> Dare I say, people should engage that part of their brain with everything (...) What about the monetary system, surely we could all take a step back and anaylze the mechanics of a system that plays a 50% role in all economic transactions
This is a great way for one to learn about Moloch - the by far greatest threat humanity is facing. Moloch is the personified generalization of all multiplayer games, where the payoff matrix looks like this:
| v Reward / Choice > | X | Y |
|------------------------+----------+-----------|
| For myself, short-term | good | bad |
| For all, longer-term | very bad | very good |
Problems for which, invariably, approximately everyone chooses X, often knowing that they too will suffer the very bad consequences with everyone else.
Moloch is the common core of all the big problems humanity is facing, problems we seem unable to solve - surveillance economy, inequality, climate change, you name it.
Unfortunately, recognizing the presence of the ancient demon's namesake, and realizing the gravity of the situation, kind of kills the mood - which is why most discourse on those topics is rather unsophisticated and dominated by those who don't, as you put it, "engage this part of their brain", whether because they don't know how to use it, or because it's more fun/profitable to not do it.
The biggest problem is people saying this, that we're unable to succeed. They are serving our enemies - spreading despair is so obviously a bad idea that it's a fundamental of psyops (not that the parent is doing psyops; my point is that it's what an enemy would do).
And it's false; it's transparently false if we examine the evidence for a moment. History is filled with people sacrificing themselves, widely, for the greater good. The simple example is warfare, but lots of people have low-paying or lower-paying jobs because they want to do good, contribute to the world.
It's good news - the news is actually good (I know that totally violates social norms to say!): The good people far outnumber the bad, they have the power, the ability; human nature is on their side; they just need to wake up and get going - stop sitting around pop-theorizing about despair - and many of the worst problems will be solved.
This is a great way for one to learn about Moloch - the by far greatest threat humanity is facing. Moloch is the personified generalization of all multiplayer games, where the payoff matrix looks like this:
Problems for which, invariably, approximately everyone chooses X, often knowing that they too will suffer the very bad consequences with everyone else.Moloch is the common core of all the big problems humanity is facing, problems we seem unable to solve - surveillance economy, inequality, climate change, you name it.
Unfortunately, recognizing the presence of the ancient demon's namesake, and realizing the gravity of the situation, kind of kills the mood - which is why most discourse on those topics is rather unsophisticated and dominated by those who don't, as you put it, "engage this part of their brain", whether because they don't know how to use it, or because it's more fun/profitable to not do it.