April has come thankfully to an end and May will start tomorrow - May day weekend. Unfortunately, it falls on a Saturday, so there is no day off from work. To mark the occasion, we will be heading into the city for a brunch at a café (now that the restaurants are allowed to serve people) and will try to take it pretty easy, because the last few weeks have been pretty intense and the next few are going to have a new rhythm also, as my wife starts work at her new position at a new company on Monday.
It is also International worker's day, so there will be marches and perhaps some minor demonstrations around the place, with a lot of red flags waving about. Finns in general aren't the most politically active group in the world, but the trend to join movements is growing, as the meme-ified global society we live in, makes it easy for everyone to take part, even if it isn't relevant to their past experience or current conditions.
Everyone wants to belong to something.
With so many people doing so little of consequence in this world, yet also hardwired to look for purpose, a lot end up on bandwagon movements in order to become part of a group. I know, I sound quite cynical, but I have seen so many people jump on social movements that they have seen on Twitter but have no experience with, that it is hard to take any of it seriously anymore. But, they feel they are part of something and the barrier to entry is very low, there is very little risk in taking part and there is no accountability whatsoever or, the need to stay consistent.
A person can go from one argument to the polar opposite in a breath, and no one cares, because no one is really paying attention to anything other than themselves. It is pretty much how most social media works, where people scream out into the void and feel that they are being listened to, get into arguments that will lead absolutely nowhere and feel satisfied that they have made a difference in the world.
I think part of the human condition is to live a life that we as an individual feels matters. We have some unique skills as a species and we are able to evolve ourselves using our own brains to restructure socially as well as build tools. These tools can improve us or degrade us and I think that we are continually encroaching into areas that not only compete for our skills, but also feel that we are increasing our abilities, that we are living a life that matters, even though we are not doing anything much of anything at all.
A lot of our sense of doing something comes down to joining together to accomplish something, but when what we are accomplishing is polarization and increasing violence and creating an environment of decreasing opportunity, we are using our species skills to degrade, to devolve. Without our ability to form groups across the globe and in sizes that have never been possible before, it is easier to homogenize thought, essentially creating increasing centralization of ideas and behaviors. The larger the groups grow, the more powerful they become and the more control they have to enforce their view onto others, meaning that they will be able to retard new ideas, cancel the black sheep.
I had an interesting conversation with a client today along these lines where it wasn't so long ago that the people who were admired in the world are those who overcame hardship to succeed, the underdog, the person who came from nothing to grind their way to the top, to leave some kind of positive mark on society. Now, those who are celebrated are the ones who can express themselves as the biggest victims, even if they do nothing to fight their way out of the situation.
A lot of people now seem to forget that adversity and diversity have always been in humanity, it is one of the things that drives us, evolves us, brings in the randomness of good and bad luck, success and failure and variation in experience and person to create problems that we can face, that we can throw ourselves against and into - to leave our mark.
When everyone is the same, thinks the same, believes the same and form large enough groups to successfully suppress those who are different, our evolution as a species stops going forward and regresses. Not only that, this world where perceived mistakes (anything that goes against the group9 are punishable by social death, means that the people who are able to solve the problems, the black sheep, will become increasingly rare, as social restriction will mean that ideas will not test the boundaries of what could be, they will barely scratch the edge surface of the normal.
I bought the bottle of wine above as I think it sums up a lot of what I am trying to say here. Once upon a time, the black sheep would end up the unlikely hero, the savior, the alternate perspective that changed the world - now they are the villain, the common enemy for the group to turn against, because they go against group norms.
One day we will ask, "where did all the black sheep go?" And the answer will be the same for every other species of animal we have made extinct on this planet - We organized ourselves and built tools with which we could kill them.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I have been re-reading my favorite trilogy this past week, (started book 3 last night). It is W. Michael Gear's Spider series.
In that series the question is What lessons will you take back to God. We all at one point in time wanted to leave a mark on society, to be remembered. Even though not many people are remembered at all for very long. John F. Kennedy is remembered but who remembers the captain of his Yacht? King George is remembered but who remembers the name of his cook?
What is more important, that which we leave behind or that which we take with us?
For me as someone who doesn't believe in an afterlife, the mark I leave behind is for those who are to come after me - whether I am remembered or not. I hope that in my last breath I can feel that I made a positive difference for them.
True, we do not after all really know who built Petra, or the Pyramids, or Machu Picchu, but those builders certainly left their mark on the world. I think no matter who we are when we die there is at least one person we made a positive difference to.
I have always wanted to visit Petra. I have been in Khafre, the center pyramid out of the three great pyramids in Cairo, and it s something I will never forget - it left its mark.
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Thanks for the post. The wine name is spot on, there's something special to this black sheep/scapegoat theme coming back again and again throughout the history.
I guess it's in our human nature—when something goes wrong and the world we live in starts to deteriorate, it's this 1% of people who'll start to wonder: "how can this be fixed?". The remaining 99% will ask a very different question: "who's responsible for this?". Obviously, I took this data out of the blue, it could be any percentage, but definitely more for the scapegoat thinking.
Luckily Hive has proven to be somewhat of a safespace for us black sheeps :) Let's keep it at that!
People look at the 1% as a negative, because they evaluate it by money - but there are other ways to evaluate the 1% than what is in their bank. Some one percenters are going to die obscure and penniless, yet they might have been instrumental in changing the world for the 99%
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.Belonging to something is ok...if you keep true to who you are. As for me, I do not need a group to identify who I am. I try to find my purpose from within me instead. You are so right about Facebook. Many of us do not need that clutter in our lives. We value the peace from inside, free from unnecessary distractions.
A lot of what people do to belong is about building their identity, or adhering to who they believe themselves to be - They look for themselves in the average of the group and wonder why their lives are unsatisfactory.
!ENGAGE 25
ENGAGEtokens.It seems that the answer always comes back to...
Drink the black sheep
If only it weren't so . . . :OD
:D
It is on the menu for tomorrow night. Tonight it was Tanqueray on the gallows :)
Great post
This was really good - thank you for writing it!
Yeah.
Although this new moon does not fall on a holiday.
You still have to enjoy this beautiful month with full of joy.
Thank you for sharing.
Have a great weekend
Yeah, it must be ...
That bottle looks sexy, what kind of wine is it?
Interesting message. I agree that most people of our time are very much like a herd. And this is not a criticism. I think many people simply lack a clear worn out position and/or principles that they would defend.
Link to vote for @cranium as a witness