There’s such thing as Memetic Growth,
Growth implies growing, improving,
Memetic implies imitation, replication,
Memetic Growth is then GROWING VIA IMITATION.
Memetic Growth is real. It happens all the time.
Many phenomenons are centered around it.
Industrious man gather in big cities.
Innovators pull to technological hubs.
Researchers and academics spawn in academic centers.
Like-minded men hang out with each other.
“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”
And now we also have the internet — to accelerate this mass imitation.
Sometimes it’s imitative growth, Memetic Growth.
Sometimes it’s just imitation, and no growth.
I saw men fail (fail to grow, fail to not fail),
I saw men become carbon copies of each other,
I saw men become malformations, degenerate into sick caricatures of themselves,
I saw men imitate each other for the better,
I saw men imitate each other for the worse,
I saw men lacking guidance,
I saw men believing anything,
I saw men with absolutely no identity, no spine, no soul
Should you GROW MIMETICALLY? Is this whole phenomenon a force of good, or evil?
What happens when you imitate?
Good things can happen and bad things can happen, yes?
-You can imitate positive actions and mindsets
-You can imitate negative actions and mindsets
-And either way — via this imitation you will now overwrite your previous programming, previous meme…
-Or else, you will overwrite your ACTUAL IDENTITY, actual INDIVIDUALITY
It’s actually quite simple:
-You potentially risk sacrificing your individuality, self-reliance, innate power
-Or perhaps you only risk erasing your previous programming
-You potentially benefit in SOLVING your current problem(s)
-Or you potentially risk getting NEW problems (real or imagined — it’s all effectively the same, we’re all tilting at fucking windmills)
You have to weigh the consequences, and make your choice.
Generally — when the problems are mundane and technical — you want to rely on imitation 99.9%.
Because there’s no point reinventing the fucking wheel — and it’s not a loss to your individuality or creativity if you just skip to the solution immediately
Leave the 0.1% just for the spontaneous bouts of creativity
But there’s no point seeking creativity in the old — if there is all the NEW in the world to be conquered, to be explored. There you’ll make use of your creativity, make use of creative problem-solving
However when you’re imitating whole mindsets and Weltanschauung and identity — you are exposing yourself to the tremendous risk of TRUE-SELF-OBLITERATION,
You basically become someone else,
It’s not like you were your “true you” in the first place,
But by installing more and more ego-modules and mindset-modules and fucking meme-modules — you are littering and defiling and ruining your poor pure mind,
Should you never imitate others then?
No,
I’ve seen men whose only hope is to be utterly reprogrammed,
They have no spine, no skin in the game, no plan, no hope, no momentum
If anything — they have self-destructive programming in it’s place
They are like animals, rabid dogs, wild dogs,
Washing their brains is a kindness.
And their only hope is to expel them from their environments, from their hitherto lives — and put them in a new environment, and bombard them with constructive mindsets, and give them something constructive to do.
It has been shown with heroine junkies, somewhere in the world, I believe.
You think junkies are as low as it gets — but everywhere I look on the street and on the internet — I see junkies. Slaves to utterly unconstructive programming, slaves to TV, comfort, mindless pointless ideology, mediocrity, consumerism, stimulation, etc…
I saw men 10x their results via imitation. Via surrounding themselves with right people, via placing themselves in the right place in life, via imitating and feeding on the propitious outside energy,
It obviously can’t be ignored
Man learn via imitation whether you like it or not
The results can be as pathetic as the lowliest memes on the internet — or they can be magnificent, such as great people working and pushing each other together, for the betterment of the humanity
Good mindset must be learned like anything else. Good mindsets are highly practical. Those are the tools you can rely on to solve problems.
Perhaps a minor sacrifice to one’s “individuality”, whatever that means, is worth a tremendous increase in effectiveness? Positive mindsets, ready-macro-solutions, even if absorbed mindlessly…?
I think you will definitely benefit from (positive) imitation. That’s because you are sheep. It’s extremely difficult to not be.
But I think you must be extremely extremely careful, and profoundly cognizant of the influence to which you are subjecting yourself, and it’s profound effects.
Being aware of the whole process helps,
Being selective with your influence helps.
You can try resetting yourself — by locking yourself in the forest.
You can try all those things.
Again, the general truth is that the more mundane, and “lowly” your problems — the more you ought to rely on imitation.
And the more “lofty”, spiritual, individualistic, creative — the more you should cut away from all influence.
And again: being AWARE of that distinction will help you decide when to rely on your memetic inclinations, and when to cut off all influence.
Finally, however, I think a true, powerful individual could freely utilize constructive mindsets, at his will, without any threat to his individuality,
However you are no such man,
I know no such man,
I know many great man, but I know no man completely beyond influence and memetics,
I also know many “great” man who are pathetically devoid of true individually, pathetically trite, stock, caricatural…
Greater man than you lost all their true invidivuality, became caricatures
But yes, a true, powerful individual could freely utilize constructive mindsets, at his will, without any threat to his individuality,
he would be fluid like water,
he would be learning all the time, absorbing all the time, without becoming fixed in any point… any point but his TRUE identity, true values,
And those “true values” would not be some stupid programming, no religious teaching, no pseudo-morality, no ideology, no self-help, no coaching, no mentorship…— those would be profound, perennial values, discovered via trial and error, by ACTUALLY LIVING LIFE
Indeed, perhaps you can be that man, by ACTUALLY BEING VERY, VERY, VERY SERIOUS about MAKING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR OWN LIFE,
by being profoundly honest with yourself, with what you want, with what you’re doing, with why you’re doing it,
by holding yourself accountable to every thing you do, every thing you say, and EVERY THOUGHT YOU CONCEIVE,
and by inquiring deeply into yourself, peeling off the layers of the “self”, and thine existence…
and finally — by taking RESPONSIBILITY for ALL OF IT,
Such man of profound integrity, commitment to one’s OWN goals, profound care and seriousness about existence and the gift of life, unwavering sense of responsibility, immense core-confidence, and absolute inner independence — such man, and only such, is beyond influence
….but then again — one only becomes such a force of nature by proving himself time and time again, ALONE, without any OUTSIDE AID, without relying on any outside comfort or resource — just trusting his instincts and his WILL,
and thus we come full circle — You become IMMUNE to INFLUENCE by SUCCEEDING WITHOUT IT.
and if you can succeed without it — then why would you need it?
…
Go alone when you can
Go alone like you die alone
Mimic when you have to — then discard that “wisdom”, discard that legacy, and go alone again
Learn to trust you — rather than anything on the outside,
And when you trust you — you can use the outside — then continue going alone, again,
It’s a journey
It’s a journey — you only want to carry what is absolutely necessary — anything more will weigh you down
Get a boat to cross the river — then get rid of the fucking boat, as you’re making your way through the mountains
Please be simple