Dehumanization

The above comic by Scott Adams presents a humorous look at the reality of the modern world, the reality you face in every moment of every day.

Or is it quite so humorous?

Although these two-dimensional characters may bandy about such words as "souls" and "dopamine delivery systems" without repercussions, you do not have that same leisure.  Every action you take, however small, changes your three-dimensional reality, laying out the course of your future.

Now if that sounds melodramatic, perhaps you ascribe to Asok's view of reality rather than Dilbert's perspective.  You may prefer to walk each day according to the stimulation of dopamine responses to notifications.  You may believe your happiest reality consists of sitting with your eyes staring at a screen receiving responses to your latest spectacular photo or detailed description of some particular moment of your day.  You may choose the virtual reality before you.

"O brave new world!"

Yes, that world of virtual reality with its soma-like pleasure trips stares you in the face, demanding that you deny the contemplative nature of your soul and accept the new reality foisted upon you as the consumer.  Why would you ever choose the painful world of suffering against that realm of virtual pleasure?

Only if you know its emptiness will you have the courage to make that stand.  It is the action of a hero to step out on the path that leads to fight the dragon rather than remaining in the inn with food and beer aplenty.

Seeing that choice clearly does not ensure one will choose the right course.  The pull of pleasure is strong.

Oedipus listened to the oracle that he would kill his father and marry his mother and set out on a course that had him do precisely that.  You must be clever if you want to correctly follow the path of righteousness and not meet the destruction foretold for you life.

Even the Savage could not fight against the whole world that rose up against him.  He saw through the facade of the brave new world that claimed that everyone belonged to everyone else and that the only thing that mattered was pleasure.  He tried to regain the purity of his soul.  That drew crowds to him: they viewed him as a spectacle that defied understanding.  It fascinated them.

They did not see his suffering.  They did not see him as a person.

For they had long ago ceased to view each other as persons.  They had been conditioned from their inception to behave as automatons: their life consisted of completing their duties, believing wholeheartedly in their group, and treating each other as objects.

Aldous Huxley might well have looked into the future as into one of Tolkien's palantiri, the seeing stones.  His science may be rudimentary, but his reason and foresight demand respect.

Next time you choose to allow the social media companies to control your actions perhaps you may think of a man standing alone in a valley, flogging himself to atone for the evil he has done, or believes he has done, while crowds gather to laugh and stare.  Perhaps a face of one tormented by the horror of living for pleasure alone will rise up before you when the same temptation tugs at you.  Yet biology is a strong factor.  You must be strong indeed to turn the sword of truth against that dragon.

There are a few strong voices that still ring out clearly against the tide of postmodernism with its pleasure-based culture of want makes right.  One of these is Dr. Jordan Peterson who has been grappling himself with the idea of suffering and what to do about it.  In his words:

"Life is suffering, and suffering can make you resentful, murderous, and then genocidal if you take it far enough.  So you need an antidote to suffering.  And maybe you think that you can build walls of luxury around yourself, and that that will protect you from the suffering.  Good luck with that.  That isn't going to work.  Maybe you think that you could build a delusion and live inside that.  Well, that's going to fall apart.  What is there, then, that's going to help you fight against suffering?  That's easy: It's the Truth.  The Truth is the antidote to suffering.  The reason for that is because the Truth puts reality behind you, so that you can face the reality that's coming straight at you without becoming weak and degenerating and becoming resentful, and wishing for the destruction of Being, because that's the final Hell.  The final Hell is your soul wishing for the destruction of everything, because it's too painful, and you're too bitter.  And that happens to people all the time."

Hell is quite the empty life.  But it is always a choice.