Ego Vs Love

today we will be discussing something of my very own personal philosophy(TM). i have come to opinion that we all have two choices in life (obviously you've no doubt be given more than two things to choose between your whole life what i'm talking about is the general direction those choices lead you). that is the choice to decide between going down the wide, bendy road of ego or the straight, narrow path of love (biblical, no?).

as a result of the way your brain is designed (to look after yourself, first and foremost) it is ALWAYS easier to choose ego over love (ok, ok, i can't actually cite research here, it's more of a gut feeling, but i'm more than sure it holds in the real world). ego is the urge you get to hoarde, to make sure you're looked after, even at others expense. love is the (somewhat lesser) urge to share and make sure everyone else is ok, even at your own expense.

but buyer beware! you ego resides within you, to all intents and purposes it IS you and as a result the egotistical path will always be, for some reason, infinately more acceptable (which is what makes it so much easier). so why not just stick to the good ol' wide road of ego? why not look after yourself? it sure does make a lot of sense, right?

wrong. it may SEEM like the easy road, it may even be paved with good intention, but it is also a road strewn with lies, profit and empty promise. war, capitalism (read: expoitation) and good old fashioned greed are all fed by ego (why shouldn't I be rich & powerful?). the only way to avoid these most horrible of things is to work to supress our egos which should (as if by magic) allow the love to shine on through (there may be more to it than this but what do i look like, a prophet?).

now before you go getting all upset for me accusing you of casting asunder the world and all that is in it just for looking after yourself please be assured this is not your (or anyone else's) fault. to discover why we are perhaps tne way we are we must look back (as always) to 'our' childhood (creationists look away now) that's right folks, we going back, back 'pon plains of africa! yes you see growing up, as our species did over a multi-million year period, times was tough. basically, tings was tough all over. this meant we needed our egos just to survive, without them we wouldn't even be here to discuss the subject.

however, my point is we are no longer scraping a living off the serengeti, i like to think we've come along a ways since then (not much, admittedly, but a ways at least). what with our mod-cons life's a lot easier than it was. so we no longer require our egos. they have become an impediment and like a lot of things past (racism, sexism, homophobia & intolerance of any stripe) ego is something we could well do with leaving behind.

on a practical note, i find that trying (and it can be) to love everybody (yup, all of them) is the way forward if you are serious about defeating ego. this (for obvious reasons) can be very difficult. however, it is worth the effort. if you can truly inculcate within yourself a deep and genuine love for your fellow man (+ all our carbon-based friends) one's life is, almost instantly, made a whole lot easier, more fun and more worthwhile in all manner of different ways. it sure makes working in the library a hell of a lot more rewarding, lets just put it that way.

speaking of which this article is brought to you courtesy of Hackney Libraries(TM), well I say that, they were paying me whilst i sat here and wrote it, they didn't actually ask me. but then, in loving them, i feel they would have wanted me to write this instead of getting on with my work, know what i mean?