Memes

What humanity in its brief existence has done—consciously and unconsciously—is to build a vast network of memes (elements of culture or systems of behavior passed from one individual to another by imitation). Examples include ideas, religion, art, laws, technology, common sense, folk wisdom, science, educational systems, or any other area that exists to inform us how to think or how to behave). To some degree these systems have proved useful by providing order and shelter in the face of the natural chaos that we perceive to be ruling our world. But, in fact, that chaos is as much the result of the memes we’ve imposed upon ourselves as the natural forces that surround us. As the network of knowledge, laws, doctrines, rules, beliefs, superstitions, and commandments, has expanded, our ability to be comfortable inside its parameters has dwindled. Ironically, we find now ourselves slaves to the very systems implemented to liberate us.

Let me put it more simply. There is very little left in the human world that is essential. Nearly every institution we deal with on a daily basis—society, technology, government, war, sex, politics, sports, fashion—are inventions of man. They are essential to themselves and depend intrinsically on each other for longevity, but in reality they have no value whatsoever. They are the material trappings of a world deceived. Meanwhile, that which man did not create—the cosmos, nature, spirit, the essence of life itself—moves ever further into the background, making it possible, even without intending it, to live great swaths of one’s life without touching the real, or having any perception of it whatsoever. If we add to this veneration of memes and artifacts our penchant for escaping what we perceive to be “reality” through the use of mind-altering substances like drugs and alcohol, we find ourselves living in a world where nothing is essential and nothing matters.

This is not to say that in the contrived world there are not issues that appear to be of substance. Just look at your life and you know that trouble lurks around every corner. Why else would we insure ourselves against every catastrophe known to man, from car accidents to theft, from loss of health to loss of life? We treat the future as if it held nothing in store but heartbreak and woe, so that the great pastime of moderns is earning enough money today to deal with the anguish of tomorrow. Oh, perhaps we’re giving ourselves a cushion to rest on for a few years in our dotages, but at what cost? What, may I ask, does all that work and worry have to do with actually living? For many of us that question has no answer, because for many of us, work and worry ARE what we call living. They have become the overriding memes of our lives. 

Before I look more deeply into the memes that prevent us from living, I want to describe what I mean by the term “living.” I believe there is a world in front of us that we cannot see because our view is obscured by perceptions engendered by cultural and behavioral memes. It is the world beyond the television, beyond the new furniture, beyond education. It is the world beyond right and wrong, beyond knowledge, beyond everything we have ever learned about living and dying. It is a world beyond what we believe ourselves to be. It is the world as it is without fear and greed. It is the world without ego. It is only in that place where real living occurs. I started looking for that world today.