PROMOTED
2021 is not disappointing, at least when it comes to thinking about society as a series finale. I think we can be honest and say that all of this is fun to watch. If it weren't, then ad-space wouldn't be so valuable. No one could have ever predicted that watching a lady get shot in the neck could sell so many mood lamps on Instagram. This may not be a popular admission, but I personally thank her for taking one to the jugular because my living room has never looked so inviting. Don't even get me started on the pleasure I feel from the gravity blanket I got last summer; gratitude to you, Minneapolis PD.
It may feel as if the entity known as western culture is actively slitting its own throat. If you pay attention to anything happening in the world right now, you should be writhing with panic. But what if the problem is your attention, not what it’s directed towards?
I think watching and enjoying, and being horrified are one thing, but most people are affected deeply by what they perceive to be the truth. Our escape from this growing collective anxiety is not to turn away from the outlets that make us feel this way but to tune in and click on the next image that offers reprieve—a conveniently placed ad. What we portray as the state of our world changes our brain negatively, but watching in horror keeps us watching. None of the positive features involving social connections or proposed commercial benefits through online interactions outweigh this harm. Mass information is causing mass insanity. Our manipulated attention is the root cause of our collective affliction, and we have not learned how to deal with it.
We are told that the problems have to do with extremes, ideologies run amuck, but extremes are the same. We see opposites on a spectrum, but in reality, the forces that shape the universe are spherical, which means opposites are next to each other, back to back. The only difference in extreme viewpoints is the direction they are facing and the attention they gather. They occupy the same useless space. What better way to stop a conversation about gender identity, racism, police brutality, or totalitarianism than solely focusing on the most extreme versions of the problems?
It is easy to write and rage about the absurdity in an opposing side—an ethereal boogeyman—determined as a political leaning, a racial or gender identity, or a class based on haves or have-nots. These sentiments, held by most, push the blame to an abstract group. It is always "them" being somewhere "out there," never close enough to confront, ambiguous enough to stack all charges against, but far enough away to do nothing about. We live in a world where the easiest person to trick is ourselves. This landscape is tumultuous. The terrain will eat you alive; it is where the oppressed are encouraged to become oppressors, a place where jagged rocks are sold as pillows. This works, as the blame for anyone's circumstances can be placed upon external origin. But the problem here is in conception. If the enemy is always external, if the problem is always outside of yourself, then you ARE the problem.
Where is your attention? Is it directed at others? Like most people in the modern world, you've probably allowed convenience to hijack your conscious state. We use these "free" platforms to observe the world, but they are not free from manipulation. These train wrecks of modern outrage are so alluring that it is hard to recognize the con, it's even harder to see that our view, our click, our "like" IS the problem. Your attention is being sold to the highest bidder. All so you can pretend that you are a part of the world from the convenience of your couch, bed, or toilet—the latter being where we are culturally; a collective pile of shit.
You can change this if you can change your attention. The problem is not out there, it's inside your skull. We are the problem. I wanted to build an audience for our philosophy to share the decades of information we have learned through physical effort. I just didn't realize I was building an audience for scented candles; broadcasting my ideas was selling someone else's. I had convinced myself that I was part of the world, that I had an accurate view, that I pointed my rage accurately, but it should have been directed towards my lack of attention, my complacency, the ease at which I could find fault in the rest of the world and how they behave.
The hallmark of our generation is a great battle, a World War. It is a crusade against the most dangerous sort of persons — the one's who refuse to look in the mirror to see the real enemy.
