How society mitigated existential threat
Human life used to be under threat daily from many sources.
Existence was constantly under threat.
During these times survival was assisted by constant guard against these threats.
Eventually these 'guards' became to all intents and purposes, instinctively embedded in our DNA.
Perhaps ten thousand years ago humans decided to form society.
This society developed so well that the pre historic existential threats were all but removed.
There was no longer any real danger except the bad luck of disease and asteroid strikes.
Even a bad harvest could be survived quite easily - famine was a thing of the past.
Society has yet to remove these instincts from our DNA
But that was only ten thousand years ago. Biological evolution is a slow process.
The instincts used to guard against survival threats are still running strong, like a program.
Humans, in spite of society removing all threats to survival, still instinctively NEED these instincts to be satisfied. Fully.
'Visionary rumours' are the result of this NEED for existential threat
Existential threats are created, out of nowhere, by the structures running like programs in society
They are never real threats obviously. Nonetheless, the great masse of people adopt them immediately.
Requiring no force or education, 99% of people adopt these 'visionary rumours'.
The creating social structures are government, science, media events, any respected institutions.
They come in many forms. Usually large in form.
For example:
- climate change mania
- pandemics which turn out to be normal disease seasons historically
- wars where the so called enemy are just other humans who we all know are not enemies
- famine when theres no shortage of food
- periodic economic collapse when productivity is at an all time high
- poverty when theres no shortage of wealth
- the curious divide between left and right
... and so on in a giant collective neurosis.
The 1% who can see through the rumours waste the entire time blaming wealth and power or a cabal of evil people trying to take over the world.
But this is a further exposition of the imaginary threat further reinforcing the neurosis at a deeper level.
Why has this proceeded without detection?
Religion since society formed has also failed to shine a light on this remarkable thing, eventually being co-opted into the 99%. Religion is the one thing which had the power to reveal the 'shadow' and has wasted it.
Society on the whole is not a conscious entity. It may have huge power to act, but it is not aware of this power nor what it has done with it already.
Society cannot act positively to change evolution, like an individual can.
All it can do is provide enough visionary rumours as incentives to satisfy the need for survival.
Humans still have a deep instinctive NEED for existential threat. Even if survival is no longer hard, the system will create a threat out of nothing to satisfy the instinct.
The activity is buried deep inside who we are socially. It is an unconscious collective activity. It cannot be governed or controlled.
What can be done?
Why does anything need to be done? How does an individual know that an alternative to society is better?
All an individual can do is look in the mirror and discover meaning in his own way, which is free from societies visionary rumours.
And if anything is found that can be improved, work on it.
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