SOCIAL & CULTURAL VIRUS PROTECTION

In keeping with comparing human consciousness to technology: Could it be that culture is merely an operating system? One filled with viruses and an extremely difficult to use interface?

What makes life worth living? The answer, of course, is different between everyone. But I think most people can agree (at least on a conscious level) that the things that make us happy are things that appeal to our sense of aesthetics. Yet monetary success remains the focus of most of our ambitions. If someone discovers that they have a talent for art, often times the next question is one of how to profit from their talents. Of course, this is not always the case.

By use of the human cerebral cortex, we can observe patterns and make predictions of the future based on those patterns. To species who don't have a cerebral cortex (or an otherwise-developed capability of predicting future events), we are making impossible prophecies that couldn't possibly be explained by anything they're able to understand. "Supernatural" wouldn't be an unreasonable term to use, because what is happening is unexplainable based on the available knowledge (knowledge that is comprehend-able to this particular organism).

We owe a lot to our cerebral cortex. It's the only thing that allows us to rule our lives by reason and not by simple survival instinct (which is what the rest of the brain is dedicated to). The cerebral cortex was built on top of this "animal brain".

You might consider things like written language, math, logic, and even art to be different "dimensions" (although not in a literal sense) that we as humans have a unique ability to understand thanks to our cerebral cortex. Other species' simply cannot comprehend such concepts.

And yet...we're the ones killing ourselves. We're the ones who continually manipulate one-another for our own selfish profit that doesn't benefit our ability to survive or reach happiness what-so-ever. We're the ones that, despite the ability to use "mental tools" such as logic & reason, refuse to demand evidence for what is claimed to be true...making us more vulnerable to manipulation.

These are but samples of the buffet of corruption (in the same way that a computer file may become corrupt) present in our current society. Let's go back to thinking of our culture as an operating system. These flaws in the way the operating system works are merely viruses. There are viruses that cause illness in animals, there are computer viruses, and there are social/cultural viruses. In essence, they all do the same thing: Disrupt the intended function of the "program".

So where's the anti-virus software? Well sadly, those of us who are able to recognize such weaknesses in our social structure aren't in a position to remove the source of the problem. What's worse...they're not even an option amongst candidates to choose from. The current people in charge are well-suited to solve social issues of 60 years ago. But it's time for a software up-grade; ours is out-dated. Our current software simply isn't able to detect the flaws in the system.

We can learn a lot from our own creations, I think. You wouldn't use anti-virus software from 5 years ago, would you? We have different KINDS of problems now, but we're still using out-dated problem-solving techniques that don't even address the root(s) of our problems.

It is time to stop relying on politics to create the world we want for ourselves. If this is a country governed by its people, then the people in office are governed by us. We are not governed by them. Each one of us has an extremely powerful brain EVERY BIT as capable of providing solutions to issues as ANYBODY who is currently in charge of ANYTHING.

WE grant the OUR government permission to do what WE tell it to do. Things like how to spend our budget or whether or not we should go to war with a foreign country are decisions that WE ARE LEAVING UP TO SOMEBODY ELSE!!! Sure, you can vote for the politician that you agree with the most...but are three or four options REALLY good enough when NONE of them really fix anything? DEMAND better. If you pay taxes, make SURE you know exactly what YOUR money is being used for. If you don't want to financially support something...you shouldn't have to.