The God complex

I've written about this some time ago so this will be an updated take on the topic.

It hit my mind again during my recent trip to Seoul as I looked at the amazing reach of large Korean conglomerates. On the surface, a company may seem like its producing LCD TVs but if you take a closer look, you begin to notice how they've got their fingers into everything. The same company that made your LCD TV also builds massive ocean-faring vessels, buildings 100 stories high, cars and trucks, cameras, microwave ovens, cellphones and microchips that go into your electronic devices. They're in it from the very big to the very small.

There's one word describes this. Omnipresence. It means being present in everything you touch. Well... ok, they're not actually into everything. At least, I dont think they cooked my breakfast today ^_^ but are they present in the appliances that my breakfast was cooked with? Chances are... yes.

Anyway, I digress. What do I mean by the God Complex? It is the desire to create a world in our image. When we desire to control our environment, that's the God complex in action. You've seen artificial snow I'm sure. Artificial rain, artificial mountains, even artificial beings (through genetics and stem cell procedures).

When we wish to control other people - how they think and behave - that's the God complex in action too.

At least, that's going by how people describe God to me. I'm told that God is an entity that is everywhere. He created this world in his image and has the power to raise people up or bring them down. He has the power to give life and take it away.

So you'll understand why something clicks in my mind when I see what some of these gigantic corporations do. A couple of years ago I spent a week in Guangdong at the invitation of a large corporation there. They had a huge sprawling complex where a thousand people worked and lived. The corporation provided everything - income, food, shelter, entertainment, even birth and funeral expenses. The corporation also had the power to kick out anyone who didn't follow the rules and in a place like China, joblessness can mean a very, very harsh life.

They kept tabs on everyone through a people-locator system. There were video cameras all over. You are given a set of rules to live by. Your conduct (good deeds and sins, especially sins) is recorded. You are judged by the boss-God who has the power to keep or terminate you anytime. As long as people toe the line, life goes like clockwork.

If that sounds familiar, that's probably because your workplace operates along the same lines. If your workplace is your "world," then your big boss literally plays God over you. He tells you what you shall do, he judges you and he dictates your fate in the "world" he lords over. And if you were in a drug cartel in South America, he can dictate if you shall live or die today.

And its not just your boss that has the God complex. Everyone does, including you. Your parents, for example, created you in their image. You look like them, and they try to fashion you into someone they want you to be. You'll do the same when its your turn to become parent. In fact, sometimes I think its the strongest of natural drives in humans - the desire to create something in our image. How strong? Without a child to bring up, a woman gets restless as she struggles to suppress her maternal instincts. Man too becomes restless without something to create, even if its just hammering wood into something that looks halfway useful. We are always creating, creating... never stopping.

Who are the big-time 'Creators' in our society? Artists, programmers, cooks, designers, architects, music writers, bio-engineers, movie producers, inventors.

It puts up a whole new meaning into the word "Godliness" doesn't it.

Obviously, having a God complex is not the same as being God. A man cannot bring a dead man to life. At least not yet. We are still trying to do that via cryogenics and cloning (which I'm confident we'll succeed). What I mean is that if we characterize God as a creator, we must also recognize the same creationist streak in all of us too.

But if the things we create today don't impress you, come back in about 100 years 'cause from what I hear, we are already creating antimatter (dubbed the "God particle") and singularities (black holes) in a lab. These are main ingredients that can help us create the Big Bang itself, just like what God did billions of years ago.