Common Knowledge Game, Voodoo, and Culturally Normalized Trauma
“What you do speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you say.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Sticks and stones may break my bones but words may never hurt me.” — Hopeful childhood proverb
Your words are prayers spoken aloud so that others may share in your devotion… What unknown deity, either good or evil in nature, are you praying to today?
The 2022 Academy Awards incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock sparked widespread discussion, but few observers saw it for what it truly was: a perfect representation of our cultural Common Knowledge Game (CKG). This is a game where people gain advantage at the expense of others through socially acceptable forms of violence, which we often label as comedy. The repartee, badinage, and mutual put-downs we employ are tools to focus on the failings of others while bolstering our own sense of worth. We laugh at this acceptable insanity, but in the absolute, there is little difference between these exchanges and the black magic or voodoo practices of old.
Voodoo, Black Magic, and the Common Knowledge Game
Voodoo queens and kings were powerful spiritual and political figures. A core belief of Voodoo is that a single, distant God does not interfere in daily life, but spirits do. Connection with these spirits is sought through rituals like dance, music, and chanting. A darker aspect of this belief system involved voodoo dolls, where sticking needles into an effigy was a method to punish non-believers or enemies. The intention, whether for good or selfish aims, was to harness the power of invisible spirits through words, incantations, and chants. This reveals a direct link between the spoken word and the power of the “spirit” being summoned.
Black magic has traditionally been defined as the use of supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes. It is the “left-hand path,” as opposed to benevolent white magic. In modern times, this definition has become muddled, with some labeling any practice they disapprove of as “black magic.” Yet, how many who judge “black magic” seek to control others with their own harsh and inaccurate perceptions, as if manipulating puppets?
Voodoo, black magic, and the Common Knowledge Game are all intimately connected. The disparaging perceptions created and shared by racists, homophobes, misogynists, and other unskilled elements of our world are no different from voodoo doll impaling. They are all attempts to exert power over others through targeted negative energy, mediated by words and shared beliefs. As Laverne Cox noted, “Each and every one of us has the capacity to be an oppressor. I want to encourage each and every one of us to interrogate how we might be an oppressor and how we might be able to become liberators for ourselves and for each other.”
Defining the Common and Unconscious Knowledge Games
The human mind is a labyrinth, capable of both entrapment and transcendence. As social beings, our brains are hardwired to associate with others and work for the common good. However, many of our social algorithms are counter-productive, inciting chaos and imbalance.
The Common Knowledge Game (CKG) is a modern term for a form of consensus social understanding that has existed since humans began using verbal language. It is a phenomenon where a piece of information is not just known by everyone in a group, but everyone also knows that everyone else knows it, and so on, ad infinitum. This creates a powerful, self-reinforcing social reality.
What has not been adequately explored is its unconscious counterpart: the Common Unconscious Knowledge Game (CUKG). This is the realm of hidden pain, instincts, intuitions, and archetypes that drives unenlightened human thought. The combination of the CKG and CUKG, along with the related Lemming Effect (the tendency to follow the group without question), has been known by many names over the millennia. In Hinduism and Buddhism, “Maya” describes this tendency to create a fragmented perceptual universe where, in truth, only unity exists.
Jesus of Nazareth alluded to this dual reality with statements like, “My father’s house has many rooms,” and “Be in the world, don’t be of the world.” These point to two ways of living: as a sleeping being in a dark, disfigured world dominated by the CKG, or as an awakening being in a multi-dimensional relationship with infinity.
Two Sides of the Common Knowledge Game
The CKG has both a dark and a light side.
The dark side is established by our continuous access to negative judgments of ourselves and others. This includes our perceptions of what we believe others think negatively about us. This self-defeating component becomes a pillar for our collective spiritual imprisonment. When we engage in the dark side of the CKG, even casually, we contribute to the collective bondage of humanity.
The light side holds the potential of a shared belief that we are all good people at heart, embodying the spiritual understanding of “namaste”—the divine in me recognizes the divine in you. These internalized collective beliefs are social processes that can become culturally inculcated, allowing us to share in the benefits of a collective consciousness rooted in positivity.
The CKG and CUKG inform our understanding of life, how we see others, and how we use their often-twisted knowledge to make decisions. We are all influenced by their conflicting messages until we gain enough insight to heal ourselves from unconscious adherence to them.
The Common Knowledge Game in Action
The rules of the CKG are powerful because they are public and self-enforcing. This is evident in various social environments.
In the workplace I first consciously encountered the darker side of the CKG, while employed at the US Postal Service from 1975 to 1985. A shared “common knowledge” among many of my coworkers was the belief that we were incapable of doing any other work. Management knew this, and we knew that our coworkers knew it about us and about themselves. It was a story we told ourselves and joked about, a boundary condition that defined our relationship with our careers. This self-defeating belief system was reinforced by a shared struggle with chemical dependency, adding another layer of complexity to the game.
Later, as an apprentice electrician in 1989, I encountered this again. Despite being a highly regarded electrician, I was rotated to a new company where the foreman relegated me to menial tasks. “Humor” consisted of put-downs directed at outsiders. When I was laid off, the foreman told me, “Don’t be so fucking good, Bruce. You need to learn how to just blend in.” This was a clear message to conform to the CKG of mediocrity to survive socially.
Sexual Abuse and Silence
Consider a woman sexually abused by a powerful man. The CKG provides a powerful logic for her silence. Each of the following beliefs is preceded by the unspoken CKG premise, “Everybody knows that…”:
- I must be subservient to men and dare not raise my voice.
- I will bring shame to my family by speaking the truth.
- Nobody would believe my word against a powerful man.
- It was my fault for wearing that dress or being in that situation.
- If I speak out, I will be crushed and seen as a person of poor morals.
This internal logic, embedded within the CKG, traps victims in silence.
In competitive environments, the CKG often fuels mob mentality and bullying. Whether its office workers demeaning a coworker or high school cliques bullying an “outcast,” the dynamic is the same. An attacker will not act unless they are sure others will join them, as no one wants to be the lone aggressor.
This is why a “feeler” is often sent out—a gentle degradation of the target—to test the waters. If the message of attack is received simultaneously by others in the group, which happens in “common knowledge modes of thought,” the attack commences. The participants already know the message because shared negative perceptions (sexism, racism, etc.) are already built into their social algorithms. They know the others will attack because they always have.
This is the classic attack/defense mechanism that characterizes much of human interaction. We even have polite names for it—repartee, banter, persiflage—when we “lightly and without malice” impugn the dignity of others. We call it “humor,” but it is a normalized form of aggression. This same behavior translates into racism, xenophobia, and the callous judgment of marginalized groups in our adult lives.
Human appearance is a powerful factor in the CKG, especially regarding sexual attraction. Evolution has wired the male brain to find attractive female bodies rewarding. A curvaceous woman can trigger a reward response in a man’s brain similar to drugs or alcohol. Shapely hips are linked to fertility and health, making hourglass figures evolutionarily sexy.
Women also size up other women to gauge their relative attractiveness, a form of “mate guarding.” Insecure women feel a need to keep their mates away from optimally designed females. These deep-seated evolutionary drives form another pillar of the CKG and CUKG, ruling our sexual interactions.
The Power of Public Spectacle: Cool Hand Luke
The film Cool Hand Luke offers a perfect illustration of the CKG’s power. After Luke is beaten for insubordination, the Captain addresses the other prisoners:
“What we’ve got here is… failure to communicate… Some men you just can’t reach.”
The Captain’s “failed” communication with Luke is a successful communication to the prisoners: subvert my rules and you will be crushed. The brutal message is delivered publicly, not just so all the prisoners see what happens to Luke, but so that all the prisoners can see all the prisoners seeing what happens to Luke.
In environments like prisons, the military, and even society at large, decisions based on private information (“If I break the rules, I might get beaten”) are weaker than those based on Common Knowledge (“Everyone knows that if you break the rules, you will be beaten”). The latter is more binding because the prisoners themselves end up enforcing the warden’s rules. It becomes irrational to even suggest rebellion, as you will mark yourself as stupid or dangerous for not recognizing what everyone knows that everyone else knows.
This is why public spectacles—from political conventions and religious revivals to reality TV shows—are so powerful. The crowd doesn’t just need to see the event; the crowd needs to see the crowd seeing the event. We are social animals, hard-wired to respond to Common Knowledge.
The same dynamic plays out in dysfunctional families, oppressive religious institutions, and bullying-prone schools. The spirit of the child is broken, and other family members or peers are made to witness it, ensuring they stay in line. This is the horror of the Common Knowledge Game.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave presents another variation of the CKG. Prisoners chained in a cave see only shadows on a wall, which they believe to be reality. If a prisoner is freed and sees the true forms outside, they understand the shadows were mere projections. The prisoners who remain, however, know no other life and do not desire to leave. Their shared, manufactured reality is a form of common knowledge.
Like the prisoners, our human condition is bound to the impressions received through our senses. Even if our interpretations are a misrepresentation of reality, we are chained by them. If we were to miraculously escape, we would encounter a higher realm of pure Form that would be incomprehensible, like the sun to someone who has only ever seen shadows.
The Lemming Effect: Blindly Following the Crowd
Closely related to the CKG is the Lemming Effect, a metaphor for people who unquestioningly follow a group, often with dangerous consequences. Lemmings are small rodents that, when their population becomes too dense, migrate in large numbers. They are known to follow each other off cliffs into the water below. While this is part of their migratory swimming behavior, the myth of mass suicide has become a powerful symbol for herd mentality.
This innate psychological phenomenon is a survival trait gone awry. We see it in stock market bubbles, fashion trends, and even the “mob mind” at a political rally. It enables entire segments of society to lose their judgment simultaneously. Following the herd can feel pleasant, like dancing at a concert, but it can also mean losing our individuality and making disastrous choices. The dot-com bust of the late 1990s and the 2008 financial crisis are stark examples of the Lemming Effect in action, where investors followed a commonly accepted valuation rather than conducting their own research.
From a spiritual perspective, following the masses can lead to cognitive dissonance and discontent. If we choose a career path because it’s popular, ignoring our true desires, we may end up unhappy and unfulfilled. My own educational path was directed by this same unconscious process.
It is wise to participate in social movements, but we must not lose our heads. We must be critical of crowd movements that go against our values and do our own research before joining any massive new trend. Politicians, marketers, and religious leaders have long harnessed the power of the Lemming Effect to manipulate populations, for good or for evil.
The healthy, sane, spiritually inspired individual steps outside the Common Knowledge Game. They see themselves through a new lens, free from the verbal constructs of a culturally damaged past. This is the only “place” where a heart-centered experience of another becomes possible.
To transform the CKG of mutual imprisonment, we must first become aware of how we perceive others seeing us. Changing how we allow our perceptions of others’ expectations to control us opens the door out of our self-created prisons. This is not to say others’ intentions are always nefarious; rather, it is our perception of those intentions that holds us captive.
When you can finally see the complete matrix of the CKG within your own consciousness, you are no longer unconsciously controlled by it. In the seeing of the matrix lies liberation. To break free from the Common Knowledge Game and the Lemming Effect is to find your UNCOMMON knowledge. This is where wonder, awe, love, and the desire to alleviate suffering spontaneously arise. We can finally leave the world of pseudo-knowns to explore the real world, where newness, love, and truth’s unfolding goodness predominate.
Recognizing and Countering Diminishing Conversational Styles
A key aspect of the CKG’s dark side manifests in diminishing conversational styles that perpetuate inequality. By recognizing and countering them, we can foster more respectful and inclusive communication.
- Mansplaining: Condescendingly explaining something to a woman, assuming she lacks knowledge.
- Over-talking: Dominating conversations and interrupting others.
- Patronizing Language: Speaking down to someone, belittling their opinions.
- Stereotyping: Making assumptions based on preconceived notions.
- Being Dismissive: Trivializing someone’s thoughts, feelings, or experiences.
- Passing Religious Judgment: Diminishing individuals based on their beliefs.
These styles damage self-esteem, erode relationships, and silence marginalized voices. To counter them, we must:
- Practice active listening.
- Cultivate empathy.
- Use respectful language.
- Challenge our own biases.
- Create safe spaces for open dialogue.
Embracing inclusive communication is not just about politeness; it is about recognizing the inherent worth of every individual. By actively countering these diminishing styles, we can create a world where every voice is heard, valued, and uplifted, taking a crucial step in dismantling the oppressive structures of the Common Knowledge Game.
