The Real Significance of Self-Awareness, Especially Today
Self-Awareness is one of the single most important “pieces of the pie” when thinking about Politics, Philosophy and Spirituality. Without self-awareness, one cannot be competent in any of those topics. And those topics are incredibly important, so it is imperative that we not only have self awareness, but also understand what self-awareness is.
This knowledge is not one that can be given. It cannot be written down, i cannot sell it to you. Knowledge of self awareness is similar to knowledge of a colour. After a certain age, you will have been taught about colours, and after an amount of time, you will have a good understanding of what is red and what red is. Forgive the blunt metaphor, but you cannot explain this to a blind person. The colour red is a concept, and you cannot explain what red is to someone (using only words) to such an extent that they gain a sufficient understanding and knowledge of what red is. It is something which must be seen and experienced, and self awareness is no different.
That paragraph was me explaining that i can give you the “tools” to become more self-aware, but i cannot “make” you more self-aware. This article also isn’t going to focus on becoming more self-aware, instead a simple overview of self-awareness as a concept, and how to approach it practically. Self-awareness is a very strange wiggly thing which cannot be described or taught, everything i say is subjective but i will try my best.
I am going to show you the introduction from my (currently unreleased) book, Astronomica : ONE. Here, i’m talking about the “thought emergency”, hopefully answering (in part) the question of “Why are people so stupid?”. I also talk about “normalism” and “normalists”, to understand the full context of that word i recommend you read this article. I’ll add clarifications for things, anyway here it is;
The necessity of certain changes to the life of the mainstreamer, the normalist, reveals itself in the way of nothingness. For example, fulfilment in life is never truly there. It may be there in a fleeting, temporary way, but not in a true and permanent way. The attempt for something greater not out of the struggle for truth, goodness and spirituality on earth, but out of the animalistic, materialistic pleasure in the form of quite simply anything we consider normal nowadays. A knowing or unknowing true normalist will not go anywhere with their life, they will not make too much money, or become famous unless entirely by chance, winning the lottery or by using the algorithms of social media. Unless they are wealthy. Wealth creates opportunity, but most wealthy people are understanding of the way that the system works, and they directly aid it. This keeps poor people and rich people distinct.
While the word “normalist” has its roots in supporters of the status quo and “normal” ideas, it also is referring to the things that today we consider normal, but are incredibly detrimental to our wellbeing as a species on an individual level. Here are some things, things that may seem like problems to some and not to others that stem entirely from normalism:
Microplastics come from plastic, which has become widely used out of the pure desire for more profit, less work, and ease of use. Plastic not only creates enormous problems for the earth, it also contaminates the stuff inside of it. For example, things like cheese, olive oil, drinks, basically all things that can be consumed, when placed in plastic instead of glass, wood or metal become noticeably worse. They are worse for you, because of the microplastics, and they usually just taste worse. Even the most evangelical vegan no-waste et cetera cannot avoid plastic in their day-to-day life. Why? Normalism.
Alcohol is so accepted and engrained in today's society, even though it is way more toxic than most illegal drugs (including weed and nutmeg (nutmeg is illegal for recreational use in the uk(?!?!))), when most people think about drinking, the question is not "Why am i doing this? Is this good?", the question is "What should i drink, how much?". We need more self-awareness before we drink ourselves into an early grave as a society.
Another thing that people don’t understand is a normalist problem is the insane way that people consume TV programmes. Firstly, as I have written before, the creators of TV programs, no matter if they are big companies or individual writers, will insert their personal bias into the shows, usually staged as jokes in which the side that is being joked about has no platform to defend itself. If you control the microphones, you control the debate. It helps to insert normalist sentiment and anti-spiritual ideas into the brains of the masses, all while making each individual genuinely believe that they are the ones who came up with those ideas. If you think something is an original thought, then you’re going to believe it, because it’s yours, not anybody else’s. They cannot understand that it is because of the shows they binge and watch, unknowingly pouring metaphorical acid into their brain.
Movies are similar to TV shows but slightly different. They require full concentration of the senses, or you are not actually watching the movie. You must be watching, listening and paying attention, or you are not watching the movie. Most movies, like shows, provide no value to the viewer. They do not provoke meaningful thought, or incite the viewer to go and do something interesting. Instead they give the viewer two to three hours of nothing. Of course, some movies are truly thought provoking, and “good” but most movies released in the last thirty years are time wasting, anti-intellectual nonsense. Do you want to become an initiate, do you want to be the enemy of normalism? Then your first step is to think about the content that you watch, for someone who consumes and lives in nonsense perpetuates nonsense.
Fast fashion is something that is accepted far too much in today's society. Why is it that buying new clothes whenever you feel like it is accepted? I am not referring to people who don't have clothes, or appropriate clothes, i'm talking about people who have adequate clothes but will buy more and more for literally no reason other than slight materialistic "want". Why? What's the point? If you send them back, they go straight to a landfill, and all of the clothes were made in a sweatshop too. You shouldn't support an industry that is as evil as the fashion industry.
To put it simply, we are in the thought emergency we are today almost exclusively because of normalism and materialism. If you haven't read any of my stuff before (or if you haven't been outside and talked to any average people), we are in a thought emergency. People are more materialistic than ever, they will vote and support whoever the news asks them to, They will take in mainstream ideas and genuinely believe that they are the original source of those ideas, and they will not question their surroundings, what they do and who they talk to. The school system and society drags the individual's capacity for thought down back into the bucket of crabs- or in other words, the pub.
Apathy is one of the single worst things that anyone can fall into. Many religions and systems state that apathy is the lowest (or one of the lowest) states one can be in, only below it is death itself. It is the creator of many of our problems. Simply not caring is a very big problem, and many don’t care enough to acknowledge that fact. For example, not caring caused;
- The entire political mess we are in right now, with right-wing reactionary opinion prevailing in the people, the acceptance of mainstream “normal” narrative which usually happens to be very right-wing
- Overconsumption of media, such as movies and TV (this has its roots in materialistic pleasure too)
- A general lack of interest in spirituality, politics and philosophy leading to bad decisions being made in those avenues.
People find themselves living in their environments. They live simply in their worlds and go about their day. They go shopping, they watch TV, they go to work, and they go to sleep. They are wholly in their environment, they are almost a part of their environment, like furniture. They do not ask what they are doing, they do not question why they do things or why things are the way they are.
They couldn’t care less about politics, spirituality or philosophy, because they exist wholly in the world, floating like an uncritical leaf in the stream of mainstream society, guided by the government’s unnatural dams and canals, they allow things to happen to them and those they love out of ignorance, but because of the way the world has been set up, they have been made ignorant of said ignorance. This is the current unfortunate reality for most people today.
Unless prompted (which is something the media or their acquaintances will never do), these people will never think about the important things. They will continue doing things the way they have always been. They need a little nudge to become an individual, to gain that first part of self awareness critical for their journey into the light.
The more real research you do on the subject of politics and the state of the world today, real and ideological, you begin to find that self awareness is essentially the answer to everything. It’s the answer to bad politics, it’s the answer to bad philosophy and it’s the answer to bad spirituality. Self-awareness essentially is the answer.
But of course, it is hard to attain. You can’t just think about your thinking, declare it all bad and say that you’re “cured”. You have to give yourself time alone, writing, cooking, meditating, just not consuming media. This will give your brain time to think about things and receive things. You will then start to realise things about individual topics. Then more topics. Then how those topics interlink. And through sound self-awareness, you will get a good, sound grasp on reality via inner knowing.
This way, you will not fold when questioned, you will have the means to reply. You will have worked it all out, and you will be able to reply to a sufficient degree that someone who wants to question you with good intention.
Good conversation can trigger self awareness. There are many people out there who have the capacity to become individuals, and learn about philosophies, such as Anthroposophy, that help people become a more full and capable version of themselves. But obviously, the time has to be right. Completely right. There is no room for error, otherwise the person will form first impressions, and if they are bad then you might as well give up.
But “attaining” a heightened self-awareness will not happen overnight, it may take years, and you simply cannot recognise when you have “it”. For example, two years ago i was convinced that i was writing to my fullest extent, that i was behaving in a truly self-aware way. But i was not. And certainly i will say that about myself two years from now. It is an ever-evolving process in which your brain will tell you that you are at your peak, maybe even above other people all the time. This is, most of the time, not true. Your brain is trying to put life into context. It cannot comprehend the greatness that is living.
Self-awareness is the constant reality check, the knowledge of life material and immaterial, navigating away from Lucifer and Ahriman, shooting down the middle path of goodness and truth.
One of the things that is a great hindrance to self-awareness is the “everyday norms”. The hello and how are you, the redundant conversation about a TV show or the weather, or maybe a coworker’s second cousin got a job. This is nonsense and it does not serve any constructive purpose. It is also quite materialist as it keeps all conversation grounded, when one is gossiping about a friend for example, they cannot talk about how the planet is melting, or how this entire universe may be a simulation. This is another example of those without vital self awareness not questioning the things they do in their everyday life.
The mainstream education system is also another hindrance to self awareness, with the whole system being about control, solidifying the “reality” of authority and making sure the will of the individual can be broken by their future employer, self awareness does not fit into that and it is not taught in any meaningful way, not a conversation, nor an exercise. They almost discourage it. Wonder why they do that?
For more on Self Awareness, i gave a lecture a few months ago in a discord server about this very topic. I highly recommend you give it a listen if you are at all interested; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QFEZWODZgY
