The validation game

In the era of social media, we are packed together like a billion sardines competing for visibility and validation. There is little space to individually define and express ourselves, without a mob of discontents taking notice and attempting to modify what we want to believe about ourselves and our world.

To be yourself, often comes at the “imagined” expense of how others define or think of themselves, and so these “others” fight back to regain or preserve what they think is being lost or threatened by your existence, including their cherished delusions and comfortable lies. Merely expressing your opinion, will cause “some” virtual strangers to fear being invalidated as to their own opinions and beliefs, and so they will employ any means possible to invalidate you first, or worse.

The dance

We live in a linear, results oriented world; the theory of cause and effect being the dominant paradigm and ideal. Do good, or pretend to be good, and good will come back to you, including wealth, health, perfect partners to fulfill your every need, a good seat in heaven, a better set of circumstances in the next lifetime, etc. You get the idea here…

Which is:

Free will reigns supreme, or should, according to the go-getters and do-gooders out there. You reap what you sow, as they say. Make the right moves, and this will CAUSE good EFFECTS to come your way: in this lifetime, the next lifetime, or on judgment day. Or suffer the effects of using your free will the wrong way, which means doing dumb things or being too weak, lazy, or narcissistic to make the right choices, thus CAUSING your downfall!

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Enduring footprints

Imagine suffering a complete memory loss, an existential crisis that resonates with your first days on earth, when your mind was still a blank canvas having no knowledge of the inside and outside. Imagine losing any sense of who you are, who others are, and where you are. How would you move through the world and negotiate for support and protection? You would be like a newborn who knows nothing, being at the mercy of strangers to maintain your well being, but without an inkling as to their intentions. Your fear of the unknown manifested in nightmarish proportions.

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Inherent immorality

Is there a primal place within us that is intentionally designed to be perpetually immoral?

Inherent immorality – The perpetually dark aspects of our human nature that we refuse to fully acknowledge, and that cause ongoing disturbances within our personal lives and throughout our societies. We’ve individually and collectively disavowed these aspects of ourselves through various psychological and sociological strategies, setting up an ongoing confrontation between our idealized versions of ourselves and the full reality of our human nature, which continues to operate in whole, despite our attempts to disown aspects of it.

Ambiguous immorality

Immoral has become a watered-down, inconsistently used version of a word that once evoked feelings of fear, shame, and guilt in our religious and social communities. There is no longer a collective consensus as to what it means to be immoral. Just about anything that conflicts with a person’s idea of good behavior, is often referred to or thought of as immoral, without any real understanding of what this word originally referred to. Google “immoral,” and you will see what I mean. Anything from voting for Donald Trump to watching the Superbowl is being referred to as immoral, and this also includes gay marriage, welfare, profanity, genetic engineering, sex education, lying to save your life, closing schools for Jewish holidays, and hundreds of other examples that span a wide spectrum of beliefs.

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