The Two Sides of Everything

There has been so much construction and writing as of late, and I have to say, it has helped me in putting together a picture with my most fundamental point of view. We can see a way that we might take for greater success, and one which may lead down a much darker road.

In Building Communities Part 1, which discussed modern developments, everything was organized in terms of two sides, and I will repost that picture here. It is of right and left brain, and that which is physical and mental.

I do go to the extent of characterizing left brain as mental, and right as physical, and you might note the latter reference to be original. Well, the "conscious thinking mind" is on the left. On the right, we get into what neuroscience calls "automatic", and not of the thinking kind. We can also attribute feeling to the right side, and doctors agree that feeling is real, and I am calling it physical. Our experience includes physically, which is on the right side, and mentally, which is on the left. Think of being on the right side as being in the moment.

It has been noted that the objective side is on the left, and the subjective on the right. We can also recognize that thought is discrete, whereas the right side is holistic and streaming. Think of "objects" as being perfectly discrete, and this will be the kind which is in the mind. Think of "objects" in reality, and there are outside forces that can affect them, which makes them indiscrete. Only thought is perfectly discrete; it is also known to be detached.

In neuroscience, the left has been likened to a digital computer, which is discrete computing. It is made of discrete bits, which is what chips work with. The right brain has been likened to a neural net, which is an analog type. An analog computer is a physical machine that models a problem. It is like a toy train used to model a train; analog machines occur physically - there are no discrete calculations. Now we have added some computer science to our left-right understanding - we do build left and right types of computers. Really, the electronics used to make digital computers are electrically analog, and they facilitate a "digital domain" in a second medium. The zeroes and ones are recognized to exist logically, like the mind, and not physically, like the electrical circuits, or the right side of the brain.

Now let us add that when operating on the right, one is operating in a first, physical medium, and when operating on the left, one is operating in a second, mental medium. By physically facilitating a discrete medium, we have thought. Here's a list of our left and right properties:

Right - Left

Physical - Mental

Subjective - Objective

Analog - Discrete

First medium - Second medium

In Part 1, there was talk about the body and environment being physical, and science and knowledge being mental. There was getting online, which is loaded with knowledge and news which all falls on the left side. The modern world was also credited with a great deal of structure which actually exists on paper, like corporations. Can you think of what other things exist mentally?

What is the USA? It is defined on paper, which exists mentally. It is mentally said that it may own or oversee any physical persons or things. What is money? In philosophy, I have seen it recognized as existing in informational form. I find that seeing the whole world in terms of mental and physical can be illuminating.

In Part 1, there was also talk of democracy. Is that physical or mental? As we saw, democracy is studied in species of animals that don't even think, and so we can see that this democracy occurs physically. The reason why we have democracy, is because we physically exist, to the extent that we are not stifled as biological organisms in our democratic function. Our democratic structures should be thought of as extensions of our inborn selves, and I am reminded of the American founders when I say this, because of their position on their God-given rights.

What I will try to point out is that community and interaction are part of our biological species. Species occur at community and environmental levels. Right in our local communties where we live, we have been substantially severed from our physical world. I think modern man thinks that nothing occurs physically, or locally, and I think he needs to see more. Occurring locally meaning occurring a million times at once. Local communities in a network is a nationally organized movement. The world is both offline and in your legal jurisidiction.

Private and Public

Does "ownership" occur physically or mentally? Hunter-gatherers do not understand this concept like civilized people do. It is a concept, and not a reality, and so it occurs mentally. I want to give you some insight from this. Private ownership is a big deal on the left side of the brain. It ties in very strongly with money - also on the left.

I am very concerned about educated people of the modern world, because every word in STEM is in somebody's name. This makes all of modern knowledge privately owned. Everything that educated people work with and create is privately owned, and they tend to live in their minds. If it's not privately owned, then I fear educated people won't do it. Mental self-trust is a limited place, because one's mind may not be as reliable as a cross-section, or a group, or democracy.

Just like in democracy, we are biologically implicated in public affairs. To be politically mature means to require being made of biological organisms, and not individuals who are special in mind, or by reputation, or any such thing. The use of reputation is the cause of massive political catastrophe. Being politically mature means to resign from private ownership and to be made of living human beings.

There is a modern tragedy of a lack of political skill. Just try to find an educated person today who has ever seen or participated in a democratic assembly, which is the most basic stuff of democracy. I would characterize this stuff (parliamentary procedure) as "logical”, and I think STEM doesn't really know what it is. This is one of the reasons why I can be found to say that I think talking to modern man about democracy is like talking to a goat.

Too much, modern man trusts his mind and his reputation, or his mental self-concept, and not his physical self. I think the mind, like a private, greedy little bastard, tends to have no faith in anything outside of itself. I think it can be a regular Ebenezer Scrooge. Ownership of things is on the left side of the brain. I think the mind is a good tool for putting a roof over your head, but in the name of ownership of things, I think the mind can lead as a mass-murderer, and I think it can gain pleasure from the unnatural act. I think that's the problem with being "unnatural", which I see a place for when leading from the left.

Have we shared this seeing of things in terms of left and right? I am referring to a loss in community, democracy, and politics, due to a loss of functioning physically, on the right side of the brain. This is the problem I see with modern man moving into the left side. As discussed in Part 1, Iain McGilchrist is most published on this topic, and claims a catastrophic result of coming to live today in what he calls history's most left-brained age. I'll requote him here:

..."The right hemisphere has a better appreciation of itself and the left, than the left has of the right. Both approaches are necessary and complementary, but the left hemisphere's operation should not dominate the right. It makes 'a good servant, but a very poor master.' "…

The mind can really miss in the physical world. I know of the ancient Indians knowing of this. I have, in my life, walked among those Eastern enthusiasts who have shared a regard for the thinking mind as a glorified pocket calculator, and as something that is simply too stupid to lead. As I see it, they call this ego and mind. Let us note what McGuilchrist says; "the right has a better appreciation of itself and the left, than the left has of the right." Perhaps this is a problem with the mind being noted as “detached”.

Where are We Headed?

It seems to me that one of the most dominating developments on our horizon is AI. We have become much more passive with TV, and then in the digital age, I think we have moved more into our minds, and beyond this, there may be living in a mental world entertained by AI. Discrete, chip-based tools, such as AIs, fall on the left side. My concern is that we are headed into life in a VR, or "virtual reality", like with goggles, due to popular demand. This is the general population choosing to live in Matrix pods, and perhaps getting the globalists to mail them their food. I fear this will not end well, because man will become totally dependent upon the system, and he will lose all access to the people who run it.

Another complication with this is that AIs are predicting a mass-extinction as a result of advancements in AI. As such, once we get into our AI-sponsored pods, we may just come to an end.

Video: "AI says why it will kill us all if we continue. Experts agree."

Digital Engine, Jun 2024, 19 mins

I am concerned about our future. I think we should do something that may seem old-fashioned. As it is, people are learning to lock up cell phones during shool hours to help their kids. I think we can use more of this. We also need to get into our bodies.

I think we are in a situation where we don't have much in terms of our biological communities and interaction, but I do think we have some tools that we can use to help restore these things. With 2/3 support, we can have common (nonpartisan) cause, and we can use an online population to initiate local communities. We can take a national or online community, and group volunteers within driving distances, and they can locally meet. For recruiting, all of the communities would be listed online. Then they can run their own meetings (and activities), and they can network, and become nationally organized. They can restore their humanity, and possibly even their lives. For details on this, please see the Complete Introduction to Building Communities.

Follow-on to this article: Liberal, Conservative, and Nonpartisan Concerns