250115

Stay away from all kinds of “groups” and think for yourself. By groups I mean communities, clusters, crowds. Someone who hasn’t cultivated their mind loses part of their reason and morals on entering a group, becoming lax, arrogant, utilitarian, greedy and resentful, bound by invisible rules.

So-called streaming media, so-called captions, so-called life philosophy: they first sort opinions into opposing camps, then label groups, which makes targeted big-data brainwashing and thought control easier. You get swept along. First you’re given a dimension-reducing framework that takes you from plural views to binary views to a single conclusion, then you’re “reinforcement-trained” into an obsessive understanding of some subjective view, then labelled again, over and over, forming an “n-ary tree of groups”.

When you’re caught up in the disputes and conflicts of the big-data world (some new meme, some big scandal, some polarising debate) and find yourself doubting or giving in to some view, that is essentially cheap inner drain and a waste of time. I now know very clearly how important time is. Inner drain over good and bad feelings is human nature: it makes you work out what you should do and understand people, and when you’re done thinking you have a choice, to get better or keep sinking. Most people do whatever feels good, and I was once stuck at that level too. But inner drain over conflict and criticism, all the moral victories and defeats, and giving in to some subjective view, is animal nature. Stay well away from it.

For objective questions, search actively with keywords for the answer you want. For subjective questions, I love something a friend once told me: “Think it through yourself, solve it yourself, ask your own heart. I can only comfort your feelings; I can’t give you views or advice, because I’m not in your situation.”

So go ahead and bang your head bloody, go wild, make a scene, act with a clear conscience, but think for yourself. Don’t seek any moral victory or help beyond comfort.

Take what I say critically too.