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Chris's avatar

Thank you, what a simple and elegant description of our human condition. Using the article’s language regularly to discuss current events and commenter behaviour will help people get out of their narrative boxes and see the bigger picture.

Our mental filter is superimposed over reality. It is supposed to periodically scan for danger and opportunities and make sense of the world. Instead it is left in the “on” position because we have made an identity out of it.

Turning it “off” feels like we’re being asked to eliminate our identity. So we think compulsively ( the original addiction from which all other addictions arise) and produce an endless narrative stream— “me and my life story”. Viewing life through this mental filter, we produce a distorted and incomplete perception of reality.

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Third Chimp's avatar

I accept the beauty of finding peace with the world in the way you describe. My life of growing food has also connected me to reality in a way that many miss out on. This tranquility has to somehow incorporate within it the struggle of life - with death always nipping at its heels. I haven't yet been able to see that we can entirely disavow our species history as a primate and take on the role of manager of Nature. So the competition exists in reality, but the narrative model of that competition has warped to the point of complete dysfunction, endangering us all.

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