Friday 9 March 2007

Pic of the day: This feeling is rather common, just without the graphic effects.

Burden of consciousness

You may think that the human mind has always and in all places been roughly the same. And this is true on the most basic level. We all have the basic needs for food, water, shelter and companionship. Some concepts also seem to be universal, like beauty or goodness… although there is not full agreement on what is beautiful or what is good, only that some things are and others are not. But this is pretty basic stuff. When it comes to the more advanced structures of the mind, they are not inborn except as a possibility. Each culture develops different parts of our possibilities. And, more controversially, I believe that some cultures develop the psyche more or to a higher level overall. This, I hurry to add, has no inherent connection to skin color, with which Americans are so often obsessed. It is a cultural thing.

So what do I mean by "higher" forms of consciousness? Mainly those that cannot be learned quickly by any child. Any child except the severely retarded can learn to wash their hands after defecating, although many cultures have not come upon this idea by themselves and suffer the corresponding spread of illnesses. For some of my readers this is learned so early and is so widespread that they may think it is instinctive, but that is far from the case. But neither is it a higher form of consciousness. It is merely a useful habit. No, by higher consciousness I mean such things as logic, understanding cause and effect, making judgments based on facts rather than feelings, and trying to see things from another's perspective in order to better understand them (without necessarily agreeing with them). These are just examples of what is expected by an educated adult in the western world.

Another way of saying it is that we have a "reflected" consciousness, or a compounded awareness. We don't just blurt out our thoughts; we observe them before we speak them out loud. We don't just jump to conclusions, we think things over. We try to see things from more than one side. We plan ahead and then are able to revise our plans rather than throw a tantrum if the plan fails. This is the reflected life, that we can see ourselves objectively, as if watching another. We then try to behave in such a way as we would have wanted from another.

The reflected thinking is essential in many jobs. Yes, I would hazard that by now it is needed in the majority of jobs in civilized countries. A programmer or an engineer need to think logically, or their work is doomed to failure. A lawyer or a psychiatrist needs to maintain absolute objectivity in the face of words and actions that by their nature invoke strong feelings. Even if you are "just" a secretary, you need to be keenly aware of how you are perceived by others, and adjust your behavior even in small details to improve this image. As a shop clerk you are representing the shop and not just yourself, and are held responsible for how you affect the public image of the business. All of these and many others require a reflected mind. You cannot just be yourself, or bad things are likely to happen to your career.

Even in the public social space, outside of work, we are supposed to be reflected. During social gatherings outside the immediate family, and excepting some close friends, we still strive to be rational and think before we talk. (Evidently some people don't perceive the Internet as such a public social space. Or perhaps they are just retarded and don't quite believe that those are real people out there when they can't see them.)

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This may surprise you, but the modern reflected life is a fairly recent thing for common people. In the past, there was often an elaborate etiquette and code of conduct, but this was limited to the upper classes, the court and nobility, the priesthood and the scribes. Each of these groups also tended to have its own rules of conduct, which were somewhat arbitrary and culture-dependent. The focus was on hierarchy, to show the proper respect for those above you. There were rarely any universal standards of conduct between equals. And the commoners, the serfs, the villagers or whatever, had no part in it. They may have stammered some phrases of respect if they came face to face with a lord, but usually they had no public professional or social space. They lived the way most people still do inside their home: Primitive, unreflected behavior. (To quote Leonard Cohen: "The homicidal bitching that goes on in every kitchen". Of course, I am not the right person to talk about that, having grown up in a highly unusual and quite reflected home.)

In fact, it still isn't all that easy. If you have ever worked in retail, or in any arm of government that deals with the public, you probably know what I mean. It goes beyond "no people skills". I am talking about the people who haggle at the supermarket cash register, people who sob because the utility bill is so high that they can't afford Christmas gifts for the wee ones, or who should have lower taxes because they have never used the public hospitals. In short, their communication would be entirely appropriate in a (dysfunctional) family, but is entirely inappropriate in public. They are not rational, they are not reflected, and they sure don't consider whether they would want others to behave like they do.

I believe that the rise of the modern consciousness is largely tied to literacy. Written records are far more consistent and less malleable than oral traditions. Education tends to enforce a shared foundation of knowledge, but more than that: A shared mode of thinking. It creates, and hammers out through years and years, a shared public space, a shared social platform, a common framework. You may still be told very firmly that "this is not how we do it here", but the default value is shared. And not just a shared base of fact and a shared standard of behavior, but a shared mode of thinking. Yes, I just repeated myself. But this is important. The modern consciousness is not a ritual you perform in a certain social setting; it is a way you use your brain.

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Unfortunately, most people find this higher level of consciousness a burden. It is like wearing armor. They don't feel quite themselves. They certainly don't feel happy. So they shirk it when the opportunity arises. And it does. The opportunity arises, for most of us, every day. In my next entry I hope to focus more on the various ways in which people try to alleviate the discomfort of thinking too much, and to regain their happiness.