Every mass system eventually morphs into tribes, balkanizing in the form of nation-states, denominations, political parties, and social media cliques. Those unproselytized, perhaps charged with individualism, eventually convert one way over the other.
Even crypto enthusiasts suffer from waves of hyper-transmission. With high fives and pats on the back, bitcoin maximalists scream ‘up only’ to calcify their self-selecting, self-reinforcing belief network.
Whatever harvests attention — religion, Bitcoin, our favorite sports team — shapes one’s perspective on most categories in life. Groupthink encourages every member to participate in the conversation.
Partisanship is mostly immutable. But what happens when the memory glue unsticks; the book loses its freshness, the perfume’s toxicity wears off, and the chemicals of attraction dissolve.
At some point, we have to be able to stand apart from the whole thing and develop our own thesis. Even 8-hours workdays are a myth, a product of an industrial midcycle.
The synchronization of time may be the only equalizer. For everything else, we mainly disagree. The image of collective minds and identities poses a challenge at the individual level. Different is attractive.
The purpose of ideas is to make better friends with ourselves, to carve our own little circle amid a large box of strangers.