The Real Problem is Ego

When people take a stand on an issue, they put everything they are on the line. It becomes their identity. This is the heart of the problem we face today.

Sunday, October 1st, 2023

Dear Freedom Friends,

The title of my Substack is not an accidental collection of words. It’s pure truth. Our thoughts matter — more than anything else — because human thought precedes human action. Always.

"I think, therefore I am."

Who hasn’t heard this phrase before? It is attributed to René Descartes, and he definitely said it. But, it’s not all that he said.

I admit, I was shocked to discover “I think, therefore I am,” is but half of the quote. The difference between what René actually said — and the popularized, truncated second half we all know and love — cannot be overstated.

Cogito, ergo sum — is far too easy. It takes no discipline to achieve. It’s assumed as automatic and free; therefore cheap. It’s also reduced to near meaninglessness, as it asks little of the human considering it. I think, so um…I exist! Yeah, baby. That’s some bad ass philosophy! Mic Drop!

Dubito, ergo cogito, cogito, ergo sum — now, that’s something else entirely. That’s the flippin’ meat and potatoes, the plate and the table, the stove and the oven, the firewood, propane, electricity and natural gas. We think, for a reason. What’s that reason? Doubt.

Religious Thinking in the Secular 21st Century

When we talk about “religious thinking,” we’re usually talking about the effect of faith on a person’s ability to fully analyze and evaluate the world around them. Their ability to ask questions. Faith implies an intentional lack of doubt. While many may have doubted along the way, as they arrive at the comfortable space known as “I now believe,” there is one inevitable cost of entry: “Stop asking questions. Do not doubt.”

Over the past three years, a lot of people have become “believers” of an organized, global narrative regarding the Covid Experience, and this “new faith” comes with demands:
(1) Do not question the authorities.
(2) Discourage others from questioning the authorities.
(3) Refuse to listen to those who question the authorities.
(4) Questioning the authorities is heretical.
(5) Doubting the authorities is apostasy.
(6) And the biggest one: “If you do so, I will disown you.”

This is where many of us stand today. We have been disowned, or harshly excluded. We’ve been accused of horrendous acts of selfishness, immorality, stupidity and even manslaughter or an outright willingness to commit murder. Connections with friends and family have been shattered. Why? Because we broke the above five (5) rules. And, these blackened bridges, reduced to ash and melted metal, are not easy to repair.
Why does this happen? Ego.

One of the hallmarks of religious orthodoxy is an intolerance for differences of opinion or perspective. This is also why larger religious categories tend to splinter, again and again, into smaller and smaller sub-categories, differentiated by the smallest of details.
Why does this happen? Again: Ego.

Ideological beliefs are grounded in a person’s status as “being right.” The belief that you and your ideological compatriots are the only ones who are “in the right,” justifies the harsh scorn, expulsion, and othering of those who are wrong. The only way to roll that back, is to cultivate humility and acknowledge you may have been wrong.
Ergo — ego!

True Scientific Thinking, Analysis & Methodology is Non-Religious.

Scientific inquiry requires doubt. Without doubt, one has no reason to “inquire,” right? These ways of thinking depend upon a conscious refusal to be “a believer.” Many excellent professors would say, “Don’t take my word for it! Design your own study. What results do you get?” In short, science demands and welcomes challenges, saying: “Do you doubt? Good! Maybe it’s not the way we think it is. Let’s test it again.”

You’d think most college-educated Americans would have a rudimentary understanding of the scientific method of inquiry, right? Yet, somehow, a great many Americans are convinced that they “believe in science!” They post it on their front lawns, splash it across their social media accounts, attach permanent bumper stickers, buy T-shirts, and generally act like newly baptised converts at a religious summer camp. If you’re scratching your head and asking “why?” I’ve got an answer for you.

Edward Bernays, the “Father of Propaganda.”

This man’s impact on our lives cannot be overstated. It’s huge. In his lifetime, he espoused a frighteningly dismissive, disrespectful, elitist, arrogant, and thoroughly un-American set of Machiavellian beliefs — and the powerful elites love him.

Born in Austria, in 1891, Edward Bernays lived during the proud hey-day of the Eugenics Movement. Spurred on by the creme de la creme of society’s educational elites, popular social figures, respected philosophers and thinkers of the day, the Eugenics Movement blithely promoted the sterilization, euthanasia and generalized elimination of low-value, undesirable segments of society. The justifications for eliminating “deplorables” were many, and despite the horrors of WWII and the Nazi fulfillment of various Eugenics principles, the movement hasn’t gone away.

Edward Bernays wrote the playbook for “soft” totalitarianism & justified it thusly:

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of…. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.” ~ Edward Bernays

After the concept of “propaganda” was used to help the Woodrow Wilson Administration promote the idea that US efforts in World War I were intended to bring democracy to Europe (sound familiar?), Edward Bernays needed to dodge the pejorative connotations of the term (which would be further magnified during World War II). And so, he invented another “trick” that global power-brokers and members of the ruling elite use all the time.

Re-Branding.

Just like Bill Gates, Edward Bernays re-branded “propaganda.” Seen as negative, manipulative, self-serving and even nefarious — the newly minted term to describe “the conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses” is now “public relations.” And Edward didn’t stop there!

Drawing on the insights of his uncle, Sigmund Freud – a relationship Bernays was always quick to mention – he also developed an approach he dubbed “the engineering of consent.” His goal was to provide leaders with the means to “control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing about it.” To do so, he taught that it was necessary to appeal not to the rational part of the mind, but the unconscious.”
~ “The manipulation of the American mind: Edward Bernays and the birth of public relations.”

Back to the Ego

This substack has meandered a bit — albeit logically — and it’s getting a bit long. So, let me sum up my primary point and leave you all to consider the issue further at your leisure. Humanity has been heavily experimented on, over the past three years, and I’m not talking about the injections. We have endured a global, psychological experiment that we were entirely unable to opt out of — and the results are clear:

(1) We can be divided into ideological factions that drive deep, bloody wounds through our families, communities, places of work or play, and society in general.
(2) We can be riled up to a level of fanaticism that results in an eagerness to ostracize, excommunicate, and permanently cut ties with the people closest to us.
(3) This can happen in a matter of months, or even a few weeks.
(4) And, we don’t know how to fix it, once we break it.

We must learn how to re-build these bridges.

If you’ve succeeded at healing relationships broken by the Covid Experience, please share below in the comments. If you’ve read a good book and have an author to recommend for my FM Radio Show (Prose, Poetry & Purpose) — please share in comments, as well. Note: New Shows Coming!

In upcoming Substacks, I’ll be exploring how all of this relates to “soft” totalitarianism, which hinges upon a population well-trained to respond to “public relations” strategies with unquestioning obedience & predictable compliance.