20240815_IntroToAlt3rnateWorld_pen
This is a game of life where all players live 3 distinct roles.
Note: These 3 caricatures only represent ideals and not true divisions of psyche as dictated by Freud's theory. This is merely a re-interpretation of an interesting complex regarding human behavior that I have personally observed within myself, and am yet to experimentally verify using other sources.
The 3 roles are; the reality-maintenance life of the ego, the primal, intuitive/instinctive life of the id, and the life-altering, development-centric life of the super-ego.
While the ego and super-ego are intentional characters which we take up, the id represents our base identity, one in connection with our evolutionary instincts from the many engagements of our senses; thirst, hunger, pleasure, physical arousal, mental satisfaction, recovery, etc.
But it is important to remember and remain aware of the default mode of the id, which automatically takes over when the ego and super-ego are exhausted enough after their efforts.
The dynamic between all 3 roles we play would be purely a psychological matter; a continuously answerable question of mental energy allocation.
The game requires a passive awareness and an active engagement of both system 1 and system 2 cognitive facilities, as well as the left hemisphere and right hemispheres of the brain.
20240808_ThinkingFast&Slow_pen
Context:
In the society we currently live in, there are many outliers; variables that influence our individual lives in myriads of ways, hence endlessly modifying our collective interactions between ourselves.
Our inattention to the matters in detail are leading to a drifting apart of the many institutions; leading to ideological and spiritual chaos.
We know that entropy is always increasing and there's nothing we can do about it. But we can still pay attention and learn to control how it releases into the universe.
20240701_EntropyAlwaysIncreases_info
20240405_ABriefHistoryOfTime_pen
We have accomplished many goals in our developmental efforts. But in the pursuit of reductive and separate ideals, we have become, each of us, further apart than we have ever been.
The nature of humanity is such that we can never be a singular unit. We are always changing, always dispersing into more fragments (the case of the amoeba comes to mind).
The point of the following thought exercises isn't to achieve complete unity, only to reduce divisibility of our core values.
What if the infinitely diverging fragments of our society can aggregate to find more common grounds for our collective sustenance?
Content:
Using the 3 modes for living as mentioned firstly, we must pursue 2 separate missions.
-
[Do what we are supposed to do.] Based on our respective realities, we must undertake the roles that need to be filled, one where we can gradually improve, and are the roles that we know are necessary for our ,[economic lives]. In this work, we have expectations and strive to achieve/surpass them. However, we must be mindful of other agents and their activities, and how our work contributes to the economy as a whole.
Defining Quality: Socialistic capitalism
Agent-in-charge: Ego -
[Do what we believe we must do] A kind of ikigai, where we take up work that we are naturally good at, and do so in our free time, beside our professional work. This must be a [philosophical] pursuit, one where we expect nothing in return, and only curious about things can be made better for our collective future.
Defining Quality: Utilitarianism
Agent-in-charge: Super-ego
Keep in mind that the id is not capable of possessing a mission, only the purpose of dealing with our bodily urges (both physical and mental, as both problems are inter-connected).
Defining Quality: Hedonism
My current behavior signals an oscillation between all 3 states. Meaning I am conscious about my adoption of 3 separate personas at different points in time, spread throughout a day or multiple. It is also dependent on environmental aspects.
My super-ego is most conscious when I am spending time by myself. Time with the self has led to this nuanced understanding of myself; my trigger points for deviating behavior, the switching between feeling more primal or more social, when my conscience speaks to me about regret over past actions (a vital function of the super-ego), and the drive to do better for society at large.
Time with the self leads to self-knowledge, which is crucial for super-ego development. It can be likened to a super-charging of the ego to enhance its function into a transformative nature. Instead of merely dealing with reality, we attain the mental power to alter it, reform it to a better state.
And the super-ego functions best when it has realised its purpose, the higher meaning that it pursues in life. [Ikigai] is the best reference to the kind of purpose I am talking about here.
Guiding principle of the super-ego: Will to Meaning
The ego has the hardest task ahead; to deal with the immense burden of reality. This is especially difficult considering the barrage of sensory inputs that arrive its way and make us go wayward. It is being pulled apart in many directions yet it must keep pulling itself together at all costs.
While time with the self is an important aspect here as well, in many cases, time with the self alone can also lead to isolation and subsequent distortion of the observable reality. The ego must keep engaging with other people and activities to keep up with the pace of society. Active reform is only possible with a pre-existing conception of the existing society.
More importantly, the ego is mostly handed the part of maintaining the existing structures. Whether it is a place by nature of socio-economic factors, the ego is mostly playing the cards it's been deal with the best way it could. Whether it's a data specialist earning an income at an MNC, and supporting their deprived family, or the primary shareholder of a billion-dollar startup who lives life on the edge, the ego must deal with either accepting the roles given to them or rejecting them and finding a new one. Either way, it's up to the ego to decide its socio-economic future.
Guiding principle of the ego: Will to reality
The id plays a special role; in fact not a role at all. It is our default state; the base animal that lies beneath our intellectual prowess. The embodiment of irrationality that each of us harbor within.
By being aware of its presence and naming it, we are merely labelling it as a recovery state of being. The id is crucial for our survival. After all, we are human and not machine.
By channeling our intuitive, pleasure-seeking behaviour through a singular output system, perhaps we can recognize and be cognizant of the chaos we are capable. And maybe, just maybe, it will help us in this fight against entropy.
Guiding principle of the id: Will to pleasure
3 Modes of Gameplay
The 3 roles we play in our mental lives can be used to choose the modes of gameplay we want to pursue.
20240702_3WaysToPlayTheARG_pen
- Designers - Creative value; making something out of sheer will
- Surveyors/Monitors - Experiential value; experiencing someone or something completely
- Players - Finding meaning through suffering; using a personal situation/ability to bring triumph in another situation
Preparation:
Now, I understand all of this sounds like an overwhelming amount of mental change for us to take on. With the limited time and energy we have for ourselves, this sounds like an impossible overhaul. But with the right target group and measures, perhaps we can mak3 this work.
Target group: Only the upper-middle class youth with minimal dependencies possess the time, resources and energy required for spearheading this ideological change.
About How Entertainment Ruined Society and how to Counter It
20240308_TheOrderOfNations_pen
Entertainment is the bane of current society. Its effect is so pervasive that all sects of society are under its influence. The need to be entertained has become a fundamental tenet that governs our primal needs.
Partial mental satisfaction, yes, because it allows us to turn off our brains and experience something new without active thinking.
But then, entertainment does not provide education in the senses in the way the arts and the crafts do, in the way active research stimulates our cognitive activity in more ways than one. We are merely engaging in a passive passage of time. The more entertainment we consume, the less aware we get.
The counter-argument can be that entertainment is also educational, since many outlets strive to combine both new information and perspectives in an interesting manner for our consumption.
But the problem with consumption of this potent mix is that it turns into a culture of excessive consumption without reflection. It stifles creativity and leads to repetition.
It feeds the id and not the super-ego.
About Development and Unintended Consequences
20240308_ASeriesOfUnintendedConsequences_pen
With every problem we attempt to solve without trying to understanding the depth of the issue and how far it may affect things on a constitutional level, are we just adding to the chaos; increasing the polarity in the spectrum, hence the range of our problems?
Are we really making things better or are we fooling ourselves into thinking our work is worth it?
Dialectic education is possible through an ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT of material, preferably a set of physical interactions with the world around us rather than the PASSIVE ACT OF VIEWING visuals through a separation. Doesn't this lead to further separation if not put to practical use, instead of reinforcement of useful ideas?
All the 3 roles we play, the 3 modes of living, and the 2 missions we must follow, all lead to 1 goal; to increase empathy and hence reduce inequality.
The whole point of the above listed points is to head towards that 1 goal.
- yours truly,
Scriptrid3r