Our most amazing ability is the ability to ignore.
As we grow, we learn not by multiplying connections in the brain, but by losing them.
We combine our expectations and biases with our perceptions,
which are themselves fictions created by our brains
simplifying and organizing multiple chaotic inputs.
Thus we create a thin veneer of simplicity and predictability
over terrifyingly unmanageable chaos
and call it reality.
Nothing generates as much philosophical drivel as incorrectly chosen level of abstraction.
“What are the origins of evil?” –
ask a stupid question – get a religion.
Fear – the most atavistic of our instincts.
Fear of others robs us of our kindness by becoming aggression.
Fear of loss robs us of our freedom by becoming routine.
Fear of death robs us of our dignity by becoming religion.
Fear is why there is nothing more important
than the illusion that monsters do not exist
by the camp-fire in the night.
Don’t make unnecessary choices,
it really doesn’t matter what colour shoes you are wearing today!
Our planet seems to be becoming smaller by the year,
as technology and communications develop, and yet …
When I encounter popular media
with our mediaeval debates about local religions or news
with our primitive tribal politics,
I keep thinking:
“Things are getting better…
most people are still poorly educated…
it is just a matter of time…”
and then I read Mark Twain
and realise that this is how he consoled himself
more than a hundred years ago…
Isn’t it amazing
how signs are so much more efficient at destroying meaning
than at conveying it?
