Well, it's a brand new year. Time for me to begin screwing up the date field on my checks for about a month or so, then spend the rest of the eleven months making sure I have money for those checks. As some wise person once said: "Life is hilariously cruel."
Anywho, I figure that since I started this blog last year with something that I hope was profound, maybe I'll give it another try...
So here's an interesting subject: Collective Consciousness
I didn't coin that, and heaven knows I didn't come up with it either. However, I believe that humanity as a species is heading towards a few ultimate parallels in the definitions of collective consciousness. Let me explain...
There is a singular link between creatures who inhabit a particular band of the conscious hierarchy, and this is known as their "collective consciousness." Basically, this is the intrinsic desire for beings to focus on desires and needs which are common to their species, whether they are ants on the ground or humans (everywhere). On a level, a collective consciousness we all actively and knowingly engage in on a regular basis is feeding. As organisms we our bound to the desire to consume food. On a slightly more complex level, religion is a form of collective consciousness in that people are, to a degree, aligned towards the same particular desires and behaviors across the whole group. But the interesting, really sinister part, goes even deeper...
Before we step onto that side of the coin, though, let's talk about the unconscious society, first.
Ever heard of a man named Carl Jung? Around 1970 while working in the field of analytical psychology, he coined the term "collective unconscious." The term was later changed to "objective psyche" possibly because of "user" complaints, but the subject is highly fascinating.
You see, the concept goes that human beings, more precisely the individual self, drives the individual to actually make mistakes by using dreams, archetypes, and intuition. Apparently the ultimate objective is a concept known as "Individuation," which without using too many big words is the process by which a being becomes an individual among a homogeny of duplicates.
Here's the real ticker, though. The self, which is driving this process, can quite possibly be influenced or controlled by the collective conscious.
Getting creepy? Keep going...
As humans strive towards the instinctual need to become significant via their means (a process known as "self-actualization") they cannot help but find themselves caught in the currents of the social psyche. This, social psyche, is directly related to the collective consciousness, because it is in fact the disassociated biproduct of the entire collective-consciousness process. Ironically, the social psyche can also be seen as the cause of the collective conscience.
So let me reiterate this mess incase you're already starting to fade off.
The collective consciousness of the human organism essentially is driving a social psyche which in turn is acting to dictate the course of the collective conscience. Need an example? Well, that's a bit hard, but let's try this one:
1. An object of desire is created which people flock to. Suddenly the collective consciousness is directed towards that object of desire.
2. The collective unconscious is driving beings towards self-actualization, which leads to the creation of the object of desire. The collective consciousness, drives the collective unconsciousness which drives beings towards self-actualization, which drives the beings towards the object of desire.
3. The collective consciousness has now become the social psyche. The social psyche drives the collective consciousness of the beings towards the object of desire.
4. The collective consciousness is now influenced by the social psyche, which leads to the collective unconsciousness driving towards new self-actualization, which leads to new objects of desire based on the collective consciousness.
If you followed that, yay! If not, don't worry about it. :)
Okay, so here's the creepy, fascinating, insidious part: humanity is actually building a new collective conscious.
What is this new collective consciousness? It has a name: The Internet.
As a society we exchange information at blinding speeds today, but we also exchange something more. We exchange dispositions, desires, trends, beliefs, ideals, and much more. No longer is our society limited to the influences we directly percieve around us in the physical world, nor are we effected only by the voice or text communications prior to the advent of the Internet. Now, we have images, chat rooms, virtual realms, virtual concepts, digital ethics, digital laws, and most importantly, whole societies which cannot exist without the technology they deal with every day.
We are, in essence, forming a massive community of exchange, and our individuality is being exchanged, too.
In the end, we may find that our own individuality is not something dictated by a collective unconsciousness we recognize any longer. The Internet, may very well one day become our own consciousness, and our own subliminal driving force.
And that's enough for now...Cya!
Anywho, I figure that since I started this blog last year with something that I hope was profound, maybe I'll give it another try...
So here's an interesting subject: Collective Consciousness
I didn't coin that, and heaven knows I didn't come up with it either. However, I believe that humanity as a species is heading towards a few ultimate parallels in the definitions of collective consciousness. Let me explain...
There is a singular link between creatures who inhabit a particular band of the conscious hierarchy, and this is known as their "collective consciousness." Basically, this is the intrinsic desire for beings to focus on desires and needs which are common to their species, whether they are ants on the ground or humans (everywhere). On a level, a collective consciousness we all actively and knowingly engage in on a regular basis is feeding. As organisms we our bound to the desire to consume food. On a slightly more complex level, religion is a form of collective consciousness in that people are, to a degree, aligned towards the same particular desires and behaviors across the whole group. But the interesting, really sinister part, goes even deeper...
Before we step onto that side of the coin, though, let's talk about the unconscious society, first.
Ever heard of a man named Carl Jung? Around 1970 while working in the field of analytical psychology, he coined the term "collective unconscious." The term was later changed to "objective psyche" possibly because of "user" complaints, but the subject is highly fascinating.
You see, the concept goes that human beings, more precisely the individual self, drives the individual to actually make mistakes by using dreams, archetypes, and intuition. Apparently the ultimate objective is a concept known as "Individuation," which without using too many big words is the process by which a being becomes an individual among a homogeny of duplicates.
Here's the real ticker, though. The self, which is driving this process, can quite possibly be influenced or controlled by the collective conscious.
Getting creepy? Keep going...
As humans strive towards the instinctual need to become significant via their means (a process known as "self-actualization") they cannot help but find themselves caught in the currents of the social psyche. This, social psyche, is directly related to the collective consciousness, because it is in fact the disassociated biproduct of the entire collective-consciousness process. Ironically, the social psyche can also be seen as the cause of the collective conscience.
So let me reiterate this mess incase you're already starting to fade off.
The collective consciousness of the human organism essentially is driving a social psyche which in turn is acting to dictate the course of the collective conscience. Need an example? Well, that's a bit hard, but let's try this one:
1. An object of desire is created which people flock to. Suddenly the collective consciousness is directed towards that object of desire.
2. The collective unconscious is driving beings towards self-actualization, which leads to the creation of the object of desire. The collective consciousness, drives the collective unconsciousness which drives beings towards self-actualization, which drives the beings towards the object of desire.
3. The collective consciousness has now become the social psyche. The social psyche drives the collective consciousness of the beings towards the object of desire.
4. The collective consciousness is now influenced by the social psyche, which leads to the collective unconsciousness driving towards new self-actualization, which leads to new objects of desire based on the collective consciousness.
If you followed that, yay! If not, don't worry about it. :)
Okay, so here's the creepy, fascinating, insidious part: humanity is actually building a new collective conscious.
What is this new collective consciousness? It has a name: The Internet.
As a society we exchange information at blinding speeds today, but we also exchange something more. We exchange dispositions, desires, trends, beliefs, ideals, and much more. No longer is our society limited to the influences we directly percieve around us in the physical world, nor are we effected only by the voice or text communications prior to the advent of the Internet. Now, we have images, chat rooms, virtual realms, virtual concepts, digital ethics, digital laws, and most importantly, whole societies which cannot exist without the technology they deal with every day.
We are, in essence, forming a massive community of exchange, and our individuality is being exchanged, too.
In the end, we may find that our own individuality is not something dictated by a collective unconsciousness we recognize any longer. The Internet, may very well one day become our own consciousness, and our own subliminal driving force.
And that's enough for now...Cya!
