The abstraction of thought is an interesting consideration, one I’ve done some research into. Our mind is the only known thing which has named itself.
With that being said, I think you would enjoy “thinking fast and slow” (it’s a book). In that book he goes into detail about fast thinking which is heuristical and what we refer to as “muscle memory”, “habit”, or “doing without thinking”. The interesting assertion he made about this “system 1” as he calls it, is that it lacks any ability to consider a statement as false. Every statement that goes into system 1, is considered to be true unless otherwise determined. System 2, or slow thinking, is more sapient and contemplative. This is what we would think is “us” as an abstract concept. Almost all of the information that goes into system 2 is filtered by system 1, so unless we reevaluate more carefully directing system 1 to examine everything, we are working off of incomplete data. Only what system 1 believes is relevant for the circumstances for system 2 to know. The rest is filtered out (to varying extents, depending on what executive function you have) as unnecessary. Things like background noises, other people speaking to eachother, signs, text, and other visual markers that are not important to what we’re currently doing (and have not historically been important). System 1 just discards that data constantly.
I would say that universally, we all use the faculties of system 1 quite extensively, but we are largely unaware of it… We operate on “autopilot” more or less. There’s a nontrivial number of people who seem to actively refuse to engage system 2, and do any cognitive and logical thinking. When they must, they do the bare minimum, and often opt to follow whatever tribe they identify as a part of. Whether that tribe is a sports team, a country, a political system or politician, or it’s a religion or something. They turn to those people whom they trust (for better or worse) to make the best decision for them, and tell them what to think. This is especially bad because often, those people are making selfish choices. They’re directing people to achieve an objective that benefits them directly, often at the expense of those who are following along.
This whole thing has more or less been beaten into us, both by family, friends, and communities, but also ingrained into us as a survival trait from when we hunted and gathered primarily. Where the survival of the tribe was the most important thing, at the cost of all other tribes and people and creatures.
We no longer need that survival trait of going along with whatever tribe we were born into, but it’s not one we can easily disregard, since it’s been ingrained in our cultural persona since we started walking around, many millennia ago.
There’s still plenty of people walking up to the fact that they don’t need to follow along to what others want of you, or do as they tell you to do. Getting away from the strong tribalism that is now mostly just a plague on humanity.
The problem is that the thinkers are independent, and neither want to follow, nor lead.
So here we are. Trajectory set to failure. Following these tribal leaders serving their own interests above all others. Removing one tribal leader just creates a part vacuum where another will step in to take their place, someone who is just as bad or worse with few exceptions.
I get it, 100%.
My best advice for where you are right now, is “be the change you want to see in the world”
Where you see indifference, show compassion. Where you see ignorance, learn and try to educate anyone who will listen.
Be the kind of person you wish this world was occupied by. Be better.
Three only reason I’m still alive is because I know how many people would be significantly harmed if I were to do something different. They’re some of the only people I care about, and I don’t want them to be sad. My strongest motivator is that I would rather suffer though a life so they don’t have to suffer as much though theirs. I am a helper. I provide assistance. Always have, always will. The only reason I accept any money for helping ever, is because I require it to have a home, food, and the resources with which to assist others. That’s my purpose.
I will also point out that this is the reason I will never have children. I didn’t ask to be put in the position I’m in. I didn’t request to live a life. If someone asked me, I probably would have laughed in their face. Are you kidding? Do you see what life is like? No thanks. I’ll choose oblivion over dealing with the vast majority of people that currently occupy the world; and with that said, since I can’t ask my future children if they want to exist at all, I’m going to err on the side of caution, and not condemn someone who I would surely care about deeply, to a life, here. I’ll save them that sufferage.
Always remember, exceptions exist. Exceptions will always exist. Examples like the late, great, Mr Rogers. He’s a shining example that exceptions exist. There’s a lot more I could point to, but I’ll let you ponder that at your leisure.
Unfortunately, for every positive exception, it seems there are a hundred exceptions the opposite direction. People who knowingly and willfully harm others for personal gain. There’s a bias here though. Good, nice, and kind people, don’t generally make headlines. So the media and by consequence, the majority of people of our culture, crave and glorify sensationalism. So we see and hear about the ridiculous, cruel, evil and terrible people far more often than the random acts of kindness that people show to eachother every day. Recognize the bias and work against it to train your system 1 to learn that what we’re being told is almost always skewed towards the negatives. That the world isn’t 100% good, but it’s not 100% evil either, the truth lies somewhere in between.
Be well.