thespian86

BUMP. [Sorry if this becomes repetitive or redundant]

I don't subscribe to inherently restrictive social conclusions and I’ve done so for a while now. There is a consistency of ignorance and backwards thinking in preconceived ideologies that too many people adhere to in society. Things like faith masked as fact.

The greatest issue for me in this movement is where to start because it's a paradox. To defeat establishment we must first destroy preconception and out-dated ideas. But, to defeat this preconceived social movement people need to witness the failure of establishment.
The longer I think about this the more frustrated I get with a (created term) "self-sustaining dependence". We've created a mechanism that runs without our help anymore but also works to restrict and oppose us. One so big that forces indifference in the face of opposing it because it seems unstoppable, and thus we give up.

Beginning with the seemingly endless downward nature of capitalism in a central banking system, to the adherence of social acceptance (ie: every man has a right to build a life on personal belief, not commonly held beliefs), we are held in check by the nature of the beast. By individualizing ourselves, we further ourselves from social evolution; we collectively "agree" in small groups instead of adhering to recognized fact. Those small groups work against progress by competing with each other. There is a common misconception in capitalism, but held socially by most "civilized nations", that competition breeds growth. But that isn't so; it restricts growth. It is a contradiction. It becomes a practice of becoming all-powerful, and then having the power to create mass technological and critical growth within society and thought. But the system which advocates monopolies breeds further competition, meaning there is a constant cycle of ebb and flow. This is true of social and human behavior on a political, philosophical, and ideological plane as well.

As belief is ever changing, since it is completely subjective, we are in a constant state of static social existence. Religion grows and lessens. A new one begins and an old one becomes obsolete. But the principal of religion stays the same: a social institution that revolves around "faith" in the unproven and indefinable and, therefore cannot be debated or defeated with critical or factual thought. But religion itself isn't the problem; it's that society revolves around a religion-like respect for all personal belief, no matter how ridiculous. A man can believe that his cat is God and we are taught to be indifferent to it.

Perhaps we shouldn't begin with the mammoth that is "establishment". Perhaps toppling the centralized banking of Western nations is a little out of grasp now. Maybe blowing up religious relics and assassinating political figures creates a moment of freedom (which is relative) but it's short lived as they are instantly revived, replaced, and strengthened. I say we start with something else: adherence to education. To critical thought. I refuse to accept this idea as elitist because that implies that education and growth aren't necessary and THAT is ridiculous.

Let's start a movement that doesn't instantly consist of falling off the grid, becoming instantly self sufficient, or "defeating the powers that be". Let's start one that consists of an adherence to fact. To thought. Not belief or uneducated opinion. Not a right to "believe whatever you want". Let's solidify by committing to becoming smarter, and recognizing that there is never going to be a time when someone is truly "smart" as knowledge is an evolution as we discover. Therefore we are adhering to consist growth rather then that of constant restriction and, therefore, fruitless debate.

I admit I know very little. But by making that the only thing I adhere to, that means I am completely open to all experiences and fact. Not a static school of thought that refuses outside interference like religion or politics or any institution created by man to define and separate completely through personal belief. One that recognizes the inevitable change and, instead of defending ourselves against it with rhetoric or sophist behavior, allows us to free ourselves from restriction.

We have the capability but no will. We have the technology but do not use it. We have the ideas but no forum. That begins by refusing to acknowledge faulty ideologies as acceptable. It will hurt, but identity is completely relative and is not static. We look at the Egyptian myths as absurd but all religious beliefs adhere to the same principals. Just like the technology of my grand father is now irrelevant for the most part. Let's stop creating answers and start discovering them, or, at the least, allowing those that have already been discovered to create an environment of forward movement and change. Let's let go of belief as a means of sustainability and adhere to fact.

Because will within belief does nothing; it changes nothing. It creates a static and friction based system that moves no where and encourages the status quo. My ability to obsess over God's will, or political will, or whatever, doesn't change anything in the world around me but my own perception. It's internal. It's personal. It can't create an environment for the betterment of humanity. It is a selfish and ignorant system in which have an "answer" - no matter how improbable and false it is - when you need one. It's lazy.

Personal belief is dangerous. Not in its intended form, but in it's current, bastardized form. The one that governs us as a species, that divides and creates individualists; a series sub-species of human beings based on self-created philosophy and self-generated systems of belief. Stuff we, individually, commonly hold true. Stuff we don't challenge because we are allowed to "love ourselves and no one has the right to separate me from my beliefs". Believing something has a place in your personal life but in the public life it DOES NOT. The laws and regulations set forth by man must better mankind, not a man alone. Otherwise the system will constantly be at war with itself because, as I stated before, belief is subjective and therefore static. Ideas can change but the principal behind them remain the same. Let that go.

When I discuss living through experience and not commonly held beliefs people raise their eyebrow: "so you don't hate rapists huh? So you think that nothing exists outside of what you know; so Paris doesn't exist since you've never been there! That's stupid!" But we are discussing two different things: fact and belief. Of course I believe rape is wrong. Of course I assume Paris is there. But if someone were to ask me to prove the existence of Paris, it would be bullshit. I can't prove it short of flying there. If someone told me rape was grand I couldn't tell this person they were wrong and punish them because what I believe is purely based on assumptions. Of course I don't hate something I've never experienced. Of course something doesn't exist to me if I've never seen it. And for someone who has ever had a fear, and then faced it, it is ALWAYS different: perhaps not better or worse an experience, but always different. Sex, getting shot, skating, owning a pet. The experience is the always the REALITY, while the assumption is the MYTH of it. Like getting shot with a paint ball hurting, until you get hit and it's painful, but only in a way that can be realized through being shot with one. And the experiences I used are absurdly polar, but the same principals apply to the small things people adhere to everyday, without questioning or thinking about why. And yet, people will defend those thoughtless, unquestioned beliefs as if they are fact. In the face of facts, proven facts, things that have been PROVEN, these people will still refuse to accept.

We must not adhere to personal truth anymore as a viable truth. A society in which everyone stands alone is no society at all, for a society is a collective; an amalgamation of humanity. A social movement cannot consist of a single voice, and yet that is how we live. Each man is his own keeper. But that’s bullshit; we live in a governed society that goes unwatched and we’ve grown tired of simply because we spend our lives battling with our own personal truths. It’s as if people are still battling with the idea of politics which is sad. There needs to be a separation of personal agenda and macro-growth. There needs to be discussions based on things we’ve learned and seen throughout our lives, and not on commonly held beliefs or taught behavior. Hearing my parents tell me something my whole life does not make it true. They simply happen to be their beliefs but that doesn’t mean I have to adhere to them.

I guess what I’m saying is that my life has not been lived before me, even though collectively the human race have experienced EVERY situation I have in my 23 years on earth; at least in a similar fashion. Life, itself, implies living; not an adherence to the IDEAS of living. That is what truly makes us individuals, and at the same time, instantly the same. That we all live, and that life is for living. That experience is personal, but because the world does not CHANGE because we think things about it, all experiences come from the same things. That is where fact is found; in that never ending sameness of the things independent of our personal will. A world of truth outside of personal truth. It exists and it HAS to be the thing that dictates our society. I may believe something about those truths, and I can create a personal life in which I adhere to these as an individual, but I don’t have the right to live publically, within the community I live in, based on those personal truths. They CANNOT take the place of truth because when they do, we live in a world that is unstable. We cannot base our society around things that can be debated because debate means it is undecided. It means it is opinion, and opinion is not a foundation but a flourish; something we put inside the house built out of facts, not things we think should be facts.

Educate yourself. Never stop doing so. Examine and apply while realizing you will never reach a point of complete understanding. There will never be an end point and the minute you allow yourself to believe that is the minute you adhere to Myths and not truths. You have the right to believe but not to enforce. To practice personally but not make public. To have pride but realize that those around you will never share the exact sentiment. To realize that being alone in your beliefs is a privilege and not a loss because a war of principles is a never-ending war. Respect must come in the form of allowing those around us to have a personal life without allowing it to leak into the public area. Debate is healthy but in the form of finding conclusions, not striving to defeat the opposition. We cannot survive it. We are not surviving it.

__________________
EX: Whats new?
ME: I officially love coffee more then you now.
EX: uh...
ME: So, not much.