Everything about our lives from the job we have to the car we drive is an idea. It is easy to overlook the fact that our lives are entirely a construct. Our particular existence has come about through ideas and structures that have evolved from the peculiarities of our society and relationships with others. Our lives are no more valid or correct than that of a rain forest tribe, Chinese laborer or global rockstar.
A Day at the Office?
They are just different. Understanding that life is a collection of ideas, opens our eyes to the possibility of shaping our destinies in anyway we see fit. We are not fated to a house in the sub-urbs, with 2.3 children, a second or third spouse and two SUVs. We have been conditioned to uncritically accept the way life is. The only problem is that,
That is not the way life is!
It certainly doesn’t have to be that way, this way or any particularly way. We live in an age with the good fortune to create the life we want based on the ideas that make sense to us. You are your ideas.
What is work?
Is it life-time employment with a large international conglomerate? Or, is it freelancing your services online from anywhere in the world you may live?
What is a family?
Is it a married for life couple, with a stay-at-home mother and evenings in front of the TV? Or, is it a gay couple with an adopted third-world child?
What is war?
Is it remote bombing of an enemy you never see? Or, is it terrorists hi-jacking a plane and flying it into the world trade center buildings?
What is entertainment?
Is it gathering around the TV Sunday night to watch the hottest show on Television? Or, is it being able to download any show or movie every made for free and watch it on your cell phone?
What is health care?
Is it long waits for mediocre and expensive treatments that are not even covered by your health care insurance? Or, is it medical tourism in countries like Guatemala, Hungary, Thailand and Singapore?
What is Education?
Is it a general university education for elite until you are in your mid-twenties? Or, is it life-long learning from on-line universities and technical training schools?
What is society?
Is it the homogenous neighborhoods your parents grew up in, where everyone was of the same origin, liked the same food and spoke the same language? Or, is it an International melting pot of languages, cultures and ideas.
What is transportation?
Is it gas-guzzling cars with cheap oil polluting the environment? Or, is it electric cars power by windmill energy harnessing farms?
What is nationality?
Do you have to remain in your home country from birth to death? Or, can you be raised in one country, educated in another, work in another, vacation in another, and retire in yet another country?
Everything we take for granted as being normal in our current way of life are just ideas. And these ideas of life are changing dramatically at an increasing pace. Ideas are not only important. Ideas are everything. What are your ideas?