The Signalling

For as long as humans beings have lived, they have interacted with very few people. Maybe 100 or sometimes 200.

Once cities started forming, your village expanded. But really, cities also interacted with very few people. You did not meet X family, who were living on the other side of town

This environment meant that your behaviour was shaped on familiarity. You knew the other person and you knew how they will react to your behaviour. Vice versa they knew you.

Cut to the modern day social media. Maybe last 20 years. You have suddenly begun to reach thousand and maybe even millions. They watch what you look like, what you are wearing, what you do, what you say, how you say it and how you behave. They don’t know you and yet they know you now. You don’t know them and yet you are giving the messages to which they will react. 

But the problem is your messaging has not changed. You are giving them messages in the same time honoured way. Your psychology and social understanding has not changed, as formed over a million years of social contact.

Evolution does not change in twenty or thirty years. You are designed for a different time, living in a very visible and unfamiliar environment.

Hence the daily wrath created on social media. There has to be much friction. Hence the grouping of a particular type of audience, which re confirms what you are thinking. These groups can bunch together due to political views, maybe cultural views, possibly sports related views, gender ones etc. But they are fairly narrow and typically deal with a facet of life. Not an all around coming together of many topics. Therefore, even in these groups there will be friction. You might agree with political views, but maybe you support a different football club, which therefore still leads to friction.

At the moment we are not ready to solve this, nor do we have the wherewithal to solve it. Left on evolutionary means it might take a few hundred years. I foresee that as many more powerful and rich people rely more and more on this social media, it might one day bring the world to the edge of destruction. That is how important and destructive this topic is.

For myself, where I was very active on all forums, I have now taken a safer route and withdrawn from almost all of it. It is much less stressful and also leaves me time to live my life as I want to.

Life is inevitable

 

You see it all the time. You who are traveling along the path of life, totally absorbed in it, not assessing not aware. You are going to be shocked one day. 

Read Surah At-takhatthur (102)…Allah explains it better than one mere simple servant can. it is the simplest and most direct explanation of our lives of this world. (When you will come to the grave, so shall you know). Then you realise this dance of success and impressing others is a foolish game.

Somewhere along the way without even knowing, one became aware. Don’t ask me how, or why? Just happened! The closest I can tell you is that it wasn’t before 40. And what do I mean by aware? Not the mind saying this is an unreal world. No! The body became aware and cultivated a sense of being an outsider watching and actually seeing in.

So I saw that this life is like the matrix. It’s not real, because it is inevitable and will slip by. Success may come, but it will mean little in time or it will - eventually- go away. Failure will come and go, fortunately making you more capable and warmer. 

At an earlier age, you don’t sense any companionship in this state, as most people haven’t arrived at this awareness yet. Then, you start hearing familiar sentences, which shows others are arriving. Some are bewildered as they realise it, others are dense enough not to recognise it, still others hypocritical, they avoid it, and then those who are quite at ease with it.

And there is no formula of who goes in what category.

What I know is that of those who realise why life is, mostly don’t talk about it, except that they know that you know. It’s a strange kind of camaraderie. Some will discuss it, and the best we can do is graduate to Surah Asr (103) which says that time is playing hide and seek with you; recognise that only by goodness and patience will you come to success.

I wrote a blog on Surah Asr once. You can find it on the net in my name. It was when I was still involved with life.