The epidemic didn't stop

Which makes sense... since no one is really doing anything against it either. Except keep on creating more food for it.

And I'm probably not talking about the same kind of disease you just thought of.

There has been a very clear pattern that presents equally across all continents.

Equally across all religions.

Equally across all economical theories.

Equally across all languages.

Equally across history.

It's been very clear since the baby-boom.

Which was obviously a very defining feature of our global living situation today.

You'd have to jump through some serious flaming hoops of denial to try and convince yourself that the end of World War 2 , and the time period following it are not some of the most defining elements of the reality we face today.

And obviously , that period of time and the paradigms of society back then... also had major influences from before that.

This keeps going on through time of course. We've been writing about some of those even larger influences before. (And I'm always happy to remind you of them).

You could go all the way back to the origins of life and the very first single cell organism that ever existed.

(Which was probably constructed out of bunch of random viruses actually… which is quite fascinating to realize in itself)

But right here, right now , you're reading an article about an epidemic that didn't stop, which can easily be identified within the timeframe of your own lifetime.

So that’s a good scale to start debating first.

And then you can extrapolate that to what might be true about your perceived history and future of humanity, or your country , or your culture , or… whatever.

Doing anything else in any other order is just the virus we’re going to be talking about.

And we use the word epidemic to describe a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

And there's this very particular epidemic I'd like to point out , which I feel is extremely necessary , since this epidemic is self-reinforcing and has numerous feedback loops that strengthen itself.

That's maybe the difference between an epidemic of a virus, and all other epidemics.

A virus only "exists" to replicate itself. It consumes to duplicate itself , and has no other motivations.

It's a form of "life" , that is right in the middle between all things we clearly call "alive" , and all the things we clearly call "inanimate object" .

There never has been any debate in this world about whether or not a waterpump is alive or not. And there has never been any debate in this world about whether or not a human being is a alive or not.

But you can rake up everything any human has ever said about what it means to be alive , and that concept called "a virus" just dances around all of that and laughs in your face about it. Like a maniac.

It's neither. It's not "alive". And it's not "dead", since it's obviously doing a whole bunch of things on it's own and it's also constantly adapting to things with more zeal and dedication than most things that are alive.

While the closest thing to "being alive" we can think of is sort of the fact that adaptability determines how much you are considered "alive". The more adaptable and dynamic something is, the more we consider it alive.

But a virus does this without thinking , without cooperation , without ever being capable of growing into another paradigm because of the cooperation of individuals.

A virus has a lot of adhesion with reality around it. It's attracted to everything around it, since it's only motivated by consumption for duplication of itself.

But it has absolutely no cohesion at asll. It has zero attraction to something similar to itself, since that would go against the only motivation it has. The duplication of itself.

So now that we've established a bit of a vocabulary around these things, I'm going to finally get into what I mean with the epidemic that didn't stop.

It's the epidemic of a certain kind of virus infested human mind. It's the infestation of cannibalism.

And no matter in which culture , or system or religion or whatever completely inconsequential thing you think is important to mention... This virus always does the same thing. Like all viruses do.

It's a virus of thought.

And this virus of thought leads to a virus of behavior.

And since human beings learn from observing and analyzing reality , this virus of behavior resulting from a virus of thought will create new instances of the virus of thought through behavior.

It doesn't just fade away by itself. It needs to be actively cooperated against.

The weakness of a virus is exactly what makes it so powerful.

Zero Cohesion , Extreme Adhesion.

Things that are truly "alive" and that can "thrive" in communities need to balance adhesion and cohesion according to specific circumstances in time.

But a virus always reacts the same way no matter what the circumstances.

A virus just needs "instructions of behavior" like a machine, and then executes that script until it dies through consumption.

But being alive requires continuously adapting those instructions based on causality. Continuously rewriting those instructions based on experience.

In a way you could say that the difference between a virus , and being alive... is the fact that something that is alive , can adapt within it's own lifetime.

As where the form of life like a virus can only adapt on the larger scale of time across it's generations. For a virus it doesn't matter how qualitative the script is, it will keep doing that untill it dies.

But there are other variations of that script and the script that happens to be lucky enough to find more resources to consume will keep going on longer.

Which is sort of the absolute worst way to achieve adaptation to your environment.

So i'm going to paint a picture of a spectrum of that living thing called the evolution of a human's individual life.

On the one hand it could be like a virus... totally brainwashed into only doing a certain script. You all know what kind of people we're talking about here.

On the other hand it could be like a human being... Highly adaptable to changing realities in real-time and processing vast amounts of information to continuously improve itself.

And somewhere on that spectrum... is you.

And so are all those people around you. And all those people around them.

What's really clear in history , is that societies thrive when the viral load is low , and the adaptability is high. (Just like evolution and nature itself)

What's also really clear in history , is that societies completely cannibalize themselves when the viral load is high.

Since from the perspective of the viral load it's all really simple. As long as there are external things to consume to copy yourself with , the similar ones around you are considered a victory. And once they all run out of non-viral material to consume, they realize their only way of survival is to consume the nearest and easiest target with the viral payload.

(They're all made up of the same things, so they can easily consume them too)

The virality of cannibalism can't be "fought" ... you can't win from a mindless machine that exists solely to consume and replicate. All you could ever hope for in fighting that, is a remise where you juxtaposition another virus against it to achieve a Nash equilibrium which will sustain itself on 2 pillars of complete consumption and destruction of everything those pillars stand on , and we all know where that strategy leads too.

So it feels like a situation where joining the virus, or loosing everything is the only way to go.

BUT!!! That's just how the viral payload thinks... Since that viral payload is completely incapable of seeing the third option. (It was never alive to begin with anyways , so that makes perfect sense)

The third option here is to starve the virus.

Don't be mad at the virus , don't try to punish the virus and definitely don't try to stimulate the virus hoping it might some day learn to cooperate.

There is but one thing to do if you're not a virus , and that is to starve the virus. Become immune by identifying it well and not interacting with it in any way since it is only trying to consume anyways and there's nothing you can do about that.

It was made that way , and that is what it will do.

But it seems there are less and less people around who can still grasp those very simple concepts.

Which means the virus is spreading rapidly.

It's all full bloom stage now.

Which also means it's much easier to starve the virus and the immunity to it will be at it's highest level of efficiency and effectiveness at exactly that time.

And now the absolute kicker... What can you apply this vision of the cannibalistic virus too?

well... almost everything that has been bothering you, your entire life.

Your health.

Your safety.

Your wellbeing.

The health and safety wellbeing of the people you love.

The continuation of that as best as you can for the future.

Economics.

Psychology and personal emotional welfare.

Politics.

And even how people look at you when walk down the street.

And each and every interaction you've ever had with your phone. And everything digital.

And all drugs.

Addictions and behavioral diseases.

To wars and famines.

To family drama's and heinous crimes.

But do you now have a tendency to have just "consumed" this piece of writing... to then simply move on to go consume something else , and basically forget about this entire framing as soon as possible?

Don't you want to learn how to do better, so that you can show and grow how to evolve and adapt within your own lifetime, in stead of counting on the calculation of a virus that somewhere , somewhere else ...

All this horribleness will somehow a version of this virus that will make something healthy and happy and better?

Are you starting to see how pervasive this virus has become?

But… Don’t you also see how easy it would be to combat this effectively? It’s about how you treat yourself, and the people around you. And literally nothing else.