Growing The Beast or Shrinking The Beast

I've been listening to several of the chapters of the "book" that's serialized on Quantum of Conscience. The idea of the city, or civilization as an egregore, or a creature on a different plane of existence has been sniffed out by many people over the years. I think QoC does a good job fleshing that idea out.

The idea that we feed the beast, Matrix style is an old idea as well. I think QoC's summary--that this system is designed to turn us into Smeagal from the Lord of the Rings is a novel idea.

What we feed to the system isn't energy in the physics sense, but maybe the essence of what makes us human in the first place: our soul.

It might be difficult to determine exactly what feeds and grows the system. I feel, quite unfortunately, that my 9-5 tech job feeds and grows the system. Tech basically is the beast; it makes life more complicated and sucks people's time away without supply any nourishment in return. The people who work in tech might actually be able to shrink the system and the beast with a concerted effort, however. Similarly, as individuals they can do things in their on life to shrink it, e.g. paying off their mortgage. That almost certainly is like a tactical nuke against the beast.

As a basis for making moral choices about day-to-day life Amish style, growing or shrinking the beast is probably a good basis. We might even be able to intuit what grows or shrinks it, because we know what will grow us or turn us into Smeagal.