It's not that the world is broken. It's that people are distracted from their lives by the images of their lives. Their parents were dream addicts too.
We have made culture more important than biology, felling forests to build churches, turning teenagers into desk clerks.
Why?
We have made culture more important than biology, felling forests to build churches, turning teenagers into desk clerks.
Why?
The answer is simple: we have confused the human desire for transcendence with money.
The Protestant work ethic says that those who God has favoured will be materially successful.
Financial enlightenment is billionaire status: transcendent level of the work ethic. @thoughtland
The Protestant work ethic says that those who God has favoured will be materially successful.
Financial enlightenment is billionaire status: transcendent level of the work ethic. @thoughtland
It's a logical but unexamined conclusion: if god likes you a bit, you are rich. If he loves you a whole whole lot, you have billions.
Transcendental wealth is the desire to experience god in money.
No god yet? Better try making some more money. Searching for infinity in coin.
Transcendental wealth is the desire to experience god in money.
No god yet? Better try making some more money. Searching for infinity in coin.
Making money as a spiritual practice is the unholy hybridisation of the Protestant Work Ethic and New Age movement.
The search for enlightenment and the search for billions have unified in the western environment.
But money is finite, and god is not. The money path never ends.
The search for enlightenment and the search for billions have unified in the western environment.
But money is finite, and god is not. The money path never ends.
We have to separate the urge to make money from the urge to know god.
Money is finite and is used for finite, satisfiable goals in the material world.
The impulse towards transcendence cannot be pointed at physical things without disastrous results.
Light within. Work without.
Money is finite and is used for finite, satisfiable goals in the material world.
The impulse towards transcendence cannot be pointed at physical things without disastrous results.
Light within. Work without.
Consider this image. It exists to portray a certain kind of man at the peak of his aliveness. It is, in essence, a religious image.
We all know this stuff. We know people paint the face of god on products to sell them.
The question is, why does it work on us, even when we know?
We all know this stuff. We know people paint the face of god on products to sell them.
The question is, why does it work on us, even when we know?
The answer is that our brains are so primitive that we VERY SLIGHTLY think these images are real.
We evolved in an environment without cameras and printers. Why would we have evolved defenses to being programmed by image to do what is bad for us?
Advertising is brain hacking.
We evolved in an environment without cameras and printers. Why would we have evolved defenses to being programmed by image to do what is bad for us?
Advertising is brain hacking.
Memes really are dangerous, and the worst of them are so fundamenral they have overcome our biological needs: "language is a virus."
An entire wing of our civilization is dedicated to stealing your resources through brain subversion.
Make a list of the people who profit from it
An entire wing of our civilization is dedicated to stealing your resources through brain subversion.
Make a list of the people who profit from it
Getting control of your own mind is hard. You can develop a mental immune system strong enough to see the world as if is, and not how mind hackers want you to see it.
Advertising, news, religion, self help, most sports, changemakers all sell false dreams.
These dreams cost us.
Advertising, news, religion, self help, most sports, changemakers all sell false dreams.
These dreams cost us.
Art is fine. You get what you pay for. Like food, not like viruses. Art which makes you suffer is parasite art: advertising.
Objects which make you suffer are parasite objects: cigarettes, cars and the like.
It helps if you think of everything as alive. What is benign? And not?
Objects which make you suffer are parasite objects: cigarettes, cars and the like.
It helps if you think of everything as alive. What is benign? And not?
Metagaming is eating our world.
Using symbols to substitute for experiences has left us bereft.
No smell in a bottle makes us feel like the photoshop makes the model look.
Adversarial synaesthesia is an enemy.
You have to see what is in front of you.
Pixels. Just pixels.
Using symbols to substitute for experiences has left us bereft.
No smell in a bottle makes us feel like the photoshop makes the model look.
Adversarial synaesthesia is an enemy.
You have to see what is in front of you.
Pixels. Just pixels.
