The Essence of Minimalism is Far More Reaching than Just Dispensing
By: The Secret Aspirant
Tags: Minimalism, Self Improvement, Thanksgiving, New Year Resolution, Life

WHAT HAS CHANGED THIS THANKSGIVING

This Thanksgiving year is significantly different than in recent years. As of the end of September 2020, over 97,000 U.S. Businesses have gone under due to the pandemic, Black Friday shopping events have been changed online and spread out earlier and longer, and medical professionals in hospitals will have it especially stressful and with nonstop action away from their own families to deal with patients that are part of the rising COVID-19 cases (see this interesting article by Katie Kindelan, 23 Nov 2020, ‘Nurses, doctors use social media to plead for public to take COVID-19 seriously’).

If we consider actively the plans and the purpose for keeping all that white noise on in our everyday lives, we might come to realize or be reminded that we know it not only can poorly shape our understanding or impressions we have of our presumed circumstances (sometimes really for the bad like false panic), but it can derail us from our ultimate psychological health as well as distract us from who we were to become as the best___________[you fill in the blank].

It’s certainly necessary to keep a pulse on large impactful happenings, like Supreme Court rulings, domestic and global debates, and obvious existential threats, but it’s all too natural but unproductive to allow anything else that is unnecessary or unhelpful intruding into our consciousnesses all the time just as if they were those piercing ‘emergency’ push notifications we don’t turn off of our smartphone apps, and then subsequently end up engaging with all the info bombardment as either an uncontrollable addict or as a complete stone wall (an all or nothing impulse due to overwhelm or disdain).

Rather, when we decide to choose to actively ignore unnecessary noise and search out our own purposes or our individual questions, be they towards our goals or about our curiosities behind national and global maladies, and learn to navigate within the noise, there is a whole other level of living and awareness that doesn’t have to be filled with imposed uncertainty and panic and imposed emotions of others.

HOLLYWOOD HINTED IT FOR US

There is this prevailing concept that we intuitively believe and which has already been presented forthright, though fictionalized, in the American science fiction film, The Matrix (1999), that the general public is somehow captive and even possibly blinded by those who control and produce the perception of the world around us. And by doing so, we (like those of the protagonist camp in the film) become under direct psychological control unbeknownst to ourselves and among the general farmed population.

In the movie, it is perhaps arguably speculative or fictional science, but metaphorically, it has analogous elements to real life in that if we let those ‘forces’ (media, hype, etc.) dictate how we should feel and live, what we should buy, who we should love, what we should do, and ultimately let it constrain us on exactly the form, the shape, and the path of each of us to merely exist, it can interfere detrimentally to what we could have had individually for our own peaceful and fulfilling lives.

THINK FOR OURSELVES

It’s not wise to ignore fundamental science or national politics that can directly affect us:

COVID-19 is real — see this ICU doctor’s social media post plea showing what our last moments look like,

and the threat exists of a weakening democracy during this pandemic:

Experts from 66 countries said the virus had “led to a proliferation of disinformation coming from the government” in their nation. Assessing accurate information had become more difficult due to crackdowns on freedom of speech — in at least 91 of 192 countries studied, there were restrictions on news media. — Taylor, Adam. ‘Democracies are backsliding amid the coronavirus pandemic’, 2 Oct 2020, The Washington Post.

But the necessity also exists that one must take control of our own personal destinies without the instructions or collective nagging of influential advertisements, corporations, and suggestions made by those whom you either don’t personally know or by your making some quick (and possibly inferior) judgment about the information they are providing without having a complete grasp or understanding as to ulterior motives (who ultimately benefits from it?) or if the information were factual without searching it out for yourself first. We are forced constantly to make incomplete conclusions, including panicking, when we haven’t sedately considered a wider perspective or pursued facts that may ultimately challenge our own presumptions before making a firm decision on a matter or of a person.

Ironically, as a related aside, that is also what writing directly does for me as well by forcing me to research evidence and background, context to the crux of the argument I wish to make, and in so doing sometimes I find I must adjust my original argument or even add to it in different ways because of the natural evolution of consuming newly found information that widens my original viewpoint.

THE VALUE AND VENTURE OF THE INTERNET

The internet has provided us a way to share almost seamlessly anything from anybody no matter their beliefs, credentials, profession, passions, etc. It’s wonderful in the sense that there are less gatekeepers to talents, creativity, and ideas from all over the globe. But the clear danger here is our own lack of or vulnerable personal filtering with vetted knowledge, science, education on a particular topic, and our own weaknesses to emotional persuasion — which is a skill we were taught in our primary schools to apply in making a convincing argument or advertisement to sell a product or an idea (and the subtle ones are quite ingenious like these mentioned here).

Scammers (or mega sales!) use the sense of urgency to get our attention to make a decision in their favor, in the similar fashion that a push notification or a bit of viral tweet or Facebook post targets your attention in order to compel you to think or act in a certain way.

The Matrix movie was proposing that the awareness of the ‘lie’ (the false world created by those in control around the characters) was a galvanizing force for the majority of the rebels (though the affect was not the same for all — as for the character Cypher who wanted to betray the group to the antagonists).

But in exactly the same way in which if we are aware of or understand the ploys being deployed at us, it can 1) become an impetus for protesting (as we’ve witnessed globally this year) but 2) it can also naturally become a sport of not wanting to be outwitted or duped (and sometimes for humor or fun with no hard feelings if the ploys are not for life or death and not for serious keeps).

But while certain ploys are indeed beyond the line of sport and propriety or principles (democratic or otherwise), it’s quite something else if we were to fall for something and unknowingly live in an engineered circumstance not of our making, intentionally constructed to sway us away from our own best selves or our goals.

‘THE MATRIX’ WORLD

The flip side of awareness seems to be this ability of our media and the system to elicit sentiments and behaviors out of us that many times could be viewed as cold, clueless, and cannibalistic. As evidenced in our consumerism, celebrity culture, and greed, we can appear selfish, narcissistic and callous in the face of any news or events of pitfall, downfall, and doom not directly affecting ourselves, our lives, or our loved ones, and we can be bitterly unforgiving in our comments and thoughts regarding people’s opinions, appearance and life choices. As I am not completely immune to these sentiments and reactions either, my conclusion has been to strip away these alarming distractions from the media and practice a kind of mindfulness, returning to one’s core self and values and coalesce my beliefs with an existing spiritual teaching or way of life that brings out compassion, patience, love, and fearlessness in living in a manner of my choice that isn’t necessarily accepted as mainstream or popular.

I take inspiration from bits of news found when I seek out my own interests and came upon this story of an opportunity taken by this small business owner whose business went under from the pandemic and since he was also living by the FIRE (Financial Independence and Retiring Early) code, he took it upon himself and created two non-for-profit organizations, Helping Hands, to donate coats, and With Kindness (in D.C.), to run a 24/7 food drive, all for the needy this winter). This was clearly something that this person chose to do (most wouldn’t imagine giving even more when their business closes down), and he obviously wasn’t prevented by distractions of media or unnecessary pressures other than those of his own and made it happen with the resources, family, and friends he has. This exudes that practice of minimalism in thinking — focusing on the meat of what matters to him and taking whatever steps without distraction to achieve his goal.

Yes, this leads us on a path of self-improvement, maybe self-reflection, but ultimately to enlightened versions of ourselves.