We are talking about habit. It’s said that humans are creatures of habit, but why is this?
There must be some evolutionary advantage? Our bodies and minds have evolved to prefer habit. It’s how we have come to know that everything in our world is ok, even if we aren’t happy with it. Habit is energy saving, and it arose in part during a period in which the species had to moderate it’s efforts in survival. It was a counter to the fight, flight, or flee response. Otherwise, we would have a life span and complexity level comparable to lemmings or some such. Yet as graceful as nature is, for every positive adaptation there is an encumbering potential. To modern humanity, it’s the capacity to convince ourselves that things are all right despite our inner frustrations. This tends to confuse most of the rest of our mind.
At one point, humanity didn’t really convince themselves that anything in the world was any particular way. So when things changed around them, their behaviours were mostly appropriate and realistic, but is this how we are now?
We still have the habit circuits in our brain, and these are now informed by mass media, television and the internet. They alternate between telling us everything is ok, or that it can be, which makes us buy their products, and nothing is ok, and that we have to worry about our neighbours on this planet, which keep us buying the product we call government. Those who understand the prison cell the masses live in, control the world itself.
Does the “instant serve” point and click world also feed our patterns of habit? Yes. Greater goals are deferred or ignored for the purposes of instant gratification.
Habit kicks in naturally to keep you from wasting energy when everything is stable in your environment, and when everything seems possible online, then habit can grow really strong. This is why there is a boom in casual gaming. No challenge, no problem solving, just an artificial routine, and people get hooked. There are people who come to believe they have to tend their Farmville plot. They somehow have a responsibility to it. As insane as that might sound, it illustrates very clearly the compulsive power of habit, but what is there other than habit?
An original new action or thought. I’m amazed at how powerful habit is though. It‘s a really strong drug. It’s a hell of a drug. It makes people slap each other, vandalize each others property and self image.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~