If one is going to find real happiness and not just survive,
but thrive, during this period of energetic upheaval, a clear mind needs to be
the foundation. It is the lifeblood of
presence, mindfulness and the good that flows from that place.
One must be careful about information consumption in order
to attain and maintain a clear mind.
Yes, meditation is important, but it won’t work if one then turns around
and absorbs all the toxic garbage floating around. This toxic information will create confusion,
distortion and toxicity, as well as creating implants that are very difficult
to clear.
Let me talk about two of the most troublesome sources of toxic
information – social media and news media.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all the major news sources in all
their forms, are extremely toxic. It’s gotten to the point where the media is basically
theater. Etienne Charland has a good article
on the theater of Charlottesville here.
Connecting with people is all fine and good. And staying informed about what’s going on in
the world is important. But neither of
those things require daily access to social media or the news, much less the
obsession and addiction we’re seeing in many people these days.
I’ll admit I’ve been as bad as anyone about overuse of news
media and obsession with political theater.
At one point in my life it was my identity. I’ve learned that current events are mostly
distortions of reality – the media focuses on small things an exaggerates to
create effect. But it’s not actually
what’s going on. To properly view
current events, one needs to be able to view them from a distance and see how
the events fit or don’t fit into the larger scheme. This isn’t possible from
daily (or hourly, or worse) following of headlines.
I would advise looking at the news no more than once a week,
maybe even once a month. Very little
going on daily is of much long-term consequence, it’s better to view the
information from a detached perspective.
Avoid headline-skimming and actually dedicate yourself to reading and
gaining insight. One quality national weekly/ monthly and one quality international
monthly is sufficient to stay informed without being sucked into the toxic
morass. And you’ll know more than 90% of
the headline-skimmers about what’s actually going on.
In politics, focus on your truth and avoid the
horse-race. Most of what passes for
political news doesn’t look much different than gambling write-ups. (In fact you’re likely to learn more useful
things from the gambling mags.) Turn it
all off. Instead, focus on your truth
and work on advocating for truth, instead of getting sucked into pointless team
sport.
Politics has changed society, often not for the better. In
the US, government has become considerably more oppressive, restrictive and
corrupt. The ways in which government
has restricted our freedom have multiplied exponentially while the benefits of
said government have decreased and costs have increased. Society continues to be increasingly penned
in and watered-down in the name of “safety” and “not hurting feelings,” quality
of service continues to deteriorate and tax burdens continue to become more
oppressive. In California, it is
impossible for an “average family” to maintain a sustainable “average standard
of living” on an average salary. If you’re
not wealthy, you’re poor, and we have the government to thank for this. (And
California government services are horrible – their solution, of course, more
taxes.)
We pay taxes, both visible and invisible, to pay for
invisible problems like “solving global warming” while cities like Los Angeles
and San Francisco live in festering garbage and raw sewage. Really.
They live in poop. Cleaning up
actual garbage has been replaced with solving an “environmental problem” that
can’t be solved and isn’t actually a problem, at least not in the sense it’s
being presented. We could clean up real
garbage that lying all over the place, but instead we tax people into effective
poverty to clean up absolutely nothing in the name of an imaginary problem and
call it “progressive.” We have solar
panels on our houses and feces in our streets – this is not sane behavior.
The pattern is easy to see.
It’s real, and it’s a problem. It’s
a political problem. But won’t be seen,
or resolved, but staring at stupid headlines about what Donald Trump tweeted. But it needs to be addressed. The solution is to ignore all the spectator
sport aspect of politics and focus on reality – getting with other people,
pointing out the problem and advocating a solution. None of that requires a lot of time reading
the news or watching TV.
As far as social media, the disconnect between the intended
and actual result is even larger. Here we have a situation where every attempt
to connect to people (which is why people are on social media) actually creates
more disconnection than if you did nothing.
Going 100% off social media will actually create more social
connection. But we’re so afraid to let
go of the illusion we will hold onto social media and convince ourselves that
cinderblock is a life raft.
At this point I don’t know if there is a way to utilize
social media that actually creates connection.
Except pulling the plug. When I
went to Thailand and couldn’t access Facebook, I found social connection. While news has some value, I’m not sure I can
say that for social media
.
I used to think it was good for staying in contact with old
friends. But I never used it that way –
I never actually contacted them. Nobody does.
It creates this illusion that people who don’t give a shit about each other
are actually connected, to the point we value these “connections” over actually
connecting with people who care who are all around us. We’re so afraid of being lonely if we lose
these fake friendships we create artificial loneliness.
But if you don’t engage with social media, nothing bad
happens. You’re bored for a few minutes,
then you quickly find something else to do and forget it. Until you think “oh, I should post this on
Facebook or Instagram.” All I see on
social media are people desperate for attention and others trying to sell stuff
to desperate people (who themselves are usually pretty desperate). I can’t think of a good reason to use social
media if one is trying to maintain a clear mind and have a social life, since
it has the opposite effect on both outcomes.
The summary of this lesson would is the following:
· *Avoid daily browsing of the news. Avoid emotional, habitual and “click-baity”
consumption. Focus instead on weekly or
monthly deep and rational understanding of the news;
· * Avoid all social media. Actually connect with
real people instead;
· * Avoid the emotional, competitive aspect of
politics. Focus change energy on
actually creating change – create and refine your own philosophy, listen to
your heart, and work to effect meaningful changes through actual action and
engagement.
Doing these things will free up space and clarity in the
mind throughout the day. Clarity isn’t something
one practices only through sitting quietly for a long time, but through the
cultivation and execution of a lifestyle that makes such clarity and presence a
value held above others.
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