Philosophical Rambling on the System and the Mind

People, in my experience, grossly underestimate the degree to which their perception is influenced by what is known as the 'mainstream narrative'. At an early age we believe everything what our parents tell us and soon we are told to without question also believe what the teachers in school are preaching. At no point (again, in my experience) are we told to "think for yourself" or "question the source of the information". The 'mainstream narrative' comes in many shapes and forms and defends and perpetuates itself in even more ways. 

I can see some similarities between "the system" (aka. the 'mainstream narrative) and our ego. For one, "the system" is in a way an algorithm, a meme, an egregore that self-perpetuates in the minds of the people it infects. It's the way of thinking that will ensure the continued survival of the system. It's the thoughts and arguments that automatically arise as a pop-up wall in your mind when you try to reach for alternative solutions and explanations as to what is going on; "Well we need money because of....." and "Well people are selfish because of...." and so on and so forth. The ego works in similar fashion in that it can without fault conceive of a million justifications to continue behaving and thinking in ways that we know in our hearts to be self-defeating. 

The ego, as such, is not one thing we can point the finger at and say "there it is", just as much as you can not find in your mind the "I" who seems to be directing the mental extravaganza going on non-stop. We are a compilation of egos layered on top of each other, some more visible and attention hungry than the other, deeply wounded, hiding ones, staying in the dark corners of our being, only making their presence known when the light looking for answers is shone upon them. 

A human life can be lived in a perpetual state of self-delusion. The ego(s) will keep the attention focused outward, in the material realm, and will project and create problems to be solved and fixed, so the attention is never turned inward. We are endlessly chasing the next material (and spiritual) high from outside of ourselves. New stuff, new relationships and new information to fill that internal hole that can never quite be full enough. It will never reach a point of satiety, for it is the very mechanism that keeps us lost in matter, not finding the internal doorway that leads us back home to where we came into this place from. 

So what are we to do then? Should we renounce the physical altogether? Reject and disown our ego? 

The answers are to be found somewhere in the mind, but the language we are using to ask and answer these questions is very much a part of "the system" we are trying to break free from. The wall of language can not be climbed over using the language it is made of. You just get entangled in it. We can only describe and point in a direction to go, but the "escape" itself is, I believe, not a thing we achieve through language as we know it, but instead by an energetic language of intention and spontaneity. Also our ability to focus plays a part, I'm sure.  

I don't claim to have any decisive answers, in fact I know I don't. I do on the other hand have very clear questions that I've been asking myself and others for a long time, and I've learned the value of honest discourse between two or more individuals, because in bouncing these ideas back and forth with other minds who are capable of entertaining them, new depths of understanding and integration can be reached, and the spontaneous dynamic of a dialogue opens us up to bring forth the highest forms of self-expression and self-remembrance.