The Case for Introspection

I just watched a commercial advertising tourism in Newfoundland/Labrador.  The commercial was targeting the fact that there would be nothing to do.  It featured communities with about 100 people living there and other communities that were established in the 1800s.  No attractions other than natural beauty and historical relevance.  Nothing to do but be alone with your thoughts.

It made me understand what is wrong with our society today.  We no longer have the time nor the desire for introspection as we have been conditioned to think there is something wrong with this.  It is not enough to do something anymore, we have to post a picture of doing something.  It is not enough to go to a restaurant and enjoy a gourmet meal, we have to post ourselves enjoying the gourmet meal. And, we don't really enjoy it unless a number of people like or share our enjoyment. 

All of this has left to a huge gap in our ability to think for ourselves and as a result, our society and our bureaucracies have become increasingly regulated because we are not able to think for ourselves. If we are not told to do something, we don't do it.  We lack critical thinking.

I am convinced that all of this has led to the rise of Donald Trump.  Perhaps, at one point, he actually was a successful businessman.  More likely, he wanted to be a successful businessman.  I think Donald Trump was the first American to be famous for being famous.  Long before the Kardashians, there was Paris and Nikki Hilton.  Prior to them, Donald Trump became famous for "The Art of the Deal."   He claimed to be unbelievably rich and unbelievably powerful.  At the time, I don't think he was either.   But, he represented as such in order to become rich and powerful.  What happened along the way was he started to believe his own publicity.   He started to believe that he was omnipotent.  

With no check and balance to his publicity, Donald Trump started believing he could say or do whatever he wanted and there would not be any negative consequences to his image.  Then, the public always wants more and develops tolerance.   So, Donald Trump became more and more outrageous.  His addiction was publicity and he had to do more and more outrageous things to satisfy this need.  The media was no longer believing his news releases, so he became outrageous in his actions.  

Even now, he is addicted to the media whom he claims to hate.  He can't last a day without being a front page headline.  He actually doesn't have any world vision, so he will never make the front page for brokering world peace, so he goes for the tried and true method; being outrageous and being so far to the right, that he has actually reduced himself to being a comic figure.

All because, he has lost the ability of introspection.  Long before there was social media, we used to use introspection.  Simply, this means that we would listen in our head to the words that we were going to say before they were said.  This means that you had a filter.   That meant that sometimes you would not tell a friend that her outfit looked ridiculous to save her from being hurt.   It also meant that sometimes you would tell a friend that her outfit looked ridiculous to save her from being hurt.   There was no one answer that worked in all situations.  With introspection, we also learned how to critically think for ourselves.  

It is difficult to escape from social media.  \I unplugged myself for 48 hours this past week.  It was very difficult because I was so afraid that I was missing so much and that I would never be able to catch up.  It turns out, I caught up pretty quickly.  I think I did miss some food porn and some amazing recipes that I will never made anyway, but, I also discovered that the world still revolves.  My family and friends still love me.  I'm in good shape.

Common sense would tell us that it is important to be alone with our thoughts every now and then.   It might lead to increased reasoning ability and more efficient problem solving.  

I can see why Newfoundland/Labrador has launched this particular advertising campaign.  It looks amazing.