It isn’t very often that a culture, or in this case ‘Many Cultures’, get a chance to engage in a complete shift of our cultural perception. The last time a shift of this scope and magnitude occurred was in the 16th Century and from my recollection of history it wasn’t handled well by the powers that, at the time, controlled the popular sway of cultural power. Part of the assertions of their power were held in the ideas predominant to that cultures’ perceptions, and as vast as those ideas may have seemed they were still leveraged in the core of mainstream ideologies.
The fascinating part of a total cultural shift in perception, is that they are completely unavoidable. No matter how in control we make ourselves out to be, we are still quite subject to it, individually or as a whole. It’s going to happen!
One of the things I’ve realized about change is that the momentum of what is must first lose steam. The tracks ahead are always covered with fog and we can’t see what’s coming. Everything about us as a specie draws from the source of history that defines us as a culture. The one thing we are not very good at, as a people, is letting go of old habits and embracing new ones. Especially when we can’t see through the depths of our subconscious need to remain the same. We feel at peace with rhythm… in control, knowing what’s coming is “comfort and safety”.
What is this tendency?… to do the same thing, live the same quality of lifestyle, while ignoring change when it is happening. This momentum is a big deal. I saw a group of people asked to change their smoking area, and it took weeks for people to comply, and once they did it was changed back to the original spot and they didn’t want to go back. So it took another week. It’s not like they were all that conditioned in such a short time, but there it was!
We see the same tendencies in our politicians and corporations right now, spending the capital of our democracy to reward selfish greed and the “desire” to stay on course. Trillions of dollars have been handed out to the chain of command in the hope they might shore up their positions against the great tide of change that is coming. You can see this in every politician selling the vision on the news, but there’s one problem these spokespersons aren’t seeing clearly. The natural tendency of acclimation to feed a frenzied driving force at the core of our perc3ptions, to shift. Literally out of boredom.
So What’s Changing?
The change has been obvious to all of us. Steve Jobs was totally correct when he told so and so at whatever investment company that this “is” the revolution. He was of course speaking about the personal computer, and specifically his own Apple computer. It wasn’t until the programmers at Xerox gave Jobs the mouse and the GUI (graphical user interface), did the windows of change finally open. It has reforged our language. We have had to enter new terms into the dictionary like multi-tasking, and googling. The internet and every form of computer driven device has changed the way we not only interact with the world, but also with each other. And, there’s no going back…
The biggest change the Internet has supported is the ability to self-empower almost anyone to get real perspectives on the information they are procuring from local sources and National News Services. It is undermining the propaganda for as many as are willing to seek out alternative views on the matters we are being faced with, day to day. The big question is… is the crisis real?
In the Matrix, Neo finally comes face to face with the Architect. He reveals to Neo that everything he has experienced in his life, which has also been at work influencing the people around him as well as his would be savior Morpheus and everyone in Zion, was considered a measure of control against a systemic collapse. From an outside observers point of view it might seem a bit at odds with their own autonomy hearing the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve Chief echoing the same sound bites, like they were both chiming in from the same cue cards. Like a controlled burn… there’s only one problem.
“You can’t go against the Great Magnet!” – Hunter S. Thompson
