You’re a Square
You’re a square who makes a square, who makes a square, who makes a square…
and that’s how structure works.
People in every commercial aspects of the world always use the line “Think outside the box”. Often at a meeting, I wonder upon this sentence. Why does someone say that without batting an eye. We are so comfortable just saying catch phrases which are at the tip of the tongue without even thinking. What does “Think outside the box” mean?
As Human beings we only perceive at an extent. We are not omnipotent. We assume that we are, over the other species. But the truth is, We can only see, hear and feel to an extent our body limits. For example, we can only see the visible spectrum in an electromagnetic wave, the VIBGYOR. we can’t see the other infinite waves that exist in the space. They are so bizarre and so different (probably colors that we can’t even imagine), we are unable to perceive them. But we think the entire reality exists in that limitation. We assume that other creatures can see either equal or lesser than VIBGYOR but the truth is that they probably can see, feel or perceive more than the visible spectrum. But since we are the highest in the Maslow triangle, we assume that our reality is the ONLY reality.
But what is this reality, that we so often forget?. We make a structure with rules and regulations. We are bounded by a construct that we put on ourselves so that we communicate as a species with one another. It doesn’t exist in the nature. It is only something that we do.
Since the first print, we read from left to right. Since the industrial age, we move in straight lines. We construct buildings like a paragraph of a book, One on top of the other. Since the digital age, We think in‘1’ and ‘0’s. we talk in binaries, it’s either right or wrong, its either ‘ you are with me’ or ‘you are not’. We are bounded by a screen. Our entire reality comes from a screen, top or down, left or right. We assume Google maps are the exact representation of the physical world around us. The nature doesn’t go top, down, left or right. But now, we started making roads, buildings and nature to fit the idea of linearity.
We are constantly online. We are constantly connected. We are living in a simulated reality. We are living in a continuous simulacrum( coined by ‘Jean Baudrillard’).
The internet is flooded with thousands of content everyday. We are moving from one content to another at a fast speed. The internet isn’t moderated. The internet is a ‘Global Village’ (coined by ‘Marshall McLuhan’). We are connected to the news everywhere. We constantly feel others pain even if we are not present there. Just like a village. It is flooded with gossip and more assumptions. We don’t know what is real anymore. The internet is a highly polarizing platform. You are either ‘for’ or ‘against’ a certain event. The internet exemplifies the binary-ness of things. It reduces the language to ‘either-or’ ism. It slots different texts into one compartment. It reduces multiplicity of meaning to singleness.
You have to be a successful, good-looking, extremely healthy ,thin and empathetic person. Each of these words are tied together like a string of beads. If you are only successful and not any of the others, well that’s something we just cannot accept.
Every text when compartmentalized, will end up meaning the same. There is no difference between cute, pretty , attractive or beautiful anymore.
Because of condensation of text, we make the same content or art as every person out there. We even say the same ‘text’ or ‘speech’ as others. We say text which has been trending, without thinking.
In this sea of intertextuality (coined by ‘Julia Kristeva’) Your thoughts are whatever your eyes are feeding. You thoughts are a part of thousand others who fell in the same slot.
Politicians and media are aware of this and they manufacture your thoughts. They know how quickly you move on. There is nothing called ‘Negative PR’ anymore. As long as you stay relevant , you make bank. The world is forgetting quickly and moving on to the next thought. As long your name comes in their every thought they manufacture for you. You will stay famous.
Let’s look at this at a psychological front. As per Jacques Lacan, An identity is a number of misidentifications we had in our lives. Every time we meet a person we look up to, We try to identity with that person by becoming that person and then we move on to the next role model to identify with.
In this new age, if people thinks the same, talks the same and walks the same. We end up not only condensing texts but also personalities and appearance of everyone. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But the eye is on the screen. The screen dictates what your beauty or personality should be. It condenses you to sameness. You are ENFP, ENTP, ESFP etc.
So in Lacanian terms if we identify with people who all have the same personalities. Then all the identities are reduced to a singularity.
The Tetris game
The Tetris game was founded in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov. He was a software engineer at Soviet Russia. He made it based on a children puzzle game called pentominoes. pentomino was mimicked after letters in the English Alphabet. Each letter was seen as part of a structure. Each 5 squared piece was made to fit so that they form a block.
This obsession of things need to fit started from the discovery of pixels of a computer in 1943. Every hole must be covered. Everything must fit. We see this obsession even in today’s world, each building, payment and every decision we make needs to fit like blocks in a Tetris game.
A structure is seen as series of linear events that must fit with one another.
We are extremely comfortable living in the line within the boundaries of a square screen.
The mind takes the path of least resistance, it’s easier to fall back on what we know. It’s easier to stick to a structure we already know than completely accept an entropic idea. Every time , we try to move forward we bring in old concepts into the new world, which Marshall McLuhan refers to as a “Rearview Mirror”. We move forward looking back at what we already know.
For a while, we know the structure to be linear and dictated by a square screen. It is difficult to get out from it. It is difficult to think that “There is no box at all.”
You make another square
If text and all of us in that manner are condensed, and linearity is all we know. then it should be no surprise that we see only a square and make another square, It is no surprise that we will only see what we know and produce what we know.
Monkey see what monkey do.
But if the monkey is only seeing what the other monkey does in a screen then the ‘doing’ must be more real than if it was offline. We have this need to over compensate by ‘doing’ more in the screen than the previous monkey. But we are condensed, so we produce the same content.
Secondly, the monkey is only ‘Seeing’ and not using his other senses at all. We rely too much on our eyes. The screen reality is more real than physical. We need to understand that the screen is super ‘hot medium’. Its more dynamic than reality. Its more enticing than real world. It immerses the eye completely. Hence every tweet must be the truth, Every digital art is more real than physical art, Every Crypto currency is more real than physical money. Every psychoanalyses video of a film or person is more real than a physical class.
If a person watches only reels of cats all the time. The person will identify with a cat eventually. It’s been this way for too long now. For us to imagine that there is no box at all might end up being traumatic. Even if we do think out of the box, we will find another box to get into because we all are only looking for what is familiar.
Inspiration:
