February 27, 2021
Spiritual narcissism, Self and Bitcoin
I think it’s safe to assume that all of us know or have noticed at least one spiritually intense person who worships at the temple of woo-woo. If you don’t, you’re likely not on Instagram. They wear yoga pants made from recycled bamboo and hashtag #gratitude despite wanting to sell more stuff. They used to be vegan but have newly discovered the “Jain diet.” Nope, I am not judging them. Not at all. These are all very people doing very fine things. But, the quest to understand the self, at some point, can veer into a weird narcissism, and create a consciousness scene that puts “Self” above everything else and cover it with fluff.
A little bit of narcissism isn’t the worst sin. It is even prescribed by the science people as essential to self preservation and survival. I think the key is to be alert. Eternal vigilance is the price of many a good thing. If you’re thumbing your nose at your friends because their consumer-obsessed shallowness raises an offensive smell, you just might have taken a hard left into spiritual narcissism. Mindfulness can end in spiritual smugness. Meditation can lead to a lot of things - compassion, empathy, peace - and yes, a sense of superiority. While we evolve our personal religion, it can’t come at the cost of being uncaring about the world around us and the people in it. Spiritual insights become another means to enhance the ego, just like attractiveness, status, money or Facebook likes. The world is what it is. It calls upon us to seat ourselves comfortably at the table, each of us drinking our cup of tea.
In reality, there are only atoms and void, or so they say. The Self is something we create in our minds. This thing here is a part of me, and that thing there isn’t and so on. Identity and Self are useful concepts to the extent they help us make good predictions. At some point, they fail to make good predictions and we get stuck. Who really am I? I’m not who I once thought I was. It is at the level of thought where the model of a “unified self” begins to break down. On introspection, we find that the constituents of the Self don’t add up to the whole. This letter was written by a conscious model of my Self. In what sense is it really mine? Once we notice the breakdown of the Self, we see it in other contexts as well.
Roles, recognition, personalities, we notice, are merely conventions. We see how identity comes into play in relationships. There was a time when marriage was about what you did - produced children, fed and clothed them, or what you got - an alliance with the Hapsburgs. Modern romance is about being loved for who you really are, and not your utilitarian virtues as a hunter or a gatherer. This has led to an identity of specialness - a soulmate, the only one and so on. Corporations have jumped into this game as well. Jobs were once described as “the guy who strung 24 widgets together.” Now people describe themselves as “leaders” and “domain experts” and so on. You no longer work for Acme Inc. You’re an Amazonian or a Googler or a Microsoftie. These manufactured labels lack predictive powers. How much can you really tell about a person who is a soul mate or a Googler or “an inspiring leader in the AI space”?
None of this means that drawing a circle around a bunch of things and calling it the Self is necessarily bad or wrong. It’s just that there is no Self that matches reality in all its contexts. It just means that the Self is a construct to be simultaneously discovered, shaped, and played with, only to be ultimately discarded at death or enlightenment, whichever comes first.
Speaking of things that get parted from us when we die, i.e. wealth - If you really want to get rich, don’t become a software engineer or study STEM. As David Brooks writes in the New York Times, less than 2% of STEM majors end up in the top 1% of wealthy Americans. If you become a doctor or a dentist or a lawyer, you’ve got a much better shot at joining the ranks of yacht owners. Mr. Brooks, normally thorough, missed a couple of key factors. Maybe he was being satirical and I missed the whole point. Those who become rich are usually born to well to do parents who live in good neighborhoods. Your parents income and zip code, according to several studies, are the primary determinants of your destiny and chances of achieving the cherished American dream of owning a mansion and a senator or two.
In 2014, a man who called himself the Joker started a website on which people traded stolen credit cards for cash, and eventually laundered bitcoins. The Feds estimate that he might be worth two billion dollars. Last week, the Joker shut down the website and ceased operations forever. Ironically, his parting advice to stranded customers who were unpaid was, “all the money in the world will never make you happy,” and that “the most valuable things in life are free.” No kidding.
Speaking of bitcoin, its ship may have come in, literally. A group that advocates living on water instead of land took delivery of an idle cruise ship last November. They began to auction cabins off as “a gathering place for digital nomads, cryptocurrency enthusiasts, expats, researchers, and entrepreneurs.” Leading the effort was a bitcoin trader named Chad Elwartowski, who was listed as the group’s “First Seasteader.” The dream was to live on water and use only bitcoin to transact with the world. The ship was named MS Satoshi. The plan ran into rough weather once prospective buyers were told that they had to comply with maritime laws and buy insurance with fiat currency such as US dollars. “Unfortunately, we will not be able to proceed because of archaic big insurance companies that cannot adapt to innovative new ideas,” said an email to investors. MS Satoshi was sold for scrap and was last reported to be steaming to a yard in India to be broken up.
These are the stories of our times.
Stay safe. The Vaccine is at hand. And the other vaccine is right around the corner too.