I was going to write about something completely different today, but I stumbled upon a quote this morning from the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. The quote is short, and it reads as follows:
“Stand with the philosopher, or else with the mob.”
It instantly grabbed me as I let out an audible “ooooh, that’s good” before reading any further. The point that Epictetus was trying to convey is a simple one, at least on the surface, and my guess is that it was much more easily achieved during the many centuries that have passed since these words were written, but the twenty-first century brought just one thing that mankind now must face as we struggle achieve that which Epictetus wrote of so many generations ago.
Let’s unpack all of this for a minute…
First, let’s talk about what Epictetus meant. Philosophy speaks to what lies within one’s self; Our spirit, our virtues, our resilience. When we turn our lens inward, we are looking at our naked selves, free from outside influence or events. Here we get to decide how said influence or events will affect us. Here we get to call the shots as our minds are ours and ours alone. As I’ve said many times before, we can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how it affects us. It all boils down to a decision. Herein lies Epictetus’ point… When we stand with the philosopher, we maintain control of our thoughts, our emotions, and, in turn, our reactions. When we stand with the mob, we have decided to let outside influence rule as we adopt the mentality and actions of the mob, therefore forfeiting control of our own minds.
Next, there’s that one little thing that came to light early in the twenty-first century. Playing devil’s advocate, the argument can be made that a lot of things came to light as we witnessed the turn of the century, and this much is true, but amongst all that has come with the rapid advance of technologies across the board, there really is just one thing that took an already complicated philosophy and increased its complexity ten fold…
Access.
Yep, access, that is, in regard to information.
“But, humankind has always had access to information.”
True. Very true. We’ve indeed always had access to information. From libraries, to educational institutions, even to the internet, access to information has been available since the dawn of time. However, how long has information had access to us?
Ahhhh, there it is.
Sometime around 2005 or 2006, information decided that it’d had enough, and it was tired of waiting around for people to seek it out, so it had a talk with technology, and together they decided to access us, and we agreed.
Fast forward to present day… How many notifications do you get in a given day? How many news stories “break” each and every day? We no longer go the news; The news comes to us, whether we like it or not.
Sure, we can turn off those notifications, but it’s hard, isn’t it? “What’ll I miss?” “How will I stay informed?” There is no better word for it than addiction. We’re all addicted, and that is only the beginning of the problem.
Before I go any further, let me be clear that I’m not wearing a tinfoil hat as I write this. I am not against the advancement of technology as there are so many great things that have come along with it. Sadly, and inevitably so, these technological advancements come with a dark side (Captain Obvious over here). Okay, carrying on…
The real problem lies within how we let the information that we have succumbed to affect us. The more that I think about it, being addicted to information really isn’t much of a problem at all, but a very real danger lurks within how we process it all. I’ll go ahead and address the elephant in the room with its hand up high, waiting for its turn to speak. The mob mentality that is prevalent in today’s society has the potential to steer us down a disastrous path, not only as a country, but as the people of the world. Long gone are the critical thoughts and reflection required to make sound decisions for one’s self. Standing in for them are knee-jerk reactions and vitriol towards any who oppose. We have watched esteemed debates give way to child-like behaviors laden with hatred and intolerance for even the slightest variance of opinion. I have personally witnessed once rock-solid friendships completely vanish in light of this sad state of affairs, and I know I’m not the only one. I’m not, in any way, saying that people today are blindly following along. What I am saying, and we have all seen this first hand, is that people are being manipulated by the agendas that the informational onslaught has been so precisely designed to do.
I feel it necessary to say that I am not talking about one “side” or the other. This problem transcends politics as it has stretched its tentacles far beyond that landscape. I don’t care if you think that Sonic the Hedgehog should run for president and that your living room sofa should be his running mate; It doesn’t matter… at all. What matters is what’s beneath the surface. What’s inside of you is what matters. Politics and opinions will come and go as they shift with the times. You may very well feel strongly about something today and have a complete reversal of that opinion ten years from now, and that, my friends, is completely okay. We are not robots that are programmed to execute one program and one program only. We are meant to seek information in order to feed our curiosities and to seek a deeper understanding. Only then should we form an opinion and that opinion should be of our own convictions and nothing or no one else’s. I speak for myself just as much as I implore each of you that we have got to stop being such good boys and girls by trusting everything that comes our way as fact and forming our opinions from outside influence rather than our own accord. It’s okay to feel the way you feel, and it’s completely okay for that feeling to change. We are meant to grow and evolve as we listen and learn.
All of this is easier said than done; I get that. I now require myself to remain acutely aware of this each and every day as I self assess how I am digesting information. Epictetus also writes of this and beautifully compares it to a ray of light as it hits the water. When the water becomes disturbed, it can appear that the light also takes on a reactive state as the reflections dance about and paint the scene with countless fractals as a result of the disturbance… but the light doesn’t move. The light is constant and unwavering. That light is always there, guiding the way, just as your soul guides your decisions. The environment around you will inevitably become disturbed, and it will most definitely paint a scene of chaos, but your soul… YOU remain the constant.
Don’t cut off your access to information, and I’m not suggesting that you cut off its access to you. As Einstein so accurately stated: Knowledge is Power. Just remember that you and only you are in control of what you choose to do with it. Choose wisely.