Psuedo Control

What are you feeling right now? Are you having gazillion thoughts in your mind? Most of them leading to a worry? Don't worry you're only one of the 7.4999999 billion people experiencing the same right now. The problem with us humans is that we are unsatiated and unappreciative species inundated with thoughts. Somehow the animal’s instincts in us are always on! We are always looking for more! More food, more money, more sex, more people around us, more cars etc. But why don't we get satisfied? Why? One of the most important factors driving humans of course is boredom (which I happen to recently seen confirmed in a video by vsauce). But apart from boredom what else could we be looking at? What could cause this insatiable behavior?

Oh and yes did I tell you that because of this habit of not getting satisfied, we are eating more and more (much more than we should) and hence the obesity epidemic? It seems as if humans are just terrible at controlling the self. What an irony life is, humans necessitate the desire to control everything yet the thing they have the least control over is themselves! 

Insecurities deeply embedded in our system drive us to see everything with a sense of (albeit acute) insecurity. I Wonder if in some ideal utopian world, if an individual was not insecure, would they want control of anything at all? And If they would not then would it be a better world to live in rather than one where everything is relentlessly controlled? Even at the level of the mind, one wants to control it because of the insecurities that a spirited mind if let free, it would most certainly wander towards basic animalistic desires of life. Isn’t this what the monks practicing Buddhism do? Trying to control and relinquish the desires of the mind.

The relationship between control and insecurities i feel is highly complex, it could either be a linear or an inverse exponential relationship. As the insecurities rise, the need for control increases linearly. But as the level of control gets more and more, the insecurities increase to such a level that they start to saturate (plateau). Can you feel the tremendous weight of such a situation? Now imagine living at such a level of insecurities and trying to vehement control. The bubble has to burst at one point due to the pressure! 

Looking at it from an evolutionary point of view, sense of control brings good chances of survival, for example someone having more control of the environment statistically speaking survives longer (from someone who has no control over the environment, like a terminally ill patient). Hence the subconscious self, gives us a boost of biochemical further strengthening the idea of control and its survival effects (see the feedback loop here?).

So what in the end it all comes down to is not necessarily having control but rather a sense of it (that’s what i call Pseudo control). Whenever someone is in a situation of uncertainty, they are always advised to believe everything will be fine with time. This is nothing but supporting the idea of providing a sense of control when none actual control exists (the future will always still be unpredictable). One does not need to have absolute control but rather only a sense of it. 

One can observe it in many walks of life. For instance whenever you visit a doctor, all you are doing is seeking a sense of control from someone who you think has it more than you do in that particular scenario. Whenever we look for advice/help we are always transferring the weight of providing us the sense of control via them. 

Rules for example are built for this reason. When everyone around in a social structure follows rules, it gives everyone (specially the state) a sense of control on our surroundings. That everything is smooth, and hence higher this sense the higher is the quality of life (example in Scandinavian countries this would be the highest). 

Since humans are risk averse species (according to the Nobel Prize winning genius Daniel Kahneman), then this sense of control has to reduce the risk for humans. The more control they have, the less risky the world is for them! This further strengthens our belief system as it increases the chances of survival (speaking in evolutionary terms). 

The idea of believing in god and the whole concept of it also revolves around the sense of control if once delves in a bit deeper. Imagine that people who pray or believe that God will make everything alright (by that i mean turn the tables in their own favor) are the people who via faith (passed on via brainwashing) believe that there is a higher power with CONTROL over everything that by praying to that power, one could guide the system in their favor. 

When people are provided choice, they feel they are exercising control over the environment. But have you ever wondered why a good salesman (whether it be an individual, a capitalistic group of people, or even governments) might give you a limited set of choices to make you believe you have control (only a sense of it of course!). For example, the salesman might ask you whether you want the 'left' one or the ' right' one when he has already assumed that you will be buying one of them for sure. The same happens in elections worldwide.

Finally, if an intelligent alien were to drop to earth right at this moment, it would be fairly easy for it to take over humanity: All it has to do is to provide humans a sense of security that everything is under their control (Albeit pseudo). And just when the humans are convinced, then reverse the cycle and use them for its own purpose! Boom easy kaneasy..

So stop trying to control everything and enjoying the freedom. We cannot control everything but we can make ourselves be less affected by the outcome of certain unpredictable completely random events. This i know might not be realistic but it might get you out of the continuous cycle of control and anxiousness. And as John Keynes once famously said: ' in the long run we are all dead anyways' 

Till next time!