NPCs

Daily Meditation #235–10/15/2022

What the mirror (apparently) shows the endless online warriors as they start their day of NPC thoughts.

The TV wants to tell you how to think.
Pundits want you to believe XY or Z.
The digital voices in the echo chambers of the internet attempt to metaphorically lobotomize you into a specific ideology.

And it happens all day, every day.

A flavor of the week hashtag.
A new emoji representing something to go in your profile.
Some new acronym or word to denote who someone is supporting of.

Seek the self.
Deny the group.

There are mobs of “angry” voices online who insist that dissent means your digital head is offered up on a platter to the Gods of social media.

But these same online OnLions become quiet, mewling kittens in real life the moment someone holds a different belief.

It quickly goes from an “LOL you’re just a retard” ad hominem attack, online, to a “Yeah, I guess maybe you have a point.”

So, seek the self.
Know yourself, lest the group attempt to rob you of your ability to think.
Understand your limits.
Believe in what your believe in.
Be willing to listen, absolutely, but separate the opinion from person. Love them, but smilingly disagree with the point you can’t see eye to eye one.

Seeking the self is to know joy.
Finding comfort in the herd will only serve to keep you in the undulating maelstrom of perpetual anger.

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These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”