TVEgo Override
The self is the spring of the human psyche - the place from which all the nourishing juices bubble and rise. Self-actualization means the self is calling the shots, not the ego. Great unhappiness and strife rush the floodgates of human consciousness when the ego is steering the ship because the ego desperately craves validation from external sources, namely other people, to function. That can be a lot of unnecessary work, always seeking and gathering validation. It’s a steady and exhausting hustle leading to stress and depression. Other people are bound to let one down. Or sometimes one places undue expectations on others. This creates a feeling of somehow always missing the mark. How much validation does the ego need? It’s never enough. It’s an addiction. An addiction is an imbalance - a deep down message, a sign that the system is out of whack.
Once the self is actualized, the psyche stops drawing validation from others because it is finally capable of finding it within itself and the stress resulting from an overworked ego is relieved. If the ego is at the helm and a person perceives an insult, then the insult will sting. This is because the ego driven psyche needs people to validate it. An insult does not validate the ego. It tears it down. A self actualized person won’t be stung by a perceived insult because the self knows itself. It knows its strengths, weaknesses, flaws, and skills. It needs no validation from external sources, so the “insult” slips by like lint dancing in the air.
The ego is important. It is good to know how we are perceived by others. However, the ego can become not unlike a prison cell if overworked.
When the television came onto the scene, there were people who were exuberant about the new invention’s educational possibilities. Sadly, those possibilities were waylaid. Instead of serving as a tool for enlightenment (self-actualization), television, and now the internet, has become something of a cattle prod, keeping the human race in a very strict and narrow confine of ego aggrandizement. The self is neglected - put out to pasture. Humans are kept guessing, stuck in a feedback loop of shame and consistent expectation leading to the polarized immediacy of punishment and reward. This is the result when the ego rules.
The ego needs others to validate itself. The self is satisfied, but not smugly, in its own knowledge and understanding. The ego wishes to lose weight and wants a six pack of abs because it thinks it will attract mates. The self understands these are mere accoutrements of vanity. When the self rules, there is peace, while the ego is only capable of desperate lurchings and tumultuous flailings. These flailings are encouraged and fortified by what is presented to us through commercial entertainment. It’s what greases the wheels of industry. The neglected self keeps the population in the loop of shame and self defeat. This is how an economy was built - on wasted lives and empty expectations. The world culture trains us to administer the cattle prod to ourselves. However, that is a behavior which can be modified and escaped. But it takes work. And it isn’t easy. But it’s worth the effort.
That’s why I am an underground filmmaker. I have no commercial aspirations or dreams of institutionalization. I am happy where I am, doing what I am doing. The policies of the world have no bearing on the art I create. The art I create beckons the actualization of the self. I’d rather be doing this on the margins than towing the status quo at the center of it all. I like it out here in the sticks. There are others like me and you.
