Yep good article, I always like reading up on the ego and I know that doing so has helped me in a big way. However, there is something thats been pondering on my mind recently about some of the messages that are delivered when talking about the collective human mindset.

I think the collective mindset of the human race is being put under a bad light, which I find a little disturbing. Sure politicians, or a good majority of them, and corporate industry types have all crawled out from the pits of hell, but thats not a majority were talking about, it's more like a minority, just unfrotunately for the rest of us it's the minority that is in control. I think attacking the educational system, particularly universities, where you are taught to adopt a critical mindset, is a little bit out of order. Ok, yeah sure you are learning how to fit into society and contribute, which can somewhat take you down a path that you didn't necessarily want to go, but that's just part and parcel of learning who you are, and what your real goals and aspirations are, is it not?

I agree with just about everything that Tolle says in Power of Now, and I feel very lucky to have stumbled across it, but when he talks about the collective mindset as destructive and harmful, I kind of think he's been a bit unfair. Yes the ego is responsible for misery, and therefore is also responsible for the wars that are going on and the millennia of torture and discrimination that we are aware of, but when talking about this I think it's important to point out that although most people are living unconsciously, most of them are not responsible for the wars, and the torture, and that it is actually a minority that should be held responsible, rather than a collective human mindset. The only destruction that I can think of putting the blame on the collective minset as a whole, would be the constant pollution of this planet, and the lack of consciousness about the problem, which I do find very disturbing. I see it in myself, and how unconscious I am of it, and I consider myself to be a fairly conscious person.

I think an awareness certainly needs to be injected into society, no doubt, but that doesn't make the nature of the society as a whole destructive.