The past

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I am amazed how 5,000+ year old ideas still influence my thinking. Do ideas become part of DNA and are passed on to the next generation? Is it related to my survival? Or, is it just the current society, which itself is influenced from the past, affecting my thinking? Or, is it what I want that creates a thinking bias that serves me?  Well, then why do I want what I want? If there is no past and no influence from the society, would I want the same things? And, why do I want anything? 

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