Shyam Mohan
Author's note: apologies if this sounds a tad too aggressive. But this is meant to quickly shoot down one of the toxic cultures of validation (as there are many) that's permeated every facet of social media. “Freedom cannot be granted, it must be taken” these words, said by 19th century German philosopher Max Stirner, merely point out that a group of people or an authority allowing you to do certain things, is NOT freedom. Freedom is not a man allowed to pluck apples; freedom is a man plucking apples regardless of whether he's allowed to or not. Stirner points out that conventional systems that do not have machine guns or batons to force their will upon the people use the tactic of abstractions, of “country”, “family”, “common good” etc and rejects them for the ghost stories that they are. I bring this up to focus our attentions on a new breed of cancer, a new brand of orthodoxy (that's spread thanks to the internet). However, unlike previous orthodoxies whose aim it is to keep a tribe of people tightly knit together, this new orthodoxy seems to have no purpose whatsoever except to keep people grounded in misery. This new brand, dons the facade of liberation. Indeed to anyone unfamiliar with an outside perspective, it may seem as such. To the naive tribesman stuck in the confines of the old world, this new world may seem brimming with freedom. To someone who recognises however, that true freedom cannot by definition be given, this new world appears just as toxic and rotten as the old. In the new world, it is not enough that you have emotions. Your emotions must be spectacular,in the sense that they must appeal artistically to your peers. They must be reviewed and processed and one is pressured to embellish it with nonsense in hopes that it garners more attention. It is not enough that you carry the desire for human warmth, oh no. You must feel your soul mingle and twirl with your fellows! And if you just express it in words, you must express it only through whatever crude, lazy play of words that is considered humorous in whatever circle you're part of. Ah, but the rules do not end there! While expressing an emotion that you know your circle shares with you (by virtue of being human) you must also explicitly state how nobody around you except your beloved circle understands your emotions. Your emotions must be unique to your circle! You don't want to seem to have the same emotions as the racists and bigots of the old world do you? “That would surely diminish the public value of your emotions” screams the self proclaimed champions of liberation. So you must use language that is impersonal and flaccid. Your catharsis must not come from expressing your emotions but from your peers recognising your emotions. You must use language that resembles a poorly scripted B-movie character who no actual human talks like, but fear not, for your peers relish that you are now just as miserable as they are. The old world dictates what you must do, and the new world dictates what you must feel. They both take away from what the ever dynamic individual truly desires and wants. The greatest deception of the new world is that it pretends it is the champion of liberation and that you will lose said liberation if you dare step away, that they protect you from the outside although they themselves suck away your blood. The truly free laugh at these cult like notions. Truly free men and women feel and express everything the “liberated” ones feel but more strongly as they are not hindered by the need for validation. The free do not wait to be told what is allowed to be done or what is allowed to be felt, they simply do, regardless of what arbitrary establishments dictate to be fashionable. True liberation is when one ceases to consider how “shareable” one’s own thoughts and feelings are and chooses to enjoy them regardless of how much it is accepted by the general mass of nobodies that insist they do great things for you. It is important in everyday life to recognise them for the substandard, charlatans without utility or charm that they are and to not let their lies deceive and dilute your true emotions. Live on your own terms, but recognise when the terms aren't truly your own. ([email protected])
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About Me
Rajit Roy
An existential romantic, an agnostic and a prospective biologist. Archives
September 2018
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