I thoroughly enjoyed this article, it's truly excellent food for thought. I'm confident I think about such things far more often than the average person, but your article pushes me to quantify that statement and focus more on a systematic way to improve my thinking process. Thankfully my sense of curiosity fuels much of what drives me to think about deeper subjects like "time", reality and the purpose of my life's energies.
Should society have collective goals, or does that idea conflict with anarchy and individual free will? Would grand scale projects like exploring space, building a nation's highways, national parks etc happen? Can enough funds be raised and interest in such things be obtained from a large enough segment of the population?
Statists feel like such projects dictate the need for an authoritative state. I completely disagree, as the The State cannot exist without violating the NAP. Such grandiose projects could happen, if people can get organized and take responsibility and the actions required. It's a matter of persuading enough people there is value in such projects.
If the "collective consciousness" realizes the value of such things, leadership to organize and make things happen will be an emergent property of that collective consciousness, which is just a way of labeling the aggregate consciousness of a group of individuals. The freedom of individuals to join or reject participation in big projects do not prohibit them. It's a matter of raising the collective consciousness (persuading enough individuals) of the value and benefits of the project and once that is accomplished nothing can stop the project from happening (Nothing can stop an idea who's time has come).
Yes. I have identified 3 problems.
#3, the "feel-good" pleasure trap, which I mention above.
#2, belief and people wanting to believe whatever they want to believe and not understanding the difference between belief and truth, which I mention above. Belief validates their pleasure trap desires and focus.
#1, consciousness, the root of it all. Low quality "unconscious" living that creates deluded beliefs and focusing on pleasure trap basic physical living rather than higher consciousness aspirations.
My work focuses on these issues in large part. I have yet to post specifically on the pleasure trap.
Everything revolves around getting people to learn about consciousness and related functionality of ourselves. Its the one stop shop for dealing with all the problems that manifest from a lack of conscious awareness.
Thanks for the feedback and your insight. Take care. Peace.
Much appreciation for this post. I’m in agreement with much of what you say here. I also have a lot of curiosity surrounding your take on the “pleasure trap” and the idea that “If we spend time and pay attention on pleasure and enjoyment, that's what will increase, and not our capacity for quality deeper thinking to resolve our collective condition.” I posted a friendly rebuttal to that idea and also my perspective on quality thought and use of time if you want to check it out (link below).
https://steemit.com/thinking/@healthyhappyhigh/it-s-not-about-what-we-do-it-s-about-how-consciously-we-do-what-we-do
Regardless, looking forward to the pleasure trap post, and thanks again for the thought-provoking piece. :)
What role does IQ (actual intelligence, not a number from a test) play in a person's ability to think well enough not to be manipulated? What constitutes "higher consciousness aspirations" and who defines that? Isn't that a question each of us have to answer for ourselves? What I'm getting at here is that there will always be a spectrum of intelligence, and those that are lower on that spectrum are the most vulnerable to be manipulated or controlled by others. I don't see how that will ever change.