Category: Social Theory

Social Theory is a category designed to open the floor for debate on many social situations and individual ways of thinking. Not necessarily going against conventional wisdom, but more like adding a view on an already controversial way of thinking. We simply look to add to the discussion, rather than end it.

Feeling for Now, Thinking for Later

We live in a very high stakes world where wasting anything is rarely practical.  Capital, time, love, or anything else that we value requires us to plan ahead so that we can use it efficiently as our life unfolds.

Our current economy makes us work for and save our capital to survive.  And this currency pays for everything, so we treat it with care. So yeah, you might wanna go downtown and buy shots for the whole bar, but you typically don’t.  It’s not logical for your future happiness to spend like this because unless you are Bill Gates, you will not enjoy how your bank account looks the next day.

Other examples include time and love.  Same as capital, these are things we must value and treat with care as well.  In some cases, one can be in a great relationship with a significant other, yet have to end it.  It has to end because although it may be good at the moment, it won’t be in the future.  

Trying to benefit our future selves is simply something we must consider to live a long, happy life.  The problem is we do not live in the future, we live in the present. I don’t know about you, but the “now me” hardly even aligns with the future me.  Yes, I probably should not spend the rest of the night watching Netflix, but if the mood strikes, now me might do it anyways.

We are creatures of the moment.  In short, it is because for thousands of years, the present is really all that mattered.  It was not until recently that our biggest fears went from a bear eating us to not having an updated resume.  Being in the moment and feeling in the moment makes sense, but it can also make life incredibly difficult. It is a lot harder being a motivated blog writer when my stomach keeps reminding me that I haven’t eaten all day.

My confusion on this topic branches from the idea of where this “logical” side is even derived from.  I use quotes because if we do live in the moment, then why are our future actions the ones we care about?  And what is to say that these “logical” actions are even going to help our future selves?

I believe the answer is that life is a gamble.  We take actions for our future self because, theoretically, our impending self will eventually become our present self.  We do not know for sure, but that is where the statistics and logic come in. I can die at any moment in my life, but statistically speaking it won’t.  So, if I won’t die soon, then I should probably plan for my future self. The best way to do so is by evaluating the important parts of my life now and taking the necessary steps to increase my chances of achieving them in the future.  

There is no guarantee any of these plans will work, but what is guaranteed in life?  This lack of guarantee is why I believe both our present self and future self matter.  A balance, in my opinion, will ensure the happiest, most fulfilling life.

I encourage you to balance your life.  You should strive to make your present self happy, but also understand that sometimes your present self needs to suck it up so that your future self can hopefully be happy as well.  You probably shouldn’t shop online until your credit card breaks, but maybe if that is really what you want to do then put a limit on your card, and find the best bang for your buck after a long day of work.  

I believe we should shoot to optimize how happy we are.  Sometimes that may involve going out with friends or it may involve working a late-night shift.  We live in the present, and I’m okay with that. We need to learn how to balance our now selves so that our future selves will be happy as well.

Dreams and Intuition

Image result for dreams

Every night we experience the extraordinary phenomena called dreaming. Have you ever sat down and actually thought about what a dream is or why we have them? Do you ever wonder why even the world’s leading brain specialists cannot even explain why we have these bizarre experiences? There are infinite possibilities on what their purpose truly is and that is what makes dreams so interesting.

I often find myself pondering strange things that have happened throughout my life, sometimes I get so deep into thought that I start to think, “how can I consider this “strange” when it’s the only thing I know”. There are so many things in this world that confuse me and make me question many things, but dreaming is truly one of the most intriguing parts of being alive.

Just like breathing or your heart beating, dreaming is something that we have no control over in most cases. Dreaming can be credited to the unconscious mind, which makes it that more mysterious. Many people claim that the dreams we have can be accredited to experiences in our everyday life, and as a result dreams can be translated in a way that helps one improve their life as a conscious being. I find these ideas to be extremely interesting, how is it that our unconscious mind is more self aware than the consciousness that is creating these life experiences.

One of the most mind blowing hypothesis for dreaming is the idea that we are watching/experiencing ourselves in alternate universes. Scientists have reason to believe that the universe has split an infinite amount of times, just like a cell creating body. This gives the idea that there are an infinite amount universes where “you” exist and also where “you” don’t exist.

So, what do dreams have to do with this? Well maybe this theory can explain the sheer oddness of our dream experiences and why they never really make sense to us. It could also possibly explain why we are in places or are talking to people that we have never seen before. We may be experiencing life in alternate universes through dreams by our unconscious mind.

Along with dreams we as humans are equipped with a beautiful thing called intuition. Intuition is defined as “ the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning” and is something that is just as mind blowing as dreaming. As human beings we are given intuition to help guide us through the toughest of situations, but why? Why do we have the ability to know what is right or truly wrong. Trusting your gut is something that is told to us from the very beginning of our lives, though some may not choose to follow it.

Some have hypothesized that intuition is your subconscious mind guiding you through your life through past-life experiences. In other words you are given knowledge or “intuition” from past lives you have lived and are able to use it in your current life you are living.

So, I find it odd that we are given these amazing tools as human beings. How different would our life or even the world be without them. I truly believe that we are so lucky to have a mind that can explore so many more avenues than what is at the surface. Dreaming and intuition is just the start of an ever expanding universe and mind.

My advice to you is to always use these tools as a way to create a better understanding of you and everything around you, because without it you would never be the same.

Divided We Fall

Since when did we let politics overcome our relationship with others? That’s just a joke in case you think I’m being literal. Since the dawn of man we have let politics decide our relationships with others. However, I am going to open your mind to something possible. So go get some food and water, find a good comfy place to sit because you’re about to embark on one man’s opinion; which I hope you can all agree upon so we can make it a fact. By the way, check out our post, “What is a fact?” If you’re really confused as to what I’m talking about.

Alright, so now that I’ve got your attention, let’s look at our political world right now. The Western Hemisphere is still being dominated by America, due to all the kickass we do everyday; Mexico can’t do anything to keep their people in the country, causing their economy to plunder even more; and Latin America is just one big gold mine for drug cartels and lawless lands. Oh and of course I forgot about that place called Canada. To be honest I’m not sure what they do… all I know is that the people are nice and weed is completely legal there.

Now let’s hop on over to the East, where the very idea of conflict was born. As of right now, Russia has everyone guessing with Vladimir Putin at the helm. If there is a scandal or a world crisis, Russia is always somehow involved. China manufactures just about every single factory made item in the world, and I think one of their propaganda directors got a little too lit one night and accidentally fell through with plan z, which was to produce as many men as possible and brace for world domination. Thankfully China wasn’t ready for plan z and now they just have an overpopulation crisis on their 1.4 billion hands. The Middle East is a world of its own. Sadly, this part of our world may never experience peace. There is too much greed and poverty, and there is zero government establishment. But if you don’t see any of it, is it really happening? The only time you ever hear about the UK anymore is when there is a royal wedding or another terrorist attack in a subway. Africa has never recovered from the start of time, due to endless war and the white man’s unrelenting thirst for gold.

I know our world is a mess right now.  I believe that is because we as human beings have lost touch with ourselves. Most species must work together in order to survive. Humans however, have become so advanced in the past few thousand years that we no longer think that we all need to work together to survive. This has lead to countless conflicts and deaths; and there are no signs showing progression towards solving this issue. To me, this does not sound like survival.

Ask yourself right now, what makes you more American than someone who is trying to get citizenship in the United States? The answer is quite simple, nothing but a label. Are you really that different from someone who lives in Russia, England, Japan, etc.? Are they so different that you need to convert them into someone like you or kill them if they don’t comply? You may think that sounds crazy, however we do it every day and you support that whether you know it or not, simply because you have an ego that was set up for you to fulfill as a child by your leaders. You are raised to dislike anyone that doesn’t agree with the leaders that you are forced to obey to for the biggest developmental stage of your life. And by the time you’re an independent, the ideology of your nation and its beliefs are burned into your mind and has altered your way of thinking.

It doesn’t have to be like this. Let me correct myself… it shouldn’t be like this, and it can’t last forever. These “borders” will not last forever, travel will become so fluent that it will bring people all around the world together. Families will be made, which means that they will have to choose a place on this earth to live together. The world is already starting to run into this conflict. For example, families in Mexico are being separated by the Mexico-United states border and many people are speaking out now about how it is only the governments that are being the problem. Eventually we are not going to care who is from what country, especially if the people we meet provide the happiness for each other that we all pursue now. We must accept that we are no exception to Mother Nature, and that we as a species can only survive if we can let our egos go and live as a whole, not as an independent.

Truth in Image

Image Credit: https://si.wsj.net/

When I go out to dinner at a nice place, I wear a suit and a tie. When interviewing for a job I have my favorite button-up shirt with my black and red tie. When I’m running I like to wear my gray adidas sweatpants and a white undershirt. I have an outfit for almost every activity in my life, it’s a way of representing myself in an appropriate way. Imagine showing up to work one day shirtless, with a belly button piercing whilst wearing a speedo, odds are it wouldn’t yield a very positive response in the office. We use clothes to present ourselves in an appropriate way for the situations that we are in, and much like with clothes, we do this with our personalities as well.

Truth be told, there are very few people who actually know me. I don’t mean this in a negative way, on the contrary. People don’t truly know me because the image I show, or the way I present myself, is not very truthful. It is by nature that we do this, we put on our “outfits” so to speak where we feel it is appropriate. The image that you present to others of yourself can be a lie, but I find in most cases it is just a bending of the truth. We tend to exaggerate our positive features, and downplay our negative ones. Personally I play up my humor and smile, to distract others from my true self, a much darker self.

Trying to explain image is so difficult in words because it can be so vague. We have many different images that vary drastically by relationship. You want your boss to see you in a much different light than you want that cute person in the front of class to see you. Presentation includes so many things as well from what we wear to what we let others know about our personal lives to who we associate with, image is everything.

I find myself lying so often about myself to others, putting on a good face or giving a fake laugh, sometimes it makes me wonder whether or not it’s really a good thing. When exploring this train of thought more, one inevitably comes to another question, and that’s whether or not it’s a good thing for anyone to tuck away who they truly are from others.

It’s nice having control over what others think of you, it brings me great comfort to know that others will only know the things about me that I let them know. We are by nature social creatures, it brings us great joy to be included and accepted by others. It’s possible that if we all stopped filtering what parts of ourselves go out into the world, then many will not be accepted by others causing great pain. Being socially ousted can cause great emotional pain, but in many situations it could also be genuinely dangerous. Many with differing views or orientations are in danger by letting those views be known. Many members of the LGBT+ community put out a heteronormative image of themselves for their own safety, if we decided that it was time we all stopped filtering our image, then those individuals are now thrown into a perilous situation.

I do believe that if we all let ourselves be our true selves all the time, then initially there would be chaos. The truth can be ugly, and the truth can be shocking. Many with hateful ideologies keep it to themselves for fear of being a social outcast, these hateful views would come to light. Many with differing sexual orientation and gender identification will come out and most likely in greater numbers than anticipated. I do believe however, that once the chaos dies down, we will reach an equilibrium once again. I just wonder, once equilibrium is reached, will the world be a better and more accepting place, or a place more divided than ever before. Nobody can really know, but I think that it’s contingent on how different we all truly are. I fear letting others know how ill I truly am, for fear they won’t understand, and will treat me a way I wouldn’t like to be treated. However, if we were all totally honest, I may come to find that we all feel this way, and I would feel more connected to others than ever before.

I think right now it is best for me to keep up my image of a happy person. One day, society is going to reach the point where it can handle the shock of honesty, but I don’t believe that now is that time. As a collective, we just aren’t yet accepting enough, and I don’t believe we would be able to properly jump into being truthful all the time. There are no half measures here, if half of us were truly honest with our personal image, and half were not it would be a society torn. I therefore believe that the worst case scenario is being honest with others, when others are not ready to handle it. Since I believe that we all have more similarities than differences, I think if we all decided to be honest with the way we present ourselves, then it would grant society the best outcome. For now however, we must work towards tolerating each other before we can take any major leaps into finding out about everybody’s true self.