Idea Bomb

I want to set off an idea bomb. I've been trying to set one off for some time now, but so far I haven't had any success. Don't worry though, I haven't given up yet, and I don't intend to give up any time soon.

Thinking about my idea bomb problem, I wondered if maybe just talking about what an idea bomb is, and how one might work, could itself be an idea bomb. Anyway, maybe just talking about it would inspire someone else to set one off, which would be just as good an outcome to me.

So an idea bomb is an idea that precipitates sudden and major social change. It is an idea that explodes into the public consciousness and immediately gets people to start doing something new. An idea bomb, to my mind, is not just a mind expanding idea, but it also includes an activity. An idea bomb is like an algorithm, a set of instructions, that people can start doing to instantly improve, adapt to, or otherwise change their life's circumstances.

To rulers, the idea bomb is the stuff of nightmares. Especially in this age, when an idea can spread around the world in hours or minutes, an idea bomb is truly an existential threat. If some idea were to spread around the world that sparked a global movement, the elites could instantly find themselves in a heap of trouble.

So, in order to be successful, the idea has to be appealing to people. Perhaps this is obvious, but just to be clear, if the idea does not appeal to people, then nobody will try it; it will not explode into the public consciousness. I would also argue that in order to be successful the idea should be simple. It should be simple enough that, with minimal effort, people can understand how the idea is beneficial. This feature, I believe, is what would cause the idea to spread quickly.

With these thoughts in mind, let me propose a sample idea bomb. Obviously, I don't know that this will actually work, but hopefully it will be enough to get the idea across. Hopefully it is enough to inspire others to start designing their own idea bombs.

So, I was thinking about a particular problem we are facing, definitely in the United States, but possibly throughout the western world too. The problem is that it is very hard to wake people up to the truth that the government, really the whole capitalist system, is the cause of most of the problems we are facing here on planet earth.

People, the majority of people in the U.S. anyway, are very well insulated from these kinds of ideas. The reasons for this are many. Most of us have been indoctrinated from a very young age to love capitalism and to fear and loath anything remotely associated with socialism. This indoctrination is reenforced in our adult lives by what we see on the television. And finally, the icing on the cake, these days the majority us spend our days in well sealed echo chambers. If we don't go looking for the information ourselves, we are rarely if ever exposed to the truth.

This is a hard problem to solve. Although there does appear to be a steady trickle of people finding their way to our movement, it still seems like we do a good deal of 'talking to ourselves'. It seems that we have been somewhat isolated from the main stream. So the question becomes, how can we penetrate that bubble? How can we turn that trickle into a flood?

Well, I want to suggest we start holding Saturday meetings. Just imagine, what if, every Saturday, we all started going to our local parks to discuss these ideas? If we just got together in groups and took turns speaking, other people nearby would naturally come around to listen. People are generally attracted by a crowd. They wonder, "What's going on over there? Why are all those people listening to that guy speak?", and then they wander over to find out. Wouldn't this expand our influence?

Imagine the effect this could have over time. Over time, as more and more people started engaging in these Saturday meetings, word would start to spread about them. Eventually it could be spreading quite fast. Eventually our ideas could really take fire, and the trickle could turn into a flood.

So, in order to do this, first the idea has to get out. There will have to be a concerted effort, especially by members of our movement who have a platform and an audience, to spread this idea around, because we will need a solid base of people who are willing to try this out before we start doing it.

Once the word has spread, then we can just start doing it. Of course, if you live in a small town, maybe nobody else shows up to your local park. In that case, you would have to find a park in the nearest large city.

Of course, we could also use social media to arrange these meetings, and this might be a good idea in the beginning. When the movement is still small, it would probably be helpful to publicize meeting places online, just to help people find each other. The goal, however, is to develop a decentralized movement that is taking place in towns and cities all over the world. A movement like that truly is the stuff of nightmares for the elites.

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Cover photo by Nasa on Unsplash.