RE: How Can We POSSIBLY Hope to Make Progress as a Species When...
Great comment-- and agreed entirely. As @lexiconical suggested, this is almost a post all by itself.
Yes, we're conditioned. And to what end? To keep our minds sleepy and comfortable as we consume a diet of "soup" created by the powers that be to keep us from engaging in questions and critical thinking. Because if we start questioning we become a threat to the system.
And so, I find myself here on Steemit... seeing a "platform of freedom"... where I write long form blog posts with the vain hope that sometimes a few people will wake up and THINK. And if that happens, then I have succeeded. I find hope here, too... because in spite of whatever flaws I may have pointed to, there is also a growing movement here; a movement of "paying it forward;" a movement of a "gift economy" where people are subtly learning that it's rewarding to give something to others.
Thanks for the thoughtful reply, I actually ended up making a post based on this comment as suggested, I don't know if I hit on everything, but I agree with what you say here. There is an interesting group of people on steemit, I've found more like-minded individuals here than anywhere else.
We do need people to wake up and think, we've needed it for a long time now, and I don't know if it's happening fast enough, but people are waking up. I started to a few years ago and continue to. I also write to wake people up, I feel like if people knew what that entailed they'd think twice about it, but if they knew from experience they'd jump at any opportunity to learn what that means. To learn about all the things that have been hidden from us is quite the shock.
I truly believe steemit can be a difference maker, we can build an incredibly strong community here and support one another. Cheers, if you have a sec check out my post, I basically expanded my thoughts on your topic