Last night I found myself reflecting on Buckminster Fuller's four year social isolation experiment before he proclaimed that he had finally experienced an original thought for the first time. I asked myself the question, “Have I ever had a truly original thought, or performed a truly original act of and by my own volition?
Have I ever truly taken personal responsibility for my own thinking and the consequences thereof?
The answer is I really don’t know. I cannot objectively respond to these questions. Or trust my own mind any more; a mind that has been so conditioned over the years that I am not sure there is any trace of sovereign individuality left. And at fifty plus years of age it saddens me to think I may shake off this mortal coil without ever having experienced being truly present in this world or really to be ‘here,now’ at all.
What price do we have to pay to exercise our supposedly ‘free’ will?
Our identity’s are pre constructed and given to us as soon as we arrive on the planet; reinforced continuously and relentlessly the longer we are here. Apart from minor adjustments, they rarely change much at all.
This is who you are, accept it, like it or lump it; except of course that it isn’t you at all. It’s only your personal straw man identity. The so called person you are today was already cast in concrete by the time you entered your school playground.
Name
Social rank
Serial number, national or social insurance number, passport number.
Taxes
Religion
School
Government
Authority figures
Culture
History and heritage
Ancestry
Country
Education
Financial status
Background
Family
Concept of God
Appearance and demeanour
Personality
Apprenticeships
Jobs
Marriage
Language
Vocal accent and inflection
Political affiliations
How to sit, speak, act, think, feel, respond, react; all are given, and this isn’t a comprehensive list of the constructed human being. Feel free to add your own attributes to it. Every last facet of life today is under constant surveillance and scrutiny, both socially and by government, there is no longer such a thing as a private life.
Governed and bamboozled from cradle to grave. Told how to think, what to think, when to think, where to think. Any escape from this false reality is already pre fabricated, spoon fed to us, packaged as entertainment, and usually only for those who can afford the admission price: whether it be a day shopping, cable subscription to tv, a night at the club or theatre, a trip to Disneyland or any other fantasy destination; cheering on one’s favourite team or performer in a stadium... ad infinitum.
There are even entrance tariffs to public parks and beaches these days, segmented and sliced into reserved areas like Birthday cake being passed out to those lucky enough to be invited to the party.
Solution? Retail therapy, alcoholic blackout, sexual release, drug escape.
Therapy
Blackout
Release
Escape
Why would one seek to escape if one didn’t feel trapped in the first place? There appears to be an inherently deeply rooted need in every individual for personal freedom, to varying degrees based on the scale of our ‘stories’ and how good they sound to us. Is your story a good fit or not? Can you 'wear' it comfortably?
The problem with this set of solutions is that we run into uncontrolled addiction, the need to escape from the matrix becomes so great; and their is the possible enforced kidnapping by law enforcement agents with bonus added caged jail time to reintegrate us back into being good little citizens. Or at least keep us off the streets where we could be deemed a ‘bad influence’.
One solution provides a new set of problems.
Let’s not forget the truth staring us in the face every day - Law, by enforcement... not by consensus, not by trial of our peers. Nope. One size fits all, unless you make the laws to suit yourself, and that is a club most of us are excluded from.
Interacting. I meet you in the street. I have my story of me. You have your story of you. I have my story of you. You have your story of me. We never really meet at all. All that we do, at best, is provide updates of our stories to each other.
What are the solutions to a life of false narratives and enforceable and enforced government? How to escape? Where?
We are even fed how one might do this. Just integrate and immerse yourself so fully into the existing social construct that you can eventually earn enough through your contributions to society to buy your release papers. Paradoxical. Become your enemy to escape your enemy.
Sounds so much like buying your release from slavery. Is it any different today from the amphitheatres of Rome, or the cotton field plantations of the American South?
Who are the really insane? I personally think of Caligula, Nero, the ‘rulers’ past and present that are not held accountable to the people they supposedly serve, but in truth govern and control for their own agendas.
We are told, (there it is again), we are told that the best way to change things is from the inside out. Not the outside in. Is this the truth? What is the truth? Is it even definable? Do we even discuss what truth is any more?
Silence is one solution. But I believe only on the personal level. The last of the freedoms. To think ones own thoughts. But that is a sticking point I have. Are they even my own thoughts? Such a shame to already be at the last of the freedoms. What happened to the rest of them?
How does one provide shelter, food, water, the basic necessities of live for oneself (and ones loved ones) within a pre constructed model of reality without actually being ‘in’ , controlled, or owned by this same construct?
I still haven’t figured it fully out. Going off grid isn’t even a viable option on so much of this planet’s surface any more. And what about medical emergencies? We have gone from the jungle to manicured lawns, there are few to no wild places, the animals are domesticated, the crops too. It isn’t the most comfortable of existences either.
So. Choose your sacrifice. Is that the best we can do? To sacrifice comfort for freedom, to choose a life of hardship instead? Choose the open road, but what happens when the road runs out?
And we are social animals. To truly contemplate abandoning and leaving the tribe and our chosen (or chosen for us) herd is deeply troubling, horrifying almost. Scary. Permanent divorce is not the box one automatically ticks as their chosen option in life.
But I am aware that this is also a pre programmed reaction. Do not change. Be a good little robot.
Here be dragons. One wise man suggested leaving the tribe, (if only on the mental level); but not to tell them that you have left. Why are you leaving us is a question that opens a can of worms one may not be able to close again. No one likes being left.
Better to be right. Shame I’m left handed.
The crypto community has been advocated as a viable solution and is all well and good as far as it goes. But what happens when ‘government’ pulls the plug on the internet, when digital funds are just as inaccessible as fiat currencies?
Back to barter? Are there any other ideas and solutions out there beyond isolated anti establishment communities and off grid survivalism? Would any modern day equivalent of a Cathari-type society still be hunted down, demonised as heretical, and put to the torch?
Or are we condemned to little selfish grabbing greedy mercenary lives? Perhaps donating a tithe or our actual time to charity and/or ‘good works’ to appease our consciences.
Are the only victories left to us little ones? Is revolution even viable any more? And if evolution is the alternative, how do we evolve?
What happened to the sovereign individual? What happened to the wild children? What happened to the garden? Will this forever only be a wistful and nostalgic tale, a retrospective glance in the mirror to an imagined past, the ‘good old days’? A time of heroes and Demi Gods. A time that never really was.
Shouldn’t we at least provide the tools and environment for creativity? Even if it is only incremental, better than what exists now. But imagine a present or near future where the environment could nurture true creativity, true originality, truly unique thought. Will our controllers and owners ever allow it? How do we create it without their permission?
Steemit is certainly a move in the right direction, in my opinion.
In theory it at least sounds great. But is it workable, fair to all, viable and sustainable where the rubber meets the road? Do we have other examples of similar models working? Sustainable examples, over the longer term? Or will hierarchies always exist? Will there always be a one percent? Is our species condemned to keep repeating the same deeply grooved mistakes and models of social order and government?
How did we ever end up with systems that benefit the few over the many? The answer is that we were skilfully manipulated and put to sleep. Coyfully seduced, bought and bedazzled by shiny objects and sweet candy. And if we couldn’t be assimilated, then we were assassinated.
Rinse and repeat until all dissenting voices are gone.
It is hard not to be despondent. But light does arise from darkness.
Love does conquer fear. @davidbrogan