Go West

There’s little point in denying the general direction that the world seems to have taken. And in doing so; abandoning one’s own way for a more popular and unclear way of life, many of us are easily and effortlessly manipulated, led astray, duped and pawned.

I find even less sense, though, in mourning the loss of a familiarity for its own sake. And so we are now likened to caged hamsters on treadmills and lambs to the slaughter. We are then the beasts being raised, herded, branded, recorded, sold and consumed.

We are thus allowed to live. Allowed to breed and allowed to move forward.

But now we are going West; to the lands of the free and brave. To the bastards of revolution that became slave traders to free slaves. Onward to the whores of liberation whose mothers suckled the serpent that bit the nipple which fed it.

With our bags packed and sanities betrayed we are fast adopting the child of no sense. But, of course, let us not call a spade a spade. The traditions, norms, beliefs, ideologies, discourses and structures in place have so far done most people no favours. In fact this current State of affairs has robbed blindly many people of not just their livelihoods and freedoms but, of their identities as well.
Because, you see, who we are alone is who we are together.

But then again, if the one burgled does not recognise, acknowledge or report the burglary, then the burglar has committed no crime. And when the burglary is obvious to all? Then the burgling law-maker will call the crime a tax. Voila!
Our kind of liberation reminds me a little of organized crime. No doubt, a little messy at times but, this is a messy business.

But people aren’t hamsters trapped in a steady sprint to no place in particular, nor are they livestock for general consumption.

Then again, people have taken an active, almost admirable, role in their own duping. One might wonder what will happen when questions are asked by individuals, not their representatives. What will happen once all directions are explored, where East, South, North, Here and Not Here aren’t walled off?

Will you still go west?

Namaste

The House of Self Governance

Self-governance, holding one’s own life in one’s own hands, is a real step in the direction of legitimate freedom. Not this watered-down ration of state-chosen freedoms that all governance offers to the people it claims to govern. All forms of governance trade some freedoms for others. Each barters for a hold on the people by promising to open more windows in the house while keeping the doors locked.

This is the nature of all government, be it democratic, communist, socialist, republican, liberal, secular or capitalist. All governance seeks power through control, and that is control of large groups of people. Nations are in the business of trading people, resources, influence and services.

What was once a solution, or rather an alternative, to the problem of human expansion, evolution, ingenuity and control, remains plaster that covers many cracks though failing to stop the crumbling. And so governments are now spending much of their efforts plugging holes in the cement instead of finding the real solutions to the real problems.

In a world like ours; where change is always now and each bright morning will lead us all into night, we have to remain aware. Aware of our progression, influence, effect, disruption and evolution. We have to find the light within our own souls, lest the torch in our hand dies out.

Freedom is not a collective concept where a single way of life is determined to be suitable for the bulk of the people in a given space. Freedom is personal. It is found in all life and in all manners of life being lived. It is not the popular discourse or the ruling stereotype or code of governance. It is choice.

Freedom can’t then be one thing. It is specific to every being. Freedom is believing in something different, living different and choosing different. It is made manifest in our thoughts, words and deeds. Freedom is left in the marks we leave behind; marks of progress, science, light and death.

And it is only when individuals are free that communities and nations can be free. A culture that measures, rations and manipulates the freedoms of the people is one that enslaves its people and seeks to employ a system, corrosive to the people and world around them, beneficial only to the culprit.

A free world, then, cannot be a place where people’s freedoms are taken, traded, rationed, stolen or suppressed. Real freedom does not exist in degrees or classes.

Namaste