One of the most
fundamental concepts that has been discussed in this column is that people need
organic imprints to feel fully alive and to prepare for death. An organic imprint need not be a direct
physical impression on a surface in the external world. It can also be a mental impression, an idea or
series of ideas that are conveyed sometimes through a physical object – a book,
a magazine, a newspaper, and now we have digital books and online magazines and
newspapers. It can also be a mental
impression conveyed through speeches, discussions and oral and written
agreements and contracts. It can also be
conveyed by different people to one another in everyday human interactions.
But before a person conveys organic imprints to other
people using any of the different methods just discussed, he has to be able to
convey imprints to himself. Unless a
person can leave organic imprints of all his actions, thoughts and feelings on
himself, he can’t experience them and he can’t feel alive. A person has to be able to experience making
organic imprints on himself, if he is going to be capable of experiencing
making organic imprints on other people.
If he can’t experience the effects he has on himself and on other people
because he is too numb, then he is merely an automaton or a robot. Automatons and robots are run by bundles of
discrete digital stimuli and don’t have coherent consciousness or a coherent
sense of self. They are lacking in the
capacity to absorb or produce flowing continual blendable stimuli that are a
fundamental component both of experiencing organic imprints as well as of
producing them.
Once it is established
that a person is capable of experiencing the organic imprints he leaves on
himself and not simply going through the motions of life like an automaton or
robot, then it can be assumed that the person is going to make imprints on
other people that he is, in turn, capable of experiencing himself. In most instances, those imprints can be
assumed to be imprints that he makes in his everyday encounters with
people. Everything from his appearance
to other people, casual conversations, formal meetings, ceremonies, classes,
embraces, fights, and sex. Some of these
imprints like casual conversation, embraces, fights and sometimes sex (when it
focuses on pleasure) are not imprints that a person consciously makes with
thoughts of their being preserved in the future. Rather, the emphasis is on making imprints on
others in such a way that a person can experience himself making imprints on
others and thus feel alive. Others of
these imprints like formal meetings, ceremonies, classes and sex (when it
focuses on pregnancy) are imprints that are made with a conscious desire to
preserve them for the future. In truth,
more casual encounters can become preserved memories in the minds of people who
experience them, even though they do not involve imprints that are made to be
preserved. Casual encounters, usually
cumulatively, become a preserved memory in the minds of people who experience a
series of encounters with a particular person.
The series of encounters become a cumulative preserved memory in the
minds of people who survive the person here being considered as a maker of
imprints.
So there are different
kinds of preserved imprints. There are
imprints that are preserved inadvertently from a person’s casual encounters
with others. Then there are imprints
that are preserved as a result of a conscious effort through what should be
described as more planned encounters with others. Some preserved imprints last for just a
generation until the last person with preserved memories of a deceased person
passes away himself. Some preserved
imprints last longer, maybe even multiple generations. A pregnancy that leads to an imprint that
lasts at least one generation, but that through possible succeeding generations
of children can go on more. A planting
of a tree. A building of a house. The creation of an enduring business. In particular, a brand name or branded
product that lasts a few generations.
Some preserved imprints
become a part of history. A famous event
such as a general leading his troops into a famous battle. A whole war.
A revolution. A peace
treaty. A constitution. An expedition of exploration. A scientific discovery. The breaking of a record in a sports
competition. A famous book – a narrative
or a treatise that leaves an indelible memory on a nation or on mankind. A famous work of art or musical composition. A play.
But all imprints have
certain basic requirements in order to exist.
They all require a coherent organic sense of self on the part of a human
who makes one. And to be properly absorbed,
they all require a coherent organic sense of self in a person who receives it
and absorbs it. Even though a flag is
left on the moon, it only has meaning as an imprint, because there are humans
who know that it’s there. An archaeological
excavation of a civilization is itself an imprint, because humans have
rediscovered what had been a dominant previous imprint and have ascribed
significance to it. Without humans being
aware of the significance of the excavation, the imprint of the dead
civilization has no meaning.
The problem today is not
only a lack of physical organic surfaces on which to leave certain kinds of
basic organic imprints. Yes, we live
primarily in modern technological living environments with a lot of sensory distortion
as a result of the vacuum and tension pocket fields of experience that are
created in the physical external world.
But we also are creating another problem as a result of the increasing
robotization of human beings. To the
extent that humans are receptive to the mirroring and modeling created by
modern technological devices and, in particular, modern consumer technological
devices, to that extent they become less and less receptive to the organic
imprints that they can leave both on themselves and on others as well as the
organic imprints that the people around them are capable of leaving on
them. As a result of becoming
increasingly less receptive to imprints, both those they create and those that
others create, people today are gradually becoming less and less capable of
participating in the two broad purposes of life: feeling fully alive and
preparing for death. As a result of
becoming increasingly numbed and jaded from their technological living
environments, humans are participating less and less in what has traditionally
been the fundamental human enterprises.
Organic imprints are crucial to all animals, but they are
particularly crucial to human beings with their rich variety of life
experiences and their capacity to somehow extend their lives over time beyond
their death through their surrogate immortalities. Organic imprints are not only a product that
emanates from a more organic coherent sense of self, but they, in turn,
activate this sense of self to life. The
sensory distortion of modern technological devices and modern technological
living environments disrupt this loop of stimulation and thus gradually weaken
the organic sense of self, turning a modern human into a more fragmented
brittle entity mentally. A sense of self
that turns into a bundle of overly defined discrete disjointed data. To the extent that excessive involvement with
modern technology leads to the weakening of the organic human sense of self,
the weakening of the capacity to feel vibrantly alive and to prepare for death,
we can say that this excessive involvement is immoral and something that has to
be more effectively studied in order to limit human interaction with this
technology.
© 2016 Laurence Mesirow
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