To me, when thinking about my philosophy and the economic state, I have to wonder what my purpose is in life. Everyone thinks about it from time to time, right? They’d have to. If you can’t, then that’s another post. But I digress. I have to wonder that if I really believe that we chose our lives; the people we meet; those that are in our lives; I have to wonder…What about the bigger state of the world? If we chose that, then what are our lessons in this life? What are we meant to experience and take away from this life? While I can wonder on the individual level, I am forced to think on a broader scale. With the occupy movement, I see tons of people who are like minded. Maybe we chose to be here in this time, with these circumstances to DO something about it.
But on the individual level, what are the people on the top supposed to learn? What have they chosen to experience in life? Is it really so great when you have all these material things? To be bound to the world through money. A fabricated thing of arbitrary value, especially here in the states. Around the world is equally disturbing, but I have very little experience with anything else.
Sometimes it is argued that my generation didn’t choose this, and we were born into a mess we didn’t create. But if I hold true to my belief that we chose every single thing in our lives that we are living now, then what is the big lesson here?
And the reason I am excited to move away from the city is that I want to think about these things. I can’t actually learn a lesson and think about a philosophical thought when there is so much noise everywhere. We are force-fed noise everywhere we go – bars, homes, doctor’s offices. You are constantly bombarded by a fake reality so you don’t think about the current situation.
I grew up in a small, two bedroom house. 720 square feet, with three dogs, two cats, and from time to time, about 20+ lizards. I was born in 1988, in a middle class family living in a mildly questionable neighborhood. We had enough to keep us going, and I’ve been lucky enough to grow up with computers being around for the majority of my life. This gave me access to all sorts of other noise and distraction, with the internet and gaming in a whole new way.
Now, I remember as a child I was placed in a Montessori daycare/school. I was encouraged, heavily, to think outside the box and be creative. I was also lucky enough to have the same type of schooling in elementary school and Junior high. I even got to attend an alternative arts high school. But during this whole time, when I came home, I surrounded myself with noise and alternate realities via Television shows, video games, and online personas. I only thought about the world while I was in school and once I was away from socializing. In fact, I would have to say even then it was hard to really comprehend the world outside my own life.
So, I woke up one day. I don’t think now is the time to get in to that, but I did. I started to realize that the world around me is suffering. And maybe it happened when it hit here at home. When I really started noticing the homeless populations grow. When I saw the housing bubble (even if I don’t know much about is, I do know about it). I woke up to the fact that compared to other countries, even our down trodden were better off than whole villages. I saw people with mental problems that I have come to understand were heavily influenced by the society around them.
And I wonder how many people think about these things. I never thought about them before I didn’t watch tv because it was too “heavy” to think about. It was depressing and I didn’t want to sink into that hole when I could do nothing about it. But what if we are meant to DO something about it? If we think about these things, then we can work to achieve some amazing things. But we are constantly told in our society to NOT think about these things. That it is ok to have “the American Dream;” To want for yourself and care less about others. I don’t want to play for one small team when we can work for the whole team. I’m watching us deplete our resources and buying in to consumerism. And worse, I’m watching people turn on each other over ideas. Over small details when the bigger picture is so much more important. There are a lot of people in the world; we can find enough people who get along to work together towards common goals that we can all agree on.
And with the people I am meeting at this time in my life, I wonder: What are we supposed to be doing with this, as a whole?
But on the individual level, what are the people on the top supposed to learn? What have they chosen to experience in life? Is it really so great when you have all these material things? To be bound to the world through money. A fabricated thing of arbitrary value, especially here in the states. Around the world is equally disturbing, but I have very little experience with anything else.
Sometimes it is argued that my generation didn’t choose this, and we were born into a mess we didn’t create. But if I hold true to my belief that we chose every single thing in our lives that we are living now, then what is the big lesson here?
And the reason I am excited to move away from the city is that I want to think about these things. I can’t actually learn a lesson and think about a philosophical thought when there is so much noise everywhere. We are force-fed noise everywhere we go – bars, homes, doctor’s offices. You are constantly bombarded by a fake reality so you don’t think about the current situation.
I grew up in a small, two bedroom house. 720 square feet, with three dogs, two cats, and from time to time, about 20+ lizards. I was born in 1988, in a middle class family living in a mildly questionable neighborhood. We had enough to keep us going, and I’ve been lucky enough to grow up with computers being around for the majority of my life. This gave me access to all sorts of other noise and distraction, with the internet and gaming in a whole new way.
Now, I remember as a child I was placed in a Montessori daycare/school. I was encouraged, heavily, to think outside the box and be creative. I was also lucky enough to have the same type of schooling in elementary school and Junior high. I even got to attend an alternative arts high school. But during this whole time, when I came home, I surrounded myself with noise and alternate realities via Television shows, video games, and online personas. I only thought about the world while I was in school and once I was away from socializing. In fact, I would have to say even then it was hard to really comprehend the world outside my own life.
So, I woke up one day. I don’t think now is the time to get in to that, but I did. I started to realize that the world around me is suffering. And maybe it happened when it hit here at home. When I really started noticing the homeless populations grow. When I saw the housing bubble (even if I don’t know much about is, I do know about it). I woke up to the fact that compared to other countries, even our down trodden were better off than whole villages. I saw people with mental problems that I have come to understand were heavily influenced by the society around them.
And I wonder how many people think about these things. I never thought about them before I didn’t watch tv because it was too “heavy” to think about. It was depressing and I didn’t want to sink into that hole when I could do nothing about it. But what if we are meant to DO something about it? If we think about these things, then we can work to achieve some amazing things. But we are constantly told in our society to NOT think about these things. That it is ok to have “the American Dream;” To want for yourself and care less about others. I don’t want to play for one small team when we can work for the whole team. I’m watching us deplete our resources and buying in to consumerism. And worse, I’m watching people turn on each other over ideas. Over small details when the bigger picture is so much more important. There are a lot of people in the world; we can find enough people who get along to work together towards common goals that we can all agree on.
And with the people I am meeting at this time in my life, I wonder: What are we supposed to be doing with this, as a whole?
Lovely first post!
ReplyDeleteI believe it's good to ask questions. Every "problem" is like an onion, ask a question and it peels a layer. Eventually, you get to the center, the core. Sometimes, we find that there is no "problem", after all, it was just a perception. Or, we find the solution is not as complicated as we might have initially thought.
I look forward to more of your thoughtful musings!
Good first post Mow!
ReplyDelete