The Status Quo – Chapter 1: Take the Red Pill, Quit the Quo

Ahh, the status quo… an old favourite of ours.

When I speak of ‘the quo’, I mean nothing against Francis Rossi and his crew and their unique brand of boogie rock… as far as I’m concerned they can keep ‘rocking all over the world’ to their heart's content.

No. The status quo as in the traditional sense, derived from the Latin term, meaning the existing state of affairs.

The existing state of affairs. The ones that we hold so dear and hold onto for dear life. It’s just the way things are. That’s how it’s done. This is the way it has been and the way it’s going to be. Please don’t change things, change is scary… even if it’s for the better. There’ll be disarray, disorder… oh the horrors.

Well, that’s not how we roll. Oh no…

We are the self-styled anti-quo movement. We fight this vicious animal with every fabric of our being. It needs to be usurped. At the very least it needs to be questioned, challenged and a more appropriate thinking, action and outcomes produced.

So long as we still have a pulse and are breathing then we will look for better. A better way, a better life. A lot of people aren’t really living, they’re merely existing… just passing the time before they pass on.

This isn’t good enough I’m afraid. Not by a long shot. And we are here to redress the balance and tip it over to something a bit more worthwhile, passionate, energised, positive and perhaps something a little special.

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So what form does this apathetic status quo beast take? The commonly hated, occasionally questioned but ultimately accepted phenomena that is ‘work’ (the dreaded JOB ;)).

Most people at the very least dislike this constant energy drainer, some lucky people may have found their passion and be working what would be their hobby. But these are the lucky few and are very rare. This is no way to live and an unacceptable state of affairs.

I perhaps say it best in my article on my blog ‘The Fear’, worth a read if you get the chance but I’ll revisit this subject in this report. My favourite line from that article is:

It’s been said that one definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over but expecting different results. We are indeed insane.

Killer line. We need to take some new actions to obtain new results. The time is now. Time to stop mindlessly nodding along and create our own destiny.

Being shafted by ‘the man’ is just one but perhaps the best example of the quo being stringently adhered to. Purely for the fact it eats up so much of your life without any reward (you earn some money, sure, but it’s only bare minimum and the system is designed so that you will only ever have enough just to keep on living in the same manner, maybe even go into debt. This is commonplace and means you will always be kept under control).

You may be thinking that everyone has to work to earn money, to stay alive and generally buy stuff and do things. Like it or not this is the system and we are a part of it (don’t get me started on the monetary system, a future report maybe!), so until the day if/when it changes we need to play the game and play it well. We’ve been dealt the cards, it’s our job to play them the most intelligent way, get the most amount of value… and have the most amount of fun.

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You may well be asking what is the alternative. “So what do we do instead clever clogs...sit around complaining and refusing to be sucked in to the evil system?!”.

Well no actually, far from it. We will be working hard, but we will also be spending our time doing things that are fulfilling ourselves as well as contributing positively to the wider world.

There are ways to make money and there are also ways of enjoying that time more attempting to make money. You may like working for someone else but other jobs are available... even in the ‘current climate’! (inverted commas used as I don’t believe in ‘current climates’ or any of that sort of thing but that’s another story).

You may want to branch out on your own, this is more than possible with all the information out there. Do the required research, take the required action. Many have done it before, you can too.

We will revisit this subject of what we can do later…

So, other than work the quo consists of people’s conditioning and views on how to live your life in general. By what age you should do certain things, family, relationships, travel, politics, media, taxes. We could have a good old merry chat about these things and many more.

So we need to fight the quo... challenge it and perhaps go against the grain a little where required. Not concern ourselves with what other people think and what we ‘should’ do but what is congruent with our values and true beliefs.

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I was in Cyprus a few years back selling tickets for boat parties and the guy in charge said this to me and it is apt for our cause:

Keep asking questions, keep getting answers

He was a fairly uncouth Australian and he also said the following. Not sure if it’s appropriate here but so true and worth thinking about:

The world’s full of smart f-----s working for dumb c---s

Love it.

So, the status quo...

It all starts with awareness. Acknowledge what we know, question it, challenge it if necessary. Look for a better way, become the better way.

Be the change you want to see in the world – Ghandi

If we can encourage others to the same then great. But don’t use too much time and energy doing so. It may well be a waste of time, it may be met with fierce resistance and you may well be seen as some sort of whack job.

The answer: Simply lead by example. Do your own thing. It may well influence others, it may not. If someone sees something you are doing or the way you live your life they may wish to emulate it. They may get inspired, motivated and the more people living this way the more power it will have.

People are sheep and don’t want to be different. They want to fit in, to be accepted, ‘liked’. They also need to be drawn out of this bubble and quit the ‘sheepwalking’.

It’s not your job to convince people. You do your own thing with the people who are congruent with your views then people may pick up on this and have their own realisations… begin their own journey. It’s all part of the process. No-one can be talked or forced into a way of thinking and doing… it has to be their own thinking, their own discoveries and insights.

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The quo is to be fought although not just for fighting sake lets make that clear. We don’t want to be mindlessly walking around with placards, shouting… it’s more a case of being aware of the way things are, making your own decisions about how to live, living that life, fulfilling your goals and dreams, helping others (who want to be helped) do the same and quietly getting on with things.

And this my friends, is how you change the world. Or at least your own world which has major knock on effects. If you are familiar with chaos theory and the butterfly effect you’ll know what I’m talking about. If not then just know, that every single action you take has a huge ripple effect, the amount of which we can’t possibly know, but the potential is huge.

So who am I to be telling you all this and what is all this ‘quo’ talk? Allow me introduce myself in chapter 2...