Reflection is everything. By it we grow. We
learn to fear the scorpion. We learn distrust. We learn survival. "I won't
do that again!" We alter our behaviours and reactions and responses. It
becomes a fundamental imperative, or not. Yes, some-times we simply do not
learn. Sometimes we keep repeating our mistakes. It might be as simple as
spelling it's when it should be its (or alot when there is no such thing,) but
we do it. Repetition can be our downfall. Habit can trip us up, and indeed, we
get up and do it again!
Reaction is primeval, in most instances.
Acculturation is in our DNA. We learn reaction from our fore bearers, from our
families, from our cultural constellations. And unless we question or take our
cue from observing others not to do this or that, we continue reactively to
kill grass snakes. Yet it is amazing how many apples have been consumed within Biblical
history. It is amazing how many pigs have been killed. It is astounding how
many wars we've had. It is incredible that we bicker over guns and tanks and
resources and taxes. We still do not have it right. We still are insufficiently
reflective. We still do not temper our responses. And we still simply react.
Responses are of very many levels. They are,
ideally, the measured and the considered and the thought-out preferences to a
given situation. We all know that. But still, we tend to react. (Few, for
instance, change the WTF? phrase to a "what to fear"; or "who to
follow"; or "which temperament follows?") It is easier to follow
pattern, to follow suit, to dress oneself in the cultural predilections of the
times and to fit within the norm. After all, the great bell curve does not like
outliers. It distrusts outliers. And so, we advance together, slowly, like an
inch-worm, stretching out together as a culture only when impelled by some
significant need to move. The Internet has provided us with that. Growth. There
has been a growing response, stretching out in multiple directions. But when
one imagines, conceives of, or even introduces the inevitability of The Singularity
(thanks to Kurzweil and the AI advances in microbiology and Nano-bots,) there
is generally a negative reaction. It's as if we, still in our caves, can only
grunt with fear at the thought of TV. Yet surely its influence on the masses
has been to elevate, to unify, and to make significant to a man his
responsibility to and connection with mankind. No? Oh, that's because...
Reason gives us too many excuses. Our reaction
to things, ideas, influences, snake-oil and smoke and mirrors has given us a
way of living that is driving up 'the selfie' of our idiosyncratic natures. We
are deeply self-obsessed. Our reality TV shows feed our narcissistic
investigation of what our species 'is really like'; such that we may see
ourselves not only reflected in 'the Stars’, but may also excuse our
behaviours, our reactions, and our habits. Our TV has given us a license to be
'as somebody else is'. Children are most susceptible. Habits of language, of
dress, of conduct, and of thought itself are inculcated by the watcher. (Even
if never watching a TV until our 20's, as did my brothers and I, growing up in
Africa,) we still are deeply imprinted by the prevailing cultural aspects of
our times. We follow 'role' models. It's natural. We are not necessarily taught
how to respond rather than to react; and then, even more so, not taught how
best to reflect, so that one's response, “when the lesson comes around again,”
may be even more-better tempered by maturation and insight and compassion than
it was before.
This is no moralistic missive. It decries
naught. It merely invokes the passages of reflection that might provoke our
individual lives into being the series of lessons that they appear to be, such
that our enlightenment may bring us peace, piece by piece. We can hardly have
done but what we did; we were as sufficient unto a given moment as was our
totality at that moment. But it is our reflection that will at least prepare us
to have a yet more-better response to the moment by moment existence of our
lives, in the grander scheme of wanting always to contribute to the health of
the whole. Always. (And what a reflection of Humankind’s potential would that
not be!)
