I found tipsy in the tavern, influencers on social media, and the capitalists at all other places. The first consumes myself, the second society, and the last consumes all of us. The drive of commercialism has made consciousness redundant and ignorance abundant. We volunteer unconsciously and let someone else write an algorithm on us to maximize their yields. For most of us, that’s a short story — a fiction of being at a better place.
We are being programmed to consume physiologically, psychologically, and morally. The onus of being programmed voluntarily is on us as we select those places where our consciousness becomes vulnerable. The places we choose in our daily routine significantly impact our behavior. If I spend more time in the tavern, I am destined to become tipsy one day; if I scroll up and down on light-emitting devices, then I am doomed to have a sleepless night, and if we consume without being conscious for the generation yet to come I will not leave any trace of our species.
The way you want to be programmed can be alternated by taking charge of selecting the right places and aligning them with your ultimate destiny. The places give you the opportunity to communicate with like-minded yet diversified people. A good place will give you the ideas to flourish and ignite the spark. A place, be it digital or real, is a programming board where you are placed voluntarily and programmed continuously on someone else algorithms. Be it a home, office, or corner shop to enjoy happy hours. You only have to ensure that the place is not playing the role of catalyst and igniting your carpe diem, which might be turned into a toxin to your body, soul, and mind.
Carpe diem, in simplest form, is that you should urge yourself to satisfy your immediate gratification without realizing the loss of something more significant in the future. You seize that moment to satisfy your instant gratification. One may argue that most presumably bad habits start with the carpe diem, be it the first smoke of cigarettes with college friends, the first shot of tequila after work, or the habitual buying of water in a plastic bottle. The urge to quench your thirst will give you instant gratification at the cost of a bottle, which will remain in the ocean or landfills for the next 400 years. Most decisions that negatively impact our health, society, or environment are made at the expense of carpe diem. This is the philosopher’s stone for marketing and the elixir of life for commercialism. The satisfaction we enjoy in consuming instant gratification has no substitute. Once fully developed, the behavior will make us get everything now and now with little or no consideration left for others. The irony is we keep going to places to consume the consumables without realizing the impact on ourselves and the future -in reality, we consume ourselves. We are being programmed continuously as long as we keep visiting such places to seek instant gratification and fall into the urge of carpe diem every time.
The only way you can stop yourself from being programmed for someone else algorithms is to select your places wisely. Don’t let yourself lose your consciousness; choose your place voluntarily, a place where you will find a companion who shares your goal of being a better person of yourself. Such a place should be where you try to improve yourself and not just consume yourself; a place that will foster new talent inside you or force you to think independently and make the right decision. A place where you become inclusive in society and accept the diversity of the idea. A place where you don’t bow down to an authority that has little to do with intellect and wisdom. You can find such a place in the real world, the digital world, or the metaverse.
The first and foremost is to identify a place where you should not be present and get consumed. The base criteria are pretty obvious: don’t look for a place, be it physical or digital, that keeps you engaged to spend your time and money with little or no attention paid to your future ambition. Please stay away from such places that are free or so cheap to be unbelievable because these are the places where you are placed on their shelves and are being programmed continuously at the same time to remain on such shelves. Your screen time, engagement, and likes are their commodities, which they sell to others to drive the vicious cycle of commercialism.
Finally and most importantly, find a place where you will meet people like yourself yet diversify with whom you can share your goal and progress towards becoming a better version of yourself. If you select your place wisely, then there is a strong likelihood that you will end up meeting the right person right away. It is not difficult to find such a place; once you are there, look around for a stranger, share your ambition, and build a common vision of becoming better than yesterday. You won’t be surprised if that stranger becomes your pacemaker for the rest of your life or a companion for your next journey — a conscious journey to be a better version of yourself where you write your algorithm for yourself.
Asif Durrani
22 Oct 2022
https://www.linkedin.com/in/asifdurrani
Also published at Medium
Asif Durrani 