You Have Been Hacked: Liberalism, Free Will, Fake News and Targeted Marketing

You've missed the best quote of them all:

Greek mythology tells that Zeus and Poseidon, two of the greatest gods, competed for the hand of the goddess Thetis. But when they heard the prophecy that Thetis would bear a son more powerful than his father, both withdrew in alarm. Since gods plan on sticking around for ever, they don’t want a more powerful offspring to compete with them. So Thetis married a mortal, King Peleus, and gave birth to Achilles. Mortals do like their children to outshine them. This myth might teach us something important. Autocrats who plan to rule in perpetuity don’t like to encourage the birth of ideas that might displace them. But liberal democracies inspire the creation of new visions, even at the price of questioning their own foundations.

Click to expand...

-cb

Thank you, Lisa, for the link to "the myth of freedom" article; I didn't realize he had a website. I bought Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow in July of last year and I most heartily recommend it as it's one of those rare books that will challenge your thinking and beliefs no matter what they are and make you think more deeply about them:

PART II: "Homo Sapiens Gives Meaning to the World" covers topics such as What kind of world did humans create?, How did humans become convinced that they not only control the world, but also give it meaning?, and How did humanism—the worship of humankind—become the most important religion of all?. I found Chapter 4: The Storytellers particularly fascinating as it covers his concept of the "dual reality of animals" (animals' awareness of objective entities outside themselves, such as trees, rocks and rivers as well as awareness of subjective experiences within themselves, such as fear, joy and desire) vs. "the triple-layered reality of Sapiens" (this third layer being "the Sapiens world also contains stories about money, gods, nations and corporations"):

As history unfolded, the impact of gods, nations and corporations grew at the expense of rivers, fears and desires.

Click to expand...

I don't yet have Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind or 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, so thank you for the affliate link to those, too. (So many books, so little time.)

One of my fav fantasy authors, R. Scott Bakker, who's also an actual thinky-type philosopher person, plugs Homo Deus incessantly as one of the most important books you'll ever read. I've had my eye on it for years, but have also been approaching it with caution since I don't always necessarily agree with Bakker's positions or recommendations. But it might be time to take up the challenge, for the sake of my mental hygiene as much as anything.

Kevin, who's probably more susceptible to this kind of mind-hacking than he'll admit.

Kjbartolotta said:

One of my fav fantasy authors, R. Scott Bakker, who's also an actual thinky-type philosopher person, plugs Homo Deus incessantly as one of the most important books you'll ever read. I've had my eye on it for years, but have also been approaching it with caution since I don't always necessarily agree with Bakker's positions or recommendations. But it might be time to take up the challenge, for the sake of my mental hygiene as much as anything.

Kevin, who's probably more susceptible to this kind of mind-hacking than he'll admit.

Click to expand...

I agree with Mr. Bakker on Homo Deus even though it will make your brain hurt at times from the need to think deeply and to be honest with yourself in order to keep up. But I think it important to our "mental hygiene", especially now, to understand how malleable and easily manipulated our minds actually are. Initially, you'll resist that stringently 'cause we do need to believe we're in control of our thoughts and possess free will to decide for ourselves.