Wolfy Chai

There is an enormous difference between people claiming that they are just being “realistic” and reality. Even idealism is closer to reality in many respects than realism. With idealism, people are simply choosing an alternative way of being. It is no more unreal than what is purported to be realism as they both involve making choices but lead to different consequences.

People in the United States often say they are giving others “wake up calls” but the “reality” they speak of is fundamentally corrupted as it is defined by a predetermined, inherently limiting scope of options. The actual reality though is that these options are all constructs, illusions, manufactured. Roles are all illusory. Careers are defined not by a divine ordinance that prescribes immutable success-oriented characteristics or some code of conduct. Additionally, these limited perspectives often only consider its applicability to our own lives and our own version of a self-constructed reality and thus are fundamentally skewed.

Often, we are peer pressured into accepted certain stories as reality and subsequently adopting it as our own perspective like a healthy cell autonomically engulfing a cancer cell. We mistakenly conflate general consensus with truth. Before long, the cancer has metastasized. That is the first mistake. Things are just accepted as facts when they could have never been true in the first place. Adages and advice gets passed along, even if it is no longer applicable or its manner of use, abused.

Regarding idealism, we often find that many of the authentic idealistic views we hold are actually shared when people remove the layers of filth that clouds their perspective. It reveals that, maybe the general consensus we have come to accept is not how people want to live, but there is something more fundamental at play. By not giving into group think, people inevitably stop conceding “facts” and opinions as if they are set in stone.

Interestingly, news and education have the same effect as group think. They are platforms designed to pitch a concrete and curated version of reality. Even many of the statistics used, like GDP and CPI’s, are invented to give people an extremely distorted perception of reality. People begin to question whether or not they are thinking the right way of if their thoughts are just made up and lack statistically significance or scholarly merit. Gender is the same. What we think is a female color or clothing item or shoe is really just a social construct. Pink was the original boy color. Pink thereafter just became a marketing tool. High heels and skirts were originally worn by men. Wigs too. Long hair. Etc. many of the modern female trends were actually pioneered by men.

When we reflect deeply on what colors, tools, and strokes were used to paint the canvas we call reality, we discover that we don’t actually have a firm grasp on reality. Internalized commands and judgments take over; the oppressing, controlling, confining or suppressing of anything that challenges conventional narratives get activated. 

Jobs are another thing that teaches us there is a correct way of being. They come with a professional code of conduct—a “proper” way to behave. Job culture can be otherwise characterized as a sophisticated method to suppress and flatten ourselves so that we can prioritize productive labor over unproductive human inconveniences and complex thinking. This happens even though it is objectively true that the idea of a job or career is largely a modern construct. For the vast majority of human history people just did things to survive. Today’s version preaches one’s work as something to be worn, an emblem of merit, value, achievement, idolization, and praise. One’s career has become an almost inseparable part of one’s identity.

In this type of world, even our thoughts are atomized, surveilled, and subconsciously adjusted to forward the objectives of a monolithic pseudo-capitalistic society. Thoughts are things that need to be “optimized” to produce marketable outputs and are used as conduits to cultivate palatable and socially acceptable messaging. As a result, the outward social structure is deeply internalized and integrated in our society. Consequently, people began making themselves believe that work and carrying a certain “prestigious” title almost certainly brings them joy. A joy that is lauded by other people who idolize the current system as it stands. But it isn’t the work itself that brings joy, it isn’t the ego wanting constant attention, it is the mind. Chasing titles isn’t enough, and people know that on a deeper level, so what looks like “success” logically must be ever-changing. There is always more we have to obtain or “achieve.”

These people affectionately refer to themselves as “high-achiever” types. Money becomes the objective of their value system because you can always chase another dollar, or buy another toy. These types have constructed the system society runs on what they fondly refer to as a “meritocracy” whilst ironically building their own success off the backs of extreme luck, people skills, by appealing to ego, and charming employers .

This system, largely made by and for narcissists. After all, if a narcissist does not have to relinquish control, why would they? But it does not have to be the only system. Even if one adores capitalism and intends to keeps it as a steadfast necessity for the continued existence and prosperity of the human population, what we have now IS NOT capitalism. At best, it is crony-capitalism, at worst it is an international crime ring run by oligarchs, old family wealth, and multinational investment firms. The pace that society operates at is set by their dealings, the hierarchy and limitations of one’s rights and roles, tuned to the pitch of their aspirations.

At the end of the day, living amongst others in a society built like this requires profound alertness. We must be able to retain the ability to develop our own independent reasoning and follow it all the way through. We must also remember the only reason why anyone’s opinion is relevant is because we have given them power or falsely believe they have power. A system has component parts that can be disassembled, constructed, and reconstructed. The machinery it runs on itself can be thrown out. The founding of our nation and the constitution it rests on guarantees that.

The digital age has handed over more control to the puppet masters than any other in history. The founding fathers could have never envisioned the kind of centralized control that is now possible. Yes, we are based on a money-based currency system, but even the dollar itself is illusory.

So we are assigned certain roles and identities, we acquire titles that gives a mirage of competency, rank, or superiority, we perform functions that radically differ from what the title suggests. For example, lawyers and doctors 200 years ago did almost nothing that resembles what modern ones do. Whether one is “good” at their function is obscured by abstract and often unhelpful benchmarks that aid only in legitimizing, rationalizing, and self-perpetuating the sick-care medical industry. Patients’ health conditions aren’t meant to be cured, they are meant to be managed. Cases aren’t meant to be argued honestly, they are meant to be argued to mirror what someone else made up before.

In today’s world, we have enough time to be told what to think, but not enough time to think.

Even when we think we are thinking we must remember that even ourselves can be caught reciting rehearsed talking points or thinking thoughts that were thought for us.

Learning the world is not much different than preparing for a standardized test is a useful way to not get overwhelmed or frustrated by the details. It is all about learning the test. Whatever the test says is true must be true. Nothing exists outside of the options provided. The text can only be interpreted in the way it was designed to be written. The answer choices always have a “best” answer that most people are trained to spot quickly.