This book is about safety. About your safety in the human herd. Security is all encompassing and defines everything you do. There is no happiness without security. It starts with feeling safe enough on a neurological level to express your emotions.
In the herd, you survive only if the other herd animals grant you something. Wanting to play with you. Wanting to protect you. That’s where inter-relational behavior comes in. Are you there only for yourself or also for others. In ancient tribes, when we still traveled around in small groups, individualists were simply expelled from the group or killed. The collective was all-important for the safety of everyone. Chinese mind is built that way. Ultimately, the interest of the collective prevails. The collective is one of our survival tools. Therefore, we want to stay connected at any cost. We give up everything for that. Including our authentic selves.
Cat in a corner makes funny jumps. Triggers on conditioned behavior. Survival mode.
Emotions are a way of signaling my state to other members of the herd around me. My state is relevant for the collective safety.
At the core of my being, it is not about me as an individual, but about maintaining a healthy collective. The Chinese have figured this out for a long time. Confucius 2,000 years ago.
In his book A World Without E-mail
Read more about Newport’s book here.
computer scientist Cal Newport describes that e-mail and other online messages reveal what we are at our deepest core – namely: social beings. Humans are successful as a species because we have the ability to connect with each other and work together in large groups.
