Conditioning

=== Philosophy ===

1. About
2. Conditioning Process
3. The Effects
4. Deconditioning
5. Related Posts

1. About

Influences

When it comes to what matters, it’s ultimately (your) peace & intrigue that matters. Those “truly” matter; everything else essentially doesn’t matter.¹

However, there are influences that tell us, “something else matters.” Because of these influences, we miss out on peace, and forget about intrigue².

One is ‘ego’–what matters is “status”. Hence, everyone chases status.

Two is ‘society’–what this post is about.

Society

We live in a society.

“Society” is synonymous with “other people”. Society is just a group of relationships put together.

The word, “society”, tends to imply, “the whole world”, but it’s not.³There are as many societies as there are people.

Every society cares about its own thing–the thing that matters. To a labour union, it’s money. To a feminist, it’s equality⁴. To baseball, baseball. To comedy, laughs. (The list goes on.)

Good & Bad

Societies are always “ethical”. All societies exist in the name of goodwill.

To something that matters, there are desires. If something fulfills a desire, it’s labelled as, “good”. If not, “bad”.

In a society, a person’s goal is to become a “good person”…whatever that means.⁵⁶

(Something to think about⁷: Are victims, good?…or bad?)

2. Conditioning Process

Persuasion

Societies are different from the ‘ego’ as in, you know that it’s not you. You’re not naturally, intuitively, inclined to care about what societies care about.⁸

So, societies(people) do everything to persuade you of “something matter-ing”. They give you all the reasons: ethics, benefits, logic, emotions, etc. Most importantly, societies persecute those who don’t comply; you’re always pressured.

What happens if you’re a criminal? A slave owner? A banker?⁹You’re unacceptable. How about…a college dropout? Anarchist? Pothead? Disrespected (in most societies).

It’s socially unacceptable to be different. You can’t be an atheist in a church.¹⁰¹¹

Remember: societies always have the upper hand; one person is rarely more powerful than thousands.¹²

(The desire to “fit in” is a fear from persecution. It’s social conditioning on its own.)¹³

Mimetic Theory

René Girard has a theory called “the mimetic theory of desire.”

In summary: humans naturally imitate others. We mimic each others’ behaviours. Not only that, we mimic desires. If somebody wants something, you want it too. You unconsciously develop a desire.

Desires come from what matters. This means, what matters to others matters to you.

Attachments

As you adopt matters (one by one) from other people, your ‘self-image‘ grows. You become shaped by many identities.

(In a long enough timeframe, you’ll be a “vegan-atheist-biker-activist-traveller-anarchist”¹⁴)

They’re all ‘attachments’. Too many attachments are no-good.

3. Effects

Too Many Things

In today’s world¹⁵, we’re being “conditioned” 24/7; we’re basically being poured thousands of matters all day.

And we adopt a lot of them. The forces are too strong. I mean, how are we supposed to (publicly) reject them?

“North Koreans are starving.” Alright, gotta care about that. “Children are doing tough labour in Bangladesh.” Gotta care about that, too. “Animals are being tortured.” Can’t ignore that. “There’s too much waste in the ocean.” Well, that’s serious. (The list goes on.)

Here’s the problem: if too many things matter, too much, you can’t prioritize(=work on) any of them. If you care about everything, you can’t do anything. Spend 1 second on every world issue, your day is gone.

In order to output *significant* results, it’s necessary to commit to that one thing, and ignore everything else. Doing 3 projects one after another works better than trying to do them simultaneously.¹⁶

Assimilation

“Persecution”, “mimicry”, “compliance”…what do they mean? Assimilation.

Radical creativity(originality) requires independent thinking/influences. Two people with the exact same influences inevitably create the same ideas, the same outputs.

We live in a world where most people do the same things. Most individuals don’t add any significant value to this world.

Talent + Programming determine creativity.

Extremities

In a tight, conservative environment(society), where everyone acts the same, the outcomes follow a gaussian distribution.

In an open, unrestrained environment(non-society), where everyone acts differently/randomly, the outcomes follow a power-law distribution.

It’s my suspicion that extreme performances(outcomes) are actually much more achievable than they seem. It just happens through independent paths.

4. Deconditioning

Deconditioning from society is necessary for ‘independence’…then ‘ownership’.

Process

Deconditioning is a process of elimination. By understanding.

Why do you care about ‘x’? Why? Why? Why? It’s questioning (to the end). You simply can’t understand without questioning.¹⁷

If you go deep enough, you’ll realize that (almost) none of what seems to matter, matters to you(r peace & intrigue). They’re preferences.¹⁸Prefer not to care…then choose to care, or not.¹⁹

At some point..you’ll no longer seek external validation.

Influencers

The news influences you.

With clickbait titles & unlimited tragedies, you’re being consumed into chaos.

Politics is insignificant.

…to you. You (probably) shouldn’t have a political stance on anything. You can’t change anything. You’re being convinced to have opinions (that don’t mean anything).

All your political views are conditioned, most likely.

People, who you’re in relationships with, influence you.

Your friends/family/others influence your worldview. Lots of people are stuck with their loser friends. If you’re not helping, leave.

5. Related Posts

Questions & comments are welcome!