Welcome To The Machine
We Told You What To Dream
After having been off all social media for seven+ years (Sheryl Lynn here), the longest uninterrupted stretch being close to six years, while simultaneously willfully living almost exclusively in isolation, the biggest element of “culture” shock for me since returning to the digital space is language degradation and a major shift in etiquette. Conversation is no longer possible with most people either. At least, not when ulterior motives are evident. Honest conversation is discouraged and shut down from every angle. At least, if your circle isn’t small and specific.
Only after stepping away from the machine, the techniques, the patterns, the processes of becoming one with it, can we see that the efforts to keep the population dumb and complacent have been overwhelmingly effective. Herd morality not only dominates, it is life for the vast majority of people.
This is not to suggest that anyone is superior or inferior; just on different paths. But once you disengage from the machine, you find that there really is a side of life and reality that exists outside everything most people have ever known. And once you get there, you can’t under any circumstance go back. You begin to recognize society as something artificial: the ultimate technique of efficiency as Jacques Ellul expounds on in ‘The Technological Society’.
Take a look a Google Trends. You’ll notice the same core groups of interests and searches: politics, entertainment, actors, singers, elections, fashion, TV shows, movie names, sports, “THE” debate, etc. Why so limited? And why such predictable categories? This is all the masses have been conditioned to concern themselves with since birth. From the point of kindergarten and onward in the public school system, we are told what limited areas of interests we can choose from: English, math, history, art. And even then, they only let you access what’s been heavily censored or revised.
We are groomed to grow into voting adults who consume and only see people and the world through narrow lenses. Black, white. Right, left. Red, blue. Good, bad. Republican, democrat. Coke, Pepsi. And we condemn each other accordingly. Our masters have done it so successfully that throwing in a carefully crafted third option deepens the herd’s illusion of choice. They will fight each other tooth and nail over this illusion while never realizing the game is not designed to be won by the people/peasants.
Most disconcertingly, this new digital world has normalized fronting as personas instead of authentic, actualized individuals with fully integrated shadows. People seek status over integrity and connection. Popularity over authenticity - and the world rewards these behaviors handsomely with gifts and gestures that only serve to inflate the ego and normalize the resultant entitlements shaping the social scene. When people exist to serve ego only, they project their motives onto everyone else, which creates misunderstandings, misjudgments, uncertainty, mistrust, conflict, enemies, false narratives, insecurity, and sometimes even trauma. Most importantly, these trends are the driving forces that shape our culture.
And while culture is unavoidable in mass societies, technological advancements have fostered an environment with real world overlap of double standards and little accountability. The same demographic historically decrying advances in artificial intelligence have voluntarily abdicated their own humanity in favor of their own technological enslavement. They’re so immersed in the culture that they just can’t see it yet. Daily, people who’ve lost touch with their own humanity influence and encourage each other. They’ve become so callous that they’d step over dying people to reach a podium if it meant five minutes of praise and applause and a tasty meal to feed their egos. This isn’t bitterness. This is an observation of the reality.
Humanity is in trouble. These people fueled by ego vote. They celebrate the ‘privilege’ of voting their neighbor’s rights away like some kind of victory. They are elected. They write legislation, pass laws and start wars. While I don’t advocate for any collective action, if there’s one thing we can all agree on it should be that education and self-awareness are keys to navigating this world and avoiding the absolute horrors on earth these egomaniacs are capable of. Ego is the evil in this world. And boy, is it powerful. But nothing is as powerful as love and the determination to not fall prey to the various cultural traps designed to suck the collective soul out of humanity. Be your own person. Save your soul. What we see as culture has little to do with humanity and everything to do with stifling it instead. Without our humanity, we are machines. Maybe that has been the master plan all along.
