Pascal

By the way, what is love?
Love arises when you are out of your self ...

We're not talking about love :)

Madrid 6 May 2012

My photos on the wall of Luka, Madrid

I lost my camera.

And i feel naked.

Ooo, džizs ...

I'm just thinking now, how many great moments i caught with 

What do you care what other people think?

What would your life be like if you did not care what other people though of you? 

If we were completely independent of People's opinions, good or bad, and would go about my day without so much as a single self-conscious decision. It would be wonderful freedom, of course. You would feel free to do what you wanted, and have a clarity of mind that comes with not being constantly preoccupied with thinking about the judgment of those around you. 

Looking at our current state of affairs, it would seem that the culture we humans have created for ourselves is driven by "what other people think," the tension between the desire for approval and the fear of disapproval. Businesses, families, friendships, sports, politics; everything is, not completely driven by this tension, at the very least heavily influenced by it. And this we can see very clearly when looking for it, how much our existence relies on other people's judgment of you; that you exist only as a mental image in other people's minds. Which is mostly unconscious, of course, because when we drag it up to the surface and into the light we can see clearly just how insane it really is.

The ego and approval

In the world of ego, the promise and the threat of disapproval are commonly used tools that people use to get what they want from each other - or rather a single tool, a double-edged sword where one always follows the other. And you've all seen how this works: one person can be said to almost purchase another person with approval, and then attempt to control their behaviour with the threat of disapproval. This takes on many forms, but usually it is characterized by people winning each other over by approval and then keeping each other captive with the threat disapproval. 

And the economy of approval is zero sum game, as per usual with the ego, where some people have a high approval rating and the only way others can get some is by attempting to get the well endowed ones to share their lot. And because approval is subject to inflation just like money, those with high approval don't wan't to give too much away to those who have little as that would diminish the purchasing power of their approval. The financial analogy here is sketchy at best, but you get the drift.

The insatiable nature of the ego and its constant feeling of insecurity then dictates that it is always trying to secure itself by attempting to gain approval. This can be achieved in different ways, like for instance by disapproving of others, becoming famous, and by forming alliances with others on a similar level of approval as themselves in an attempt to pool their resources and form a collective ego. These collective egos can then be seen manifest in a group of friends, companies, religious organisations, political parties and cultural niches. Layers upon layers of these complicated networks, all intended to maintain and drive the game of approval and disapproval. A game that operates on many levels, and that, once you're on the lookout, can become almost comically transparent at times.

physicist Richard P. Feynman