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"Do not adjust your set, we have taken control..."
What is control? We speak of being in control, out of control, taking control, giving up control; but, what is control really? Is it more than just perception?
We associate control with choice: the more choices one has, the more one is said to be in control, and therefore fewer choices mean less control. This implies that control is more than just a perspective, that control has consequences, that control effects Free Will.
Control in a physical context is easy to deal with. We can see the effects of control as they expand or limit any give person's opportunities for physical action. But what of control in the non-physical sense? We also talk of mental control, emotional control, self control. Which leads to considering how does control relate to the sense of self?
When a person feels out of control, is it because somewhere in some mushy corner of their cerebral cortext a subconscious checklist of decisions denied or otherwise made for them has reached a critical tipping point after which the mind switches perceptual gears and is now "out of control"? Or, is control strictly an emotional driven feeling, and it's solely or mostly the stressed-out amygdala driving our state of not-in-control?
Lots and lots of people have written books on various aspects of control that would fill small public libraries with their limited run on the Dewey Decimal System. Dieting. Exercise. Financial management. Mental health. Spiritual health. Religion.
Napoleon said that "Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich", in what is as complete a tribute to control as has ever been made.
Control can be described as direct or indirect, straightforward or subtle, vicarious or anthropomorphic, and itself limited or unlimited. But none of that actually tells us what it is.
In the movie, Morpheus described The Matrix to Neo as pervasive control. A factual description of The Matrix would have largely entailed a physical description of vast arrays of machinery and the processes in which they were engaged, part of which included people. The mental and emotional repercussion for those people, however, were far more significant than the inventory list would have implied.
What is control? Are you in control right now? Or did I control you for the few brief moments in your life that you took to read this? You may have chosen to start reading, but did control revert to me as you continued, even though I'm not actually aware that you are reading this as it happens? Or, is no one in control? Is control some artificial perspective imposed upon us by the mechanics of our brain as an affect of our mind attempting to grasp the enormity of the situation we call our lives, to manage the cataloging and categorizing and the emotional disposition of ourselves in relation to the myriad people, places, things, and events constantly entering into and leaving our fields of perception?
We now return you to your regularly scheduled lives...
What is control? We speak of being in control, out of control, taking control, giving up control; but, what is control really? Is it more than just perception?
We associate control with choice: the more choices one has, the more one is said to be in control, and therefore fewer choices mean less control. This implies that control is more than just a perspective, that control has consequences, that control effects Free Will.
Control in a physical context is easy to deal with. We can see the effects of control as they expand or limit any give person's opportunities for physical action. But what of control in the non-physical sense? We also talk of mental control, emotional control, self control. Which leads to considering how does control relate to the sense of self?
When a person feels out of control, is it because somewhere in some mushy corner of their cerebral cortext a subconscious checklist of decisions denied or otherwise made for them has reached a critical tipping point after which the mind switches perceptual gears and is now "out of control"? Or, is control strictly an emotional driven feeling, and it's solely or mostly the stressed-out amygdala driving our state of not-in-control?
Lots and lots of people have written books on various aspects of control that would fill small public libraries with their limited run on the Dewey Decimal System. Dieting. Exercise. Financial management. Mental health. Spiritual health. Religion.
Napoleon said that "Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich", in what is as complete a tribute to control as has ever been made.
Control can be described as direct or indirect, straightforward or subtle, vicarious or anthropomorphic, and itself limited or unlimited. But none of that actually tells us what it is.
In the movie, Morpheus described The Matrix to Neo as pervasive control. A factual description of The Matrix would have largely entailed a physical description of vast arrays of machinery and the processes in which they were engaged, part of which included people. The mental and emotional repercussion for those people, however, were far more significant than the inventory list would have implied.
What is control? Are you in control right now? Or did I control you for the few brief moments in your life that you took to read this? You may have chosen to start reading, but did control revert to me as you continued, even though I'm not actually aware that you are reading this as it happens? Or, is no one in control? Is control some artificial perspective imposed upon us by the mechanics of our brain as an affect of our mind attempting to grasp the enormity of the situation we call our lives, to manage the cataloging and categorizing and the emotional disposition of ourselves in relation to the myriad people, places, things, and events constantly entering into and leaving our fields of perception?
We now return you to your regularly scheduled lives...
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