to devise a system in which everyone is free to do as they please so long as doing so does not bring about harm to others, a system bent on helping those in need, curing the sick, and protecting the weak.

The world as we know it is shrinking. We can no longer afford to see ourselves as separate from our brothers and sisters around the world. We're all passengers on spaceship earth, neighbors regardless of spiritual or political beliefs. There is enough room on earth to house all cultures, beliefs, and preferences, enough room so that all may live in peace and harmony as functional components of this great and mysterious machine. Some do not wish to see it so but they are the few; together, with our minds and our wills turned toward the highest purpose, a purpose found in all the major religions and philosophies of the world, we can veer away from our current path of over-consumption and greed toward a world of universal cooperation.

Do I think we'll succeed in forging a Utopia in our lifetime? Probably not. But for the first time in our history I believe we have the tools and knowledge to make it so. Never before have the masses been united behind a single purpose. If that purpose is universal--concerned with the well-being of humanity and the planet--I believe we could accomplish great things.

In the meanwhile, looking after the well-being of our brothers, sisters, and planet isn't a bad ideal to live by.