Intentions. Every person I’ve ever met has intentions for what’s next. Every person I’ve met that does something good or right says it was intentional. But intentions quickly become a semantic satiation, or that thing that happens when you say a word so many times that it loses its meaning. I don’t just mean the word itself either. I mean the actual idea of being intentional loses it’s meaning after you repeatedly tell yourself those intentions over and over again. Pause. Think about that again; “the idea of being intentional loses it’s meaning after you repeatedly tell yourself those intentions over and over again”. What happens when you try to be intentional in a goal and then tell yourself that you’ll abide by that goal again and again? Do you find yourself not completing said goal in the same outcome you expected?
I am writing this in my blog because I think intentions are slowly evolving and I feel as though some people would agree and notice it more often nowadays. I feel as though major figures in society are more and more often being “intentional” in their goals and ending up in quite the opposite. Now, one could easily argue that when a person is placed in front of a lot of people they will just say whatever they think the crowd wants to hear, or they could even take the easy argument and state that this person is just lying. I could agree.. For most cases. But I also think there are a growing percentage of these public figures. Pause again, I don’t want to get ahead of myself and just be referring to public figures, because I think this applies to the masses more so. Someone you know even. However, I needed an easy reference so I will continue with my thought experiment but just think for a few and I bet this relates to a few people you know as well. I think a percentage of these public figures (or someone you know) are actually trying to believe or actually do whole heartedly believe that they’re being intentional in the things they’re saying or the actions they’re taking. But we notice they’re not.
Let’s slow it down again, what does “intention” even mean (I’ve said it too many times already but bare with me); the definition of intention as a noun is a plan or an aim, intention as an adjective is planned or meant. So basically when someone meant to do something or for an outcome to happen. The key word in this sentence is meant. Because I think nowadays more people may be meaning for something to happen, but once they see the result and it wasn’t what they expected, they realize that they didn’t actually mean for this outcome.
Bold statement incoming. I think that more and more people nowadays are trying for a certain outcome but are being misled into thinking they wanted the wrong thing. Extreme example just to allow you to follow. If someone you know to be a truly good person wanted to donate money to a charity like feeding hungry people. You know absolutely that this person wants to give every penny to those hungry people, but when they choose a charity you’re immediately disgusted because you also know that this charity is exploiting the rules of what it means to be a charity. Here’s the twist. But at the same time this person may be a very well educated individual and maybe you even know they would do their research. So you don’t say anything. You know that they were intentional in their choice right? You know they had to be doing this after they already knew what they were doing. But so do they. There could be a number of reasons why they continued though. Even if there were other opportunities to give their money more directly why did they stop there? Maybe they had limited resources to do their research. Maybe they were in a rush. Maybe they were tricked.
Either outcome to the scenarios we can come up with, they were intentional, but not in the way they wanted to be intentional. They were misled by a variable that could be a number of factors in their environment. This is becoming more and more of a phenomenon in our modern societies. If more and more people are doing things thinking it’s what they want but getting to the inverse of what they actually wanted, does this actually mean the idea of being intentional is evolving. Should we be basing the idea of being intentional on a mere conscious rational decision? Or does the idea of being intentional start before the conscious process? What if our intentions lie deeper, on who we actually are before we get a second to think and answer that. I think that this means that intentions are slowly splitting into multiple levels. Or evolving.
I think in previous generations of humans there was no where near the level of leisure, convenience nor sedentariness. The idea of the next generation of human realizing this or slowly becoming more of this means we could be experiencing an evolution in this regard. There are more and more factors that influence us, steal our time, or are exposed to us. The average person would agree that constant exposure to the things around us would influence us or mislead us away from who we are as a person on the inside. This is an almost incomprehensible thought or a paradox of emotion. We know we’re being influenced constantly but we continue to be influenced and intending for things to happen in our lives that never happen. I should preface the rest by stating I don’t have the answers or solution. I am merely an observer of those around me in a higher-than-average observant way.
If I haven’t lost you yet, then I think it’s safe to say you could agree or relate. Social media is probably bursting from your head right now. Obviously. That’s got to be the number one influence. I mean, we call people on those platforms connected to the most other people influencers. But how about the other apps you use on your phone. What if even checking your bank account as conveniently as you can nowadays could be making you spend a different amount than you want. Reading the news everyday influencing your values. Playing games influencing your production rates. Zillow telling you where to live. The list goes on and on and we actually believe that our intentions are our intentions. But people also know when they see an outcome that it wasn’t actually what they were intending.
Do you know someone personally who is intending the wrong things? Do you relate? Because this may be good or this may be bad. I have no idea. This could turn into the most positive thing for the human race if we, or someone better than us could intend for the right things to happen, even if they’re not good people. Either way, they may actually be the Next Gen Human.