Distract Me Please!
Riffing off @denmarkguy's post about misplaced interest and value, I thought I'd take @lexiconical's advice and turn my comment into a post, hopefully contributing to what I see as an important topic:
Will humanity ever figure it's shit out?
We're at a point where we have more knowledge, communication, and technological capabilities than ever before. Yet at the same time we continue on a self destructive path, we destroy the environment, waste food, kill each other, and waste away, distracting ourselves from it all with whatever mindless entertainment we can find.
People are terrified of facing themselves. They dread even a moment of aloneness. Thus the constant frantic activities: the endless socializing, talking, texting, reading, music playing, working, traveling, sightseeing, shopping, overeating, gambling, movie-going, pill-taking, drug-using, and cocktail-partying. Many of the foregoing mechanisms of escape are faulty, stressful, and ineffective.”
-David R. Hawkins, Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender
I've struggled with this fact in the past, and I know I've contributed to it, I've never really done anything to help the state of things and tried to find escapes. It's not that I didn't and don't want to turn things around, it's that I couldn't see how to in the current system, and I think there are a lot of people in the same spot.
How did we get here, why are we in this funk?
Basically I think it comes down to this: We've been force fed conditioning since we were born.
Every tv show, classroom lecture, belief system, history lesson, pop song, commercial, sermon, and social interaction has contributed to us being in this state. We've been tuning into "tonight's program" all our lives and picked up some programming.
It's no surprise people are obsessed with absolutely worthless things. It's no surprise that we don't know how to act and make change in our lives. We've always been told how things are.
The bad guys have been winning. They've making, or stealing, all the money, getting away with murder on a mass scale, finding themselves in positions of power, and all they've dumbed us down. We've been put in a weakened mental, physical, and spiritual state. By our constrictive school system, terrible diets, mindless entertainment, and chemical laden products. By the very people we trust, the "authority," the people who write the news and the history. It's disgusting.
But there are two major things I see happening that I think can help us overcome this: A subtle spiritual revolution I see happening on a larger and larger scale, and the less subtle advancements in technology we're seeing come to fruition. These two things combined could very well alter the course of humanity, righting the ship!
Spiritual Uprising
I don't know if you've noticed it in your own life, but lately I see more and more people taking up some kind of spiritual practice. Things like yoga, mindfulness, presence, shamanic retreats, meditation, travel, and people pursuing their passion seem to be increasing daily. These things are almost becoming popular due to their inherent value to people.
But is it enough to change the course we've already set? Can the small actions of others to connect to their true selves be enough to overcome our problems? I think so and this Hawkins might help in understanding this:
"When we heal something in ourselves, we heal it for the world."
-David R. Hawkins
Every change we make for the better in ourselves, helps everyone around us. Gandhi has that saying:
Be the change you want to see in the world.
To me, this is the answer. All any of us can do is be the change, right our own ship in order to help those around us. So instead of thinking that you are the sum of the 5 people around you, flip that idea on it's head. Become an influence for good to your sphere of people. The more we be the change, the faster positive change will occur.
Blockchain and New Tech
As most of you know since you're on steemit, blockchain has the capability to bring back the power to people. It's a technology that can never be fully controlled by a central authority. It can bring us privacy, it can enable free expression, and it can help us create positive change from a distance, helping people in different countries, people who really need help and haven't had the avenues to get it. It is a major step in the right direction for the rights of the people.
Being a part of the steemit community and witnessing the advancements of blockchain has really helped give me hope for humanity. I see so many amazing people working to make change happen. People are enriching lives, advancing technology to help people, raising money and awareness for good causes, and just being amazing people expressing themselves.
Even with all the uncertainty, it's an exciting time to be alive. What do you think, can we turn things around and live up to our potential?
I almost always have the sense people think about the past as something beautiful and better than the present.
In my opinion this is simply incorrect. All the problems we have now, are not new. I believe we are living the best era of humanity right now (today we are better than yesterday but worse than tomorrow), we have more peace than any other time in history. We have, as @taskmaster4450 always says more abundance than ever before (well, he talks the abundance will come thanks to crypto, what I mean is with or without crypto poverty around the world is being reduced, except in Venezuela ejem...)
So, in my opinion slowly but surely we are getting better and better people, in our values and in the way we live.
Yes, we have problems, but we have always had them. We will get rid of them in time. Technology will help us.
Our future will probably be incredible.
Great point, we are at a point where we have more abundance and peace. One thing we have more of than ever is distraction though. We aren't, at least on a mass scale, all contributing in helpful ways. We are more consumers than producers, and we can't consume forever. A few problems are worse than ever, such as population size, pollution, deforestation, desertification, and species dying off.
While I do agree our future will be bright, we still need to get past a few issues and get better at working together to implement new technologies.
One big thing you missed is the fact that we are heading towards abundance. The Age of Abundance is rapidly approaching. With a new money system coming into being, we are going to see the scarcity mentality start to drift away.
People are consumed with fear. It is really that simple. STEEM is a prime example of a blockchain that is starting to eliminate this. People are making more on here than they ever did on FB or YouTube. This is a step in the right direction. There will be many more things like it coming in the future.
When people are not living under the constant threat of starvation, they can start to address some of the higher aspects of life that Maslow talked about. It is difficult to do this when one is literally starving.
That is why STEEM is so vital...it is one of the first cryptocurrency 2.0 that is being adopted in any meaningful manner.
We just need to keep pushing and helping all get involved.
I know! I guess I wasn't in the abundance mindset when I wrote it, sometimes that lack based fear still comes up in me even though it shouldn't. I'm still working to get in the abundance mindset and steem is defintely helping in that regard. There's a ton of uncertainty in the financial industry this year and I'm becoming less and less satisfied at work, I think it's easy for people to drop into fear> I'll get my head straight and start looking at things with more faith in abundance. The internet has money now, so that's a good sign ;)
Without a doubt @jakeybrown.
There is a lot of uncertainty in the financial realm. I was at the Manna event the other night and talked with a financial planner afterwards. He feels he has maybe 5 years to work his ass off and then his profession is cooked. I said you might not have 5 years...FinTech has been going for 15 years now and is probably the leader in automation.
He said that he deals with older clients so they need more hand-holding than the younger generation. That is probably true.
One thing that is ironic is he didnt mention that he could be financially well off because of tokens. This is the major nugget in my opinion. Too many overlook the fact that there are going to be tens of thousands of dollars generated for people via many different tokens.
A few grand here, a few grand there and next thing you know, that adds up to some real money. Couple that with catching a high flyer or two and people will be well off.
Ya, once some of these get going like Earn we could be generating income from a variety of places. It's going to be really interesting to see how it plays out. getting an early start seems like a good plan
Well, I guess by now we both realise we are singing from the same hymn sheet. Yes, I too ponder these things and love Ghandi's words - tohugh at times its tough to accept.
I think also we see the world we expect to see, if we think it is a plie of S*** things invariably appear to confirm this, in own own experience.
But I totally agree that places like this platform feel like a huge sea-change and perhaps indicative of or own inner change to a more optimistic outlook?
Ya, sometimes it's hard to see the good side of things, but it always helps to look for them. IF we can get past all the crap and propaganda we can see some of the amazing advances we are making as humans. Steem can be huge in that change with the way it rewards people for doing what they already did
I was distracted by the picture of the baby! 😊
She's a cutie, it's funny how she passes out on walks
Probably the swaying of your body
Great, uplifting post. Look at the long eyelashes on that baby! She is lovely.
Thanks!
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Hey@jakeybrown, I like this post. It makes a change to see someone be vulnerable and share your thoughts and experiences in such a candid way. The good news is, in my view, we as human beings don't need to change things around, the Universe is doing it for us. You rightly point out the pace in which people are adopting some sort of spiritual practice, this is the beginning of those changes to come. Peace.