The Battle of the Future

July 2, 2021 Sociocultural Issues No Comments

This battle is going on already for a long time, but it will shape the future like nothing else. It is a battle inside.

Mere-ego and total-person

Both are mental states or attitudes. There are no two persons inside one. Yet, to make the distinction by way of talking is important enough. Even more, it may be the most crucial distinction towards the future. It’s a pretty easy one to understand. It may be the hardest to manage in practice. Don’t get fooled by this. People may get it and get it and get it, and in the end, in practice, they don’t.

Mere-ego is I-related thinking that doesn’t consider anything connected with the mind that is non-consciously sub-conceptual. [see: “About ‘Subconceptual’“] In other words, it only works with (crisp or fuzzy) concepts in conscious awareness, disregarding anything else. [see: “The Story of Ego“]

Total-person is much more. To get a mind-brain related feel of it, [see: “The Post-Postmodernist Brain“]

The pond metaphor

A metaphor for this is a pond where ego is the top layer, while the pond is much deeper. If the top layer acts as if the pond doesn’t exist, there’s trouble in paradise. Now, the pond, in all depth, contains the top layer. There is a distinction only in convention, by way of talking.

The top layer may be frozen. You can skate on it as if there is nothing beneath. Yet the total-pond is still – invisibly – present. There are no fish swimming in the frozen layer. Actually, there is hardly any life in the top layer.

The total-pond matters a lot, always.

The battle

Talking war-like is an option, a metaphor to explain what’s at stake. This option may sound like serious stuff. Well, it is serious stuff. For some, this may be the best way to get a correct notion of the seriousness.

In the evolution of humanity, I see this as the transition between the second and third waves of attention. [see: “Three Waves of Attention“] The battle lies in-between. The stress that provokes the battle largely comes from third-wave-drawing and second-wave-not-letting-go. The final solution will be either third-wave or destruction of the whole.

Back to normal, at least, the AURELIS kind. Mere-ego never gives up. For total-person, the question of whether or not to give up is not even relevant. There is only one solution:

Transcendence of mere-ego.

The necessity for such transcendence also needs to be seen on a global scale. [see: “Worldwide Compassion“] For instance, a war between nations will not be deemed a valid option unless because of the battle inside many people on both sides, of which the outer war is a projection.

This way, we come to the battle of the future.

The future will be determined not by who wins this battle

but by whether people will transcend the battle itself, by transcending mere-ego.

This is a responsibility – no guilt [see: “Always Responsible, Never Guilty“] – for each person individually.

Dear reader, I don’t wage any battle with you. I never will. Also, my advice to you is not to wage any ego-related battle with anyone else. You never win. Moreover, it fuels the battle itself.

You may wonder about the boat in this text’s image.

Mere-ego’s are like sailors on the deck of a boat, each scrubbing and sometimes aggressively defending his tiny piece of the deck on board of a sinking ship.

Total-person is the ocean.

Fighting any battle makes no sense. It’s much better to try to understand the situation and navigate the boat. The ocean doesn’t want it to sink, but with lousy management by many and no serious captain, the sinking is what happens.

Sailoring

I’m convinced the future will eventually turn out bright. But this conviction is not a certainty.

It will depend upon you and me.

Are you rather a sailor or a competent captain?