What Helps is What Hurts

The first civilizations we know of emerged in the Middle East. It's easy to see how the fact of being at the intersection of Asia and Europe and Africa would lend itself to an emergence of something new and innovative, product of the convergence of various and different cultures, technologies and ideas that might swirl about at the intersection of massive continents.

It also makes sense that the Middle East - for these very same reasons - would be a place of turmoil and conflict. What helps can hurt.

It makes you wonder if the fact that our consciousness is under constant bombardment of books, websites, radio, TV, and tweets representing so many different cultures and philosophies might result in something extraordinary and novel, emergent reality that can become us. It also makes you wonder if after a certain point in our own personal development, our own journey, this very same bombardment might not disrupt the proper development of a self that requires at least some modicum of remove from these very same forces.

This need for a remove from the many forces around us might explain why the fastest growing type of household throughout the West - and already the most popular form in many countries and big cities in the US - is the single person household. Our reaction to this constant bombardment is a retreat.