There are two principles that apply not only to the majority of my conclusions but to what I have realized to be every action of both humans and society.
I. The popular concept of "choice" doesn't exist. We are essentially continuously satisfying desires that are beyond our control. Bottom line: We can't to decide to decide something. More on this:
Every action we take - every step, every word we say, every slight movement of our right hand, is the exact and only action that your brain is convinced to be the most satisfying action. If we believed anything else to be a more satisfying action, we would take that action instead. Also, we don't decide that this is the most satisfying action for our brain. Even if you worked out that somehow you "decided" that it was the most satisfying action, you can't decide to decide that. It just "happens" to you. The trail of motivation starts somewhere without our control. So, we don't have what is considered to be a "say" in any of our actions. We're essentially robots following our own inbred commands - which were mainly created by a large group of experiences and how our genetics have interacted with them.
I have found that this principle, along with the next, can lead to some very useful and applicable conclusions which I will go over later.
II. What I call "satisfaction" is the ultimate motivating factor in all humans and societies. It is essentially the quenching of any desire. It's existence implies the lack of desire for change - essentially, it is the embodiment of attraction.
While this may seem simple to some, it is widely overlooked and hardly ever applied in a way that leads to practical inferences (in my experiences). I don't like to use the term "happiness" because I believe people sometimes find satisfaction in experiencing other emotions as well. Still, in general, it is very comparable to the idea of happiness.
Here is an example of a conclusion reached from the combination of these two ideas:
We are all entirely "selfish"
I've had success opening up people to this concept of selfishness by making the following claim: Mother Teresa is 100% selfish.
I can say this because if Mother Teresa wouldn't have helped others, she wouldn't have been as satisfied. She was working purely to satisfy her "desire complex". We are all constantly taking every action specifically to satisfy ourselves. Even if you think you are sacrificing your own happiness to make someone else feel good, you are only doing it because you feel most satisfied taking that action, otherwise you would have done something else. So remember, we don't choose what desires guide us. We are essentially selfish robots.
Don't let the negative preconceived notions you likely have influence your understanding of this. There is nothing inherently wrong with it, and it is impossible to overcome, simply an observation. In fact, I am obeying it now with every word I type. I just can't avoid it.
For many people, these concepts are simple, or they may have already came to these conclusions. In this case, further observations should tend to be very agreeable. However, I have met plenty of criticisms. I assure you that this is a sound idea, but will be open to further deliberation in the future.
