How To Be Vulnerable In A Society Based On Form
The Secret To Opening To The Universe Without Fear
In “On Exactitude In Science” Jorge Luis Borges writes about an empire obsessed with exactitude in the science of cartography. Their obsession was such, only a walkable, 1:1 map would suffice. The map was so exact, it was a life-sized copy of the empire itself.
People could live and work inside the map. As they continued to develop it, they began to forget the original empire. Finally one day, nobody remembered the empire.
One of the many risks of exactitude, is the possibility of getting lost in the creation itself.
Personally, I believe we now live in a society that’s lost in its own creation. We’ve created beliefs, countries, religions, and institutions that we continue to develop for future generations. We are immersed in them so much, the reference to the original version of humanity has been lost.
Along the process of developing our creations, we became a sophisticated society where form is the norm. That is to say, the way things are perceived is more important than the things themselves.
People focus on pretending rather than being and there lies the problem with vulnerability. We’ve all been pretending for so long we’re afraid to be judged and excluded for showing who we really are.
Why are we afraid? Ernest Becker believed it’s our fear of death. In ancient times, people that were alone got eaten. His book “The Denial Of Death” is a must if you seek to understand how our fear of death drives so much in our lives.
In a formless world, we would just be; there wouldn’t be a need to pretend. In today’s society, however, you have to play the game if you want to be in it. In Silicon Valley Has a Vulnerability Problem, Maren Kate writes:
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