Knowing too Much is Bad…or not…

Posted on December 28, 2007
Filed Under Awareness, Fake Culture, Society |

For anyone who spends any sufficient amount of time considering the nature of society, and its many manipulations, it is quite possible to become buried under an avalanche of negativity.

Society – after all – doesn’t tend to work in cohesion with reality, but instead views itself as being quite separate from reality. Society functions under a sort of pseudo-reality, where its rules, laws and regulations are considered unquestionable; however this is true of any dogmatic culture.

It’s this constant adhesion to society’s dogma, which has created many of the problems our culture faces today, and indeed has always faced. Comprehension of this can at times lead to a rather bleak outlook on life, and maybe even cause a descent into bitterness. Clearly such negativity is something to avoid then.

That is something which can be difficult however. The dogma of pseudo-reality is quite ubiquitous, making it all but impossible to escape. I think ‘escape’ is a good word to use, because it describes the feeling of urgency we sometimes feel from the incessant routine of work, or from financial pressures. We want to escape them.

In the end that compulsion was a large factor in my search for reduced work hours. I’m pretty fortunate that I only have to spend 16 hours a week doing ‘real’ work. The rest of the time I am free to pursue my own personal and business interests.

But even still, the dogmatic culture is very difficult to avoid, because it has a lot of constituents who attempt to preach its rules. And the effects of its dogmatic approach cause an ending supply of cultural drama and problems. Even with the TV in the bin, it’s impossible not to notice these effects; economic crises, wars, corporate propaganda, half-crazed science and so on.

If you do somehow manage to shut out all of that, you are still affected by GM foods, pollution, information control and the like. So as I said, seeing pseudo-reality for what it is, can at times result in a pretty bleak outlook.

Now personally I am still working on elevating myself out of that quagmire. With all those things going on, it’s easy to forget that we are an individual not a society. With that in mind, here are a number of things that I have found to help:

Realise that you are a part of reality, which is not some simple arbitrary perspective created by other people.
Be aware of who you are and how you function, then take full responsibility for that.
If there is something you don’t like, then change it.
You are the sum of yourself, not other people.
Other people are not the sum of you.
You are not the simple equation society tells you.
Distinguish between distraction and information.
Live with purpose. It’s easy to find pleasures and excuses to live for; but living with purpose is far more enriching and defining.

Comments

4 Responses to “Knowing too Much is Bad…or not…”

Mark on December 28th, 2007 4:14 pm

Well this article came at a good time for me and describes my experience. To make an analogy I feel like Neo in the Matrix. You realize you’re plugged in but Morpheus never came and unplugged you from your own personal “bathtub of goo.” Now what. I currently am working at “Distinguishing between distraction and information.” For me this means not only unplugging from the general market but also unplugging from the “conspiracy market.” Both are selling you something and I’m not buying it anymore. Once that is finished I will work on my purpose.
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Marcus on December 28th, 2007 5:13 pm

Some years ago I got fairly caught up in the whole conspiarcy arena. It took me a while to realise that arena was mainly fear based - so not a lot different to the so called ‘real world’ / Matrix.

In some ways it would be nice if we all had a personal Morpheus. That said, I personally feel we are all capable of waking up from the illusions which are sold to us as ‘reality’ - we just need to work at it, and discover what works for us on a personal level.

Great to hear you are making progress along that path!
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Angela on December 29th, 2007 2:15 am

Thanks for the wisdom. I wrote a post about this awhile back too, because I could sense the stress and anxiety around me…thank you so much for your words and thoughts. It’s all good.

http://surfingthetao.com/2007/06/28/its-all-good/
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Marcus on December 30th, 2007 7:47 pm

Thanks for the words and the link Angela, both are always appreciated!
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