I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately
A society build on a blind obedient adaptation principle in a social system as e.g.education is destined to “hit a solid wall” for humanity, and this is what we experience now. Henry David Thoreau wrote it very precisely long time ago;: Think for yourself or others will think for you without thinking of you. This is precisely what is happening now on a global scale. Leaders making decisions that don’t make sense to anyone, but a majority of people blindly obey and perform the order. Have humanity been in this situation before in history? – Yes indeed! Nothing new under the sun I’m sorry to say we’ve been in this meaningless situation plenty of times in human evolution. I think we’ll experience the same situation again and again until we’ve learned the lesson; be yourself, not your idea of what you think somebody else idea of yourself should be, as Henry David Thoreau so correctly wrote it. He himself went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and to see if he could learn what it has to teach, and not when he dies, discover he had not lived. If you want to read more about Henry David Thoreaus approach to civil obedience I recommend that you read his book Walden. He – Henry David Thoreau – makes you think deeply about the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. So the price you pay of convenience in conformity – is your freedom! It’s a personel choice all of us have to make. Which door do we close or open? The one with conformity or the one where we have to show courage? In other words – do we want social control to continue or do we want freedom?
Is this time we experience now dooms day then you might ask. Not in my opinion, and if you’ve been following me for a while you know that I interpret the time we’re in as a transformation time where humanity has to understand – that is to say learn the lesson – it’s about you taking responsibility for the collective ethic in your daily moral activities. Not to say that we are going to turn to “orthodox thinking”, but that we as existential free thinkers deep down know what to do; disobey on orders that don’t make any sense. It does not make any sense to me e.g. that we blindly has to overlook the ethical principles of Science and research. I keep being a sceptical thinker especially if I see a pattern of political decisions that makes one part of humanity pay the price, and another part of humanity benefit of it. The difference in a historical perspective of humanity doing the same thing over and over again and end in chaos is, that this time our technology gives us the information we need ( and I’m not talking about the biased information we see constantly in mainstream etc). We see or hear seconds after something has happened in another place in the world e.g. the damage and the human cost of lifes. So we cannot pretend that we don’t know what is happening – its all there up in our faces. The central point is; don’t let it get to you so you obey to social control and conditioning – let it make you think; we can do better than this!
Make a decision to be kind and look for peace in your everyday life
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has to come, said Victor Hugo once. I guess – as Victor Hugo did – we live in a time with great transformation in society. I don’t see the transformation as a threat – I see the transformation in humanity that we finally understand the lesson and act on it. I’m convinced that what we see is happening on the collective level in our world is a reflection of what is happening on the individual level, so the solution to the problem has to be solved on another level. I turn to Ralph Waldo Trine when the world is in chaos. He once wrote; to get up each morning with the resolve to be happy…is to condition circumstances instead of being conditioned by them. As I see it – I choose peace in a time where some people benefits from me being “in war with myself and others”. When you make that choice the interesting thing is that a lot of people will find you annoying. Why do people have this reactions you might ask? It is because it is not an act according to the social rules – you’re supposed to be frightened and easy to manipulate like the majority. So when you don’t do as the majority do you’re so to speak a thread too. I know that after many years of research in social psychology and I just ignore it. I’m not in this world to live up to other peoples expectations. What I do know is that some of us have to show others “the elephant in the room”, and that is to say; you as everyone else has responsibility if you want peace in this world, so lets just start on the individual level. Make a decision to be kind and look for peace in your everyday life.
Freedom has a condition; that you think for yourself and act in a constructive dialogue with others. According to Hannah Arendt in her book The Human Condition, evil acts happening because of the individual lack of thinking. There is no external totalitarian truth “out there”, but there is a need for every sane person to think – as she writes it; the sad thing is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil. What does she mean you might ask? That deep in our heart and in our thinking we know what is right and what is wrong, but it is convenient to let others decide and thereby take the responsibility for evil actions. As I see it – no-one can be “above”social responsibility or “avoid” social responsibility. Your specific act in everyday life will be the “micro” level example of what you want to happen on the “macro” level, or as Immanuel Kant put it; have the courage to use your own understanding.
