You are who you are, because of what you believe about the past.

Just like with consciousness, identity is built in layers. Working backwards, it’s the story of you, and how you came to be where you are today.  It’s the story of your siblings, parents and grandparents.  It’s the story of your people, tribe and religion.  It’s the story of your race.  It’s the story of where you came from …

Layer upon layer, story upon story, your identity is built along a unique path from the past to present.  While the order may vary, the lower levels are typically set when you are young, and become more entrenched and difficult to change as you age.

On top of it all lies ideology, or how you project yourself into the future. Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or a Nazi, you embrace your beliefs because they are consistent with and build upon the foundational stories of your life.

Historically, when large groups of people change foundational beliefs, big things happen — governments fall and new religions are born.  This is how our republic was formed, and how the former Soviet Union ceased to be.

And it feels like big things are happening now.

Until next time …

Comments welcome — please see: http://www.fenello.com/fenello-talk/

As a computer engineer by training, I learned how to design and build computers from the ground up, in layers.  Transistors, integrated circuits, firmware, operating system, drivers, applications, networks … computers that can listen to the words you speak and answer simple questions.

Later in life, I noticed similarities with human consciousness, and the way it is also built in layers:

Consciousness Stack

To get people to agree on abortion, or climate change, is impossible at the “ideology” level — especially when current beliefs are built upon conflicting, lower levels.  To resolve these conflicts, we need to find agreement on the more foundational levels.

That explains my focus on creation myths and origin stories. By exploring how these have changed over the centuries, people can better see behind the curtain.  How these changes seem to happen once or twice every thousand years.  How it looks like we’re about to have one now.

Comments welcome …