Tag: society

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Fear makes us all vulnerable and highly susceptible to change

There are two things in life which are certain, death and taxes. But what if I told you this aphorism was partially false? Would you believe me? What if I told you that taxes don’t have to be certain? Would that tickle your imagination a bit? So many instances could lead to the demise of tax collection as a national collective. Obviously, the sheer number of individual tax evaders is already prevalent and it’s a phenomenon I can’t possibly quantify. But as a collective, it’s absolutely not set in stone. A government coup or the refabricating of our national economic model are two of many scenarios where taxes can pivot from certainty to history. 

The same can’t be said for death. Death is without a doubt inevitable. I sometimes fantasize about the idea of being a principal scientist in search of discovering a revolutionary solution to the shortening of our telomeres, hoping that one day we could extend the process of aging. After basking in fantasy for a quick minute, I always immediately crash back to earth pondering at the realization that death is sadly certain for all species on earth. But you see how the fragile mind works. Fearful of death, my mind is constantly ready to formulate any absurd scenario where the one thing it fears more becomes non existent. 

Which brings me to my main point: The death of all social constructs as we once knew it.

Depending on your beliefs, the world has been around 4.5 billion years. Out of those 4.5 billions years, sentient life has been around for 6 million years while the modern form of human life evolved and thrived for as much as 200,000 years. Now, if you are a Christian and do not believe in evolution, the modern form of human life evolved and thrived approximately 6000 years ago. Now, whether you believe in 200,000 or 6000 years doesn’t really effect this piece because, both are tangible evidence to make my case. For 200,000 years or 6000 years, humans have formed societies to add meaning and structure to an unforgiving world desperately trying to axe them off the face of existence. Within said structure were roles created to ensure the survival and advancement of said society. Individuals had a purpose (innately discovered or implanted by societal hierarchy) to strive toward. Through those remarkable years, we discovered incredible technologies through the dedicated work of scientists and engineers. Incredible technologies with which we continue to reap the benefits in the year 2021. To name a few: energy sources, vehicles of transportation, modern agriculture, modern medicine, computers, Web1, Web2, Web3 and film….ect. Those years also gave rise to spectacular artists, poets, writers, filmmakers and historians. Within the same degree of discovery also rose horrific discoveries and vile leaders who alone destroyed or almost succeeded at destroying established societies. 

Societies within every culture, whether we accept it or not, play a vital role in the life of all species roaming the earth. From the day we are born to the day we die. Human interaction, conversations, debates, intimacy, war and a plethora of other things molds us into the person we stare in the mirror daily, good or bad. And within those interactions are the technologies which facilitate our lives through efficiency. With efficiency, technological advancements have increased exponentially giving way to a new society, one drastically and far removed from those of our predecessors. In this new society, we are granted the biggest gift of all – time. More time to spend with family, friends and loved ones, right? Well, not quite right. Study shows that as a collective, we spend about 59 hours a week of our free time on the internet. 80% of internet users are mobile users which signals the beginning of the “cyborg” lifestyle Tesla CEO, Elon Musk dubbed a year ago. In the United States, the average time spent on social media is clocked at 2 hours and 41 minutes with projections eyeing an increase. Surpassing the U.S is the Philippines with a whopping 4 hours. 

Through the revolutionary technology of social media, we were given the avenue to transport our real world experiences and sense of belonging, pride and dignity to a world dictated by algorithms which we knew very little of and their impact on the human psyche until recently. CEO’s of these mega tech corporations have gone on record to admit the unforeseen impact of their creation and have swayed the public to indulge wisely. But, how can one indulge wisely when one’s needs of love, belonging and affirmation have been hijacked by this technology and are served back to them on an artificially bloated platter. The one thing one fears most in real life can suddenly go away for a brief moment once on social media at the touch of a digital button.

And if that wasn’t enough for the fickle minded brain of the consumer , who former Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg errogantly described as “dumb fucks”, recently introduced to market was a mind shattering technology called the Metaverse. A place where you can live out your wildest dreams and fantasies. A place where business meetings, shopping, dating, learning can be done through the usage of 3 dimensional avatars in 3 dimensional space. Providing even more efficiency, you may never have to leave the comfort of your home except for emergencies. Why would you when you can just put on Virtual Reality Headsets, gloves and become your true self digitally. Your biggest fears become a thing of the past and your worries, well possibly non-existent. As of this moment, virtual lands and roads are being sold for millions of dollars. Conglomerates such as Nike who are aware of the shift in the air are buying in early to secure their seat at the big table in the Metaverse. 

As you read this piece, you’re without a doubt convincing yourself that this 3 dimensional society will never come to fruition like they want it to. And to that, I say think again. Prior to consumer culture, we had a culture of producers. How did they get us onboard? Prior to social media culture, we all had tangible social lives? How did they get us onboard? What we have to ask ourselves is,  what are we afraid of so much that we are willing to forsake our real selves for something uber artificial? What are we afraid of that makes us so vulnerable and susceptible to these drastic changes? What are we afraid of that we are willing to destroy the very fabric of what’s decently left of our current society for the Metaverse?

As you ponder over these questions, I’ll leave you with two excerpts. I can’t quite remember the species they used for the first excerpt since a large chunk of time as elapsed since I last read about these experiments, so I’m going to try my best to summarize:

  1. A group of scientists once conducted an experiment in the hopes of understanding the importance of a society. They ran two tests. One had a colony of larvae in close proximity and the other had a colony of isolated larvae. The species which hatched from close proximity over time grew to build a strong society. A society of unity which benefited all surviving members of that species. The species which hatched from the isolated colony over time grew and demonstrated an astounding number of members who sadly became cannibals.
  2. A brilliant scientist intrigued with studying the fabric of society built a utopian world for a large group of mice. This experiment stretched out for years. They had unlimited food, unlimited water and more. Things begin smoothly take shape for the colony of mice. Unfortunately, as the years went on, the brilliant scientist was met with grave disappointment. War broke out within the colony. The mice had stopped mating, some even stopped taking care of themselves. Instead, a handful turned to cannibalism. Others just refused to eat and simply died of starvation even with the excess of food at their disposal. Soon enough, the colony self-destructed.  

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Side note: Why did I write this article?

Never have I been one to shy away from appreciating and admiring technological advances. Heck, I even go as far as trying to convince others to adopt those innovative ideas in their day to day lives. Innovations such as Peer to Peer trading like crypto, transparent ledgers facilitated by the blockchain, NFT’s, EV’s, Neuralink and many more all have potential. When I analyze them, I tend to weigh more positives on the scale of utility. Yet, after researching and reading about the topic of the Metaverse, I got a sense that there’s an outcry from a small community. An outcry possibly stemming from the foreseeable loss of freedom of speech, freedom of privacy, freedom of choice…ect. I for once see the validity in their outcry no matter how much I admire the technological advances aforementioned. 

With Insta’s 2bil+ active users and TikToks 2bil+ active users who combine spend about 6+ hours a day on these apps, it can be a scary thought to think what the Metaverse will provide to these users if it delivers on all its promises. 

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Underwater We Can’t Be Together

Are we all living underwater?

Aurora has always been a favorite artist of mine ever since I discovered her song called: “Murder Song”. The tone and words articulated immediately captivated my attention for reasons that may seem trivial to some. The detailed story telling painted a gruesomely vivid imagery of “US”, citizens of this world, as emotionally damaged. Obviously you’ll argue that not all individuals are emotionally damaged and my rebuke would be to ask the 29 million people who viewed the song on youtube, add that by the number of spotify/apple/amazon streams and for analytical accuracy multiply that by the magic number 3. That should give an accurate estimate, right? Maybe not, but the point is that people in such a state of mind find the song captivating. If you think about the booming success “Emo” music has enjoyed these past few years compared to other genres, it should paint you a clear picture of our state of mind as a society. But I digress. 

To paint the picture of how I ended up on Aurora’s playlist today, it started with a normal lazy day listening to music. We just got off a celebratory phase with Independence Day and here I am enjoying my time off work, listening to music and analyzing lyrics. (Hooray to corporate America for such eccentric perks) As my songs shuffle one after another, a song by Haiva Ru comes on called: “Wildflowers”. I heard it before. To be fair, I thoroughly enjoyed the melody and the instruments the first time I heard the song. I can recall a few words when it comes on but I mostly like the song because of the melody. Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. Phrases from a past conversation with a friend over 4th of July constantly echoed. Phrases such as – Happiness, sadness, sins of the father and mother, relationships, building or upholding a community, caring..ect. We discussed on a micro level how the butterfly effect is much bigger than we had originally imagined. “Maybe we should write a paper on this?” I told my friend, even though I knew we most likely wouldn’t because of the time it would take. The idea stuck to mind after he left and it sincerely nagged me to the bone. Oddly enough, those thoughts propelled me to look up the lyrics to Haiva’s songs this afternoon. As I read them without the music in the background, a small patch of fog dissipated from my mind. I loaded a second song by her and read the lyrics. A second patch of fog left my mind. I tried to understand the message she was trying to share. Following a few reads, I immediately looked for similarities which caused me to tumble back to Aurora. 

As I carefully read the lyrics to Aurora’s song called: “Running with the wolves”, I think it’s safe to say that I experienced an epiphany like never before. So, I loaded another song called: “Underwater”. After days of battling with the idea of writing the piece regarding “The real butterfly effect and society’s collective state of mind”, I became victorious. The lyrics to “Underwater” served as a catalyst for me to begin writing the piece my friend and I lightly shrugged to the side. To make sense of our vision, here are the lyrics which stuck out the most:

Under the water we can’t breathe, we can’t breathe

Under the water we die

Under the water there is no one watching

Under the water we are alone

Then why do we jump in?

So many souls, that lost control

Where did they fall?

Into the deep, what do they seek?

Where did they fall?

Hearts will dream again

Lungs will breathe in

Wash away the sins

It’s where it begins

Feet won’t fail you now

Arms won’t let you down


In the next coming weeks, I am going to share with you all a handful of original articles which in the end will hopefully merge into a cohesive narration of “The real butterfly effect and society’s collective state of mind”. It’s hopefully going to answer questions such as: “Why do we do the things we do? Why aren’t we doing the things we’re supposed to be doing? How does it impact those around us? How does it impact our community? How does it impact the world?” The lyrics above encompass the present with a melancholic tone and end with hope. My goal is to mimic Aurora’s delivery and bring you 6 robust chapters answering the questions mentioned above with revelations from current events and possibly solutions to issues deeply aching us to our core.

It all sounds GREAT, but what about us?

What’s the biggest popularity contest in the United States? Go on, I’ll grant you ten seconds. Still not enough, alright, twenty seconds. Okay, stop begging for more time you had your chance. Politics! Politics, politics, politics.

I can see you brooding. Don’t beat yourself over not getting the right answer. I can tell you this, you knew the answer all along, you were just too pre-occupied with other thoughts and that’s completely understandable. In this same sense, we can all come to the conclusion that modern politics, especially in the United States has been too pre-occupied for too long with matters that may seem and sound trivial to our survival but in retrospective fall flat to issues that really standout such as the impending implosion of a generation that has yet to reach thirty years of age. Instead, we’re constantly bombarded with celebrity “wanna be’s in suits” who bicker at each other non-stop on national television.  Before I go any further, let us take a nose dive at the definition of the word “politics”. The dictionary states – “The activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power”.

Debate? – We get plenty of that.

Conflict? – Don’t even get me started.

Parties hoping to achieve power? – Achieve power in order to create even more conflict.

Was I spot on with my reflection? If you’ve been paying attention to the 2020 presidential race, you’ll have most likely notice the same recurring issues take center stage over and over again. They all spit out the same big and bold statements followed by fraudulent promises which accomplishes absolutely nothing but boosts their egos. Climate change, jobs, equality for all, impeaching Donald Trump, stopping China and Iran, free everything, (Hahaha, free everything? Really?) climate change. (oops, sorry I already mentioned that. I can’t help myself since that’s all I’ve been hearing.)

Now, before you get all agitated and start molding negative thoughts about my opinion, let’s discuss and dig into an issue that trumps all these issues previously mentioned. An issue the majority of “parties hoping to achieve power” seem to neglect. The mental wellness of the future generations of this country.

You can’t have a properly functioning country, let alone a thriving economy with a generation that’s as lost and confused as an unborn child. Why is no one talking about the fact that an ever increasing amount of children are continuously growing up in discombobulated homes where both mother and father are endlessly working whether it be non-skilled or professional jobs? Plenty of evidence prove that without parental stability, chaos undoubtedly ensues. Why is no one talking about the fact that drugs and pornography are easily accessible to kids as young as eleven years old? Why is no one talking about the fact that mental illness is ever increasing in teenagers and young adults alike? The constant feed of information (sometimes meaningless) without proper guidance or explanation lead so many young ones astray. Those young ones who will one day hold professional positions in the working world will be expected to accomplish great feats, start a family..etc. How will they live up to societies expectations when they not only lacked parental advice because mom or dad was too busy working three jobs, but are so ill in the mind and lack any sense of direction? How will they strive to better themselves as human beings when their sense of morality and beliefs are endlessly contorted?

Eventually, in the near future, what you end up with is a society on the edge of a colossal meltdown. Regardless of how many jobs you create, how excessively you push for equality, how free you want to make education and insurance; it’s all futile if the people who are supposed to benefit are mentally ill, lost and honestly do not care.

To end, here’s my slogan for the 2020 election: Create strong minded individuals by making families great again! (Kind of cringe and unoriginal, I know. More reasons I should not be a politician.)

With that said, I leave you with this – Take your eyes away from this screen. Look around you. If you don’t like what you see, then change it. Do not allow them to break your spiritual core as it is the only spark that will set you free!

School? What For.

Now, before you go off running and screaming – “Ah boy. Here we go again. Another no lifer trying to lead people astray with their bullshit uneducated opinion.”, sit tight, take a deep a breath, clear your mind and read on.

The debate surrounding the true purpose of school (or the education system, whatever you call it) has been boiling hot for the past few years. Some have been very vocal about the detriment school can have on the mental and spiritual growth of kids, while others see it strictly as a factory farm. The urge to want to join in on the “school is useless” train has been and honestly still is quite strong in me. I see it and hear it everywhere I go now – On the internet, television, work and amongst friends. It’s almost impossible to escape really. But it’s true, why aren’t you getting on the train? – You’re asking. Well, here’s your answer. It’s not that I don’t want get on, I rather just walk. It gives me time to clear my head and really think before presenting my case. I went to school (elementary, middle, high and college) for the majority of my life. The routine of having to wake up at 5:00 AM and sitting in a squared cubicle for 180 days was quite gruesome at times. But it was and still is deemed necessary for the development of not just the individual but to our “society” as a whole. To a certain degree, I can understand the meaning behind this.

School has its values. To some, it provides a sense of belonging, helps develop social skills and may even bring inspiration. The basic knowledge of math and science that we are thought in school provides others the stepping stone to possibly innovate, create and engineer things such as vehicles, buildings, food..ect. Math and science are very real. Whether we choose to believe in it or not, it is everywhere we go and in everything we do. But, (sorry but not sorry, I have to say this) that’s as far as I’ll defend it.

What about all the other aspects of life that are missing from the curriculum. As famous YouTuber Spiritual So puts it: “Self-improvement, spirituality, financial literacy and coping mechanisms are nowhere to be found in school systems.” And he’s absolutely right. The most important subjects that are crucial to our growth as human beings are astonishingly absent from school. For approximately ten years, we are told what to learn and how to learn it. We are instructed to take in and regurgitate information that are either outdated or just blatantly false. Then at the age of 18, without clear guidance and completely spoon-fed, we are told (advised) to go off to college to later be pressured into picking a major that we may or may not want to practice for the rest of our lives.

Go along with this example; you’re still here? Alright good. If 100 teenagers (because that’s really what they are) head off to college, 90 have no clue who they are as a person, let alone know what major to pick. Unsure of themselves and without guidance, they are forced to make an impossible choice. The abundance of possibly meaningless information they were thought in grade school can’t even aid them on their quest. Once you’re in college, not truly knowing yourself can be a huge crutch. Which means that you have a lot of soul searching and evolving to do. What you thought you originally wanted to practice turned out to be completely false.

But, the price for evolving is astronomically high. What are your options? Either you close both eyes and choose to further entrench yourself in debt in search of your true calling or you stick with something that will most likely make you miserable and depress for the rest of your life. (Maybe not the rest of your life if you’re blessed enough to change path later in life.) Then you graduate, and voila, you stare at the world as it greets you with a humongous middle finger. Shaken by the inhospitable greeting, you look back on all your school years and realize that it was nothing but just one big expensive life lesson.

Is it worth it? I don’t know, you tell me. I’m just on the side taking a slow and long walk as I watch the train go by.

With that said, I leave you with this – Take your eyes away from this screen. Look around you. If you don’t like what you see, then change it. Do not allow them to break your spiritual core as it is the only spark that will set you free!