👁 Top Insights #121 - From Renunciation to Integration, Techno-Feudalism & Rationalization
Thoughts on becoming involved in the world, The New Economic System, & Emotional Maturity
“Top Insights” is a monthly newsletter that shares mind-expanding podcasts, transformational frameworks, and insightful links that help you go beyond conventional development.
Hey there,
Happy June =)
In the past, I’ve used a different provider to send out this newsletter but I’ve decided to include “Top Insights” as a part of the larger Insighter publication on substack. If you're a long-time reader you may notice that the format/font is slightly different but I promise the content will be similar to what you’re used to.
From Renunciation to Integration ⛰️ 🌆
For a long time, I was attracted to the monastic path.
I never became a monk but I spent most of the last decade focusing on interiority.
I dedicated countless hours engaging in meditation and other inner work practices to work through unhelpful patterns and cultivate more positive mental states.
I avoided the news, politics, and arguing with people on social media.
Without recognizing it I moved through life with a largely renunciate view seeking to transcend the mayhem of the material world.
I believe this focus on interiority or renunciation is a natural and necessary part of one’s developmental and spiritual journey.
But eventually, it is seen to be limiting and constraining.
Renunciation is a useful tool but I’m increasingly called to integrate inner and outer into a seamless inter-connected whole.
Don’t get me wrong I still choose not to engage with 90% of media which is noxious noise.
Yet I do feel like I want to be more involved with what is happening in the world.
After all, human development can’t be separated from cultural, societal, and technological underpinnings.
Techno-Feudalism ☁️ 💸
One of the most powerful yet covert systems impacting humanity is what economist Yanis Varoufakis calls Techno-Feudalism.
In the medieval feudal system, lords held power through ownership of land.
In capitalism, it was the capitalists who held power due to owning the means of production (factories, machines, etc.).
Now, under technofeudalism, it’s the cloudalists, who own big tech platforms like Amazon, Google, & Facebook who have disproportionate power.
At the heart of this system is cloud capital, a new form of capital that is distinct from traditional forms.
Unlike previous forms of capital, such as factories or machines, cloud capital can control human behavior and automate tasks that humans previously performed. For example, algorithms on platforms like Amazon can track user data and manipulate consumer behavior to benefit the platform's owners. This shift in capital's capabilities has led to a new class system.
The owners of cloud capital (cloudalists) have amassed significant power, surpassing traditional capitalists who rely on profits. Traditional businesses, termed vassal capitalists, are now dependent on cloud platforms like Amazon to reach customers and must pay cloud rent for access.
Cloudalists act as modern-day feudal lords, controlling access to essential digital infrastructure, while vassal capitalists operate like vassals within their cloud fiefdoms.
The rise of cloud capital has also led to the emergence of cloud proles – workers whose labor is intensely monitored and controlled by algorithms. Unlike traditional factory workers, cloud proles often face increased precarity and lack the power to form strong unions.
Most internet users have become cloud serfs, unknowingly contributing to the accumulation of cloud capital by providing free labor through activities like uploading content or engaging with social media.
Guilty.
The problem with techno-feudalism is that it further perpetuates economic inequality and erodes our mental well-being.
The algorithms are transforming our minds and not for the better.
On some level, we all know this is happening but not enough people realize the magnitude it has on the world.
There are no easy answers for how to navigate this paradigm but naming the problem and starting a conversation opens up pathways towards more wholesome possibilities.
Rationalization 🧐
A common strategy many people use to deal with challenging emotional experiences is rationalization.
It usually goes something like this:
The Compare & minimize strategy: Compare our pain to somebody else’s to minimize as in “Yea this really sucks but there are so many people that have it worse. “
The Silver lining strategy: Divert our attention to what is good in our lives as in “yes this really sucks but at least I’m still breathing.”
I don’t want to say these are bad ways of dealing with emotions.
They are perfectly viable and useful strategies at a certain point in our development.
Some even call them positive thinking.
Yet as we start to go through the post-conventional shift we recognize that these strategies are just ways to avoid our vulnerability.
We realize that to become emotionally mature we must be willing to feel, validate, and allow emotions to arise and subside without trying to change them.
This doesn't mean we cling to emotions and amplify them though that may happen as we let go of rationalization.
At times we may become flooded and consumed by our emotions.
Yet with practice, we can learn to maintain presence of awareness and allow emotional energy to play out without making it more or less.
Elevating Consciousness Podcast 🎙
After a break at the beginning of the year, I’m getting back on a consistent schedule with the podcast.
In case you missed them here are the episodes I released last month:
Transform Yourself With Intentional Society with James Baker - James Baker is an inner work practitioner and founder of Intentional Society. After spending 15 years in software development he became disillusioned with the corporate world and decided to pursue his passions. He launched Intentional Society – an online transformational community centered on developmental and relational practices. After over 150 weekly gatherings the community has grown into a unique space for personal transformation and interpersonal exploration. In this episode, we speak about the role of relational practices in human development, playing with power dynamics, breaking through social conventions, navigating the relationship between safety and growth, becoming developmentally aware, and the paradoxical dance between being and becoming.
The Radical View of Mind Only with Bernardo Kastrup - Bernardo Kastrup is a philosopher of mind and the leading voice for metaphysical idealism – the view that all of reality is essentially mental. He holds PhDs in Philosophy and Computer Engineering, combining rigorous academic discipline with extensive practical experience. As a scientist, he has worked for the Europen Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Phillips Research laboratories where the “Cassimir Effect’ of Quantum Field theory was discovered. He’s also had a rich career in technology where he founded the parallel processing company Silicon Hive which was acquired by Intel in 2011. Currently, he serves as the Executive Director of the Essentia Foundation, an organization dedicated to presenting scientific and analytic evidence that challenges traditional materialism in an accurate yet accessible way. He is the author of over 10 books including “Why Materialism is Baloney”, “The Idea of the World” and the upcoming “Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell.” In this episode, we discuss why the brain does not generate the mind, how to avoid cognitive entrenchment, how idealism impacts meaning in life, suffering and happiness, psychedelics and self-deception, If enlightenment is real, and so much more.
Insightful Links 🔗
John Vervaeke on Theories of Everything - One of the best John Vervaeke interviews I’ve ever listened to. The host Curt Jaimungal probes deep into John’s philosophy exploring everything from the sacred, paradoxes, dialogistical practices, prayer, intelligibility, and belief in god.
Jordan Peterson in conversation with Alex O’Connor - A highly engaging deep dive into belief & religion. As one listener commented, “This is the most detailed and well-explained version of Peterson’s position on God.” I agree.
Rigdzin Shikpo on Confusion & Clarity - Many people today think of Awakening as an all-or-nothing thing. In this dharma talk Rigdzin Shikpo who is one of Chogyma Trungpa’s earliest western students explains that clarity and confusion oscillate on the spiritual path. One minute the realization can be clear the next minute it can become obscured.
Quintessential Quote ✍️
"The purpose of life is not to transcend the body, but to embody the transcendent." - Dalai Lama
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