In my opinion, when someone’s hidden motivators are attacked, the part of one’s subconscious that Freud might have called ‘the id’ (”The prime motive [of which] is self-survival, pursuing whatever necessary to accomplish that goal” - Wikipedia) often impels one to behave irrationally, usually becoming overly defensive (possibly even slightly *offensive* if the challenger is being particularly insightful or objectional to current internal tenets and thefore cutting the id the deepest).

I believe that I’ve become better at catching these protectionist mechanisms in action and quarantining them for later analysis. The only way I got better at that WAS by being mentored - by my girlfriend, who is much more insightful and attuned to her inner self than I. She is herself prone to them at times though.

I watched ‘Revolver’, a film by Guy Ritchie recently, which I feel may have some relevance. A conman believes he is ‘the ultimate’ in his art, espousing the following ‘rules’:

- “You can only get smarter by playing a smarter opponent”
- “Your enemy will always hide in the last place that you would ever look”

I like this film because eventually the protagonist discovers that his ‘id’ is his greatest opponent, hiding within himself and behind his fears; that the very concepts he has been uttering with conviction have been a super-con on himself. He catches his id metaphorically on his shoulder attempting to persuade him that the ‘familiar’ (how appropriate that this word should also denote domestication of an animal?) ways that he clings to are his friends (they don’t let him down, have always been there for him etc), and fights it to the death in an absorbing internal head-battle scene lasting a full five minutes (after which a serene sense of freedom appears). If only it were so easy!

My perception of Guy Ritchie changed drastically after watching that film, I can tell you.

I have some way to go before I am free of thinking at least to some degree from inside my own technological crib of familiarity. But with your help and the help of others like you, me and others keen to ‘break free’ will get there and try to spread the word.

I don’t think you can’t call it a revolution unless it’s almost seismic, certainly bloody. If you start getting a real fight on your hands you could be onto something.

Have you SEEN how many times I’ve written “I”? Excuse me, I have some work to do on my egocentricity…