In the Beginning
In the beginning, life is okay. No means of comparison to strip your own away; it’s all okay. Your life is simple; it’s really about not getting into trouble. All you have to do is determine the things you get yelled at for, really. You don’t even need to think for yourself; your moral compass is calibrated by the standards of adults. You don’t know what is wrong and right, but it’s okay. Just avoid being yelled at. Simple.
But, inevitably, you tend to develop further. Your physical containers grow and expand and change, and with that, your conscious energy evolves, guided by that controlled compass that points you to your future. By now you’ve internalized a glorified moral standard that only remains intact because of ancient traditions and stubborn cultures. You familiarize yourself with your society’s laws. You don’t even need to think for yourself; just maintain the system, don’t stand out, be good.
Good. Ask a room full of kids what that word means and every hand will shoot up with the exact same answer in their heads-- well, we did teach them that participation is indeed, good.
Dr. Lawrence Kohlberg, the developer of Kohlberg’s Stages of Development would tell you that ninety percent of you will remain in that sticky, sad, stage that causes people to justify their lives based on preconceived morals. A mental destination that prevents you from all moral growth. You are stuck here.
The 10 percent that will move on will reason their way through life and rise above you. But these people are bad, aren’t they? They’re the rebels, the hippies, the castaways and the drop-outs. The criminals that allow themselves to steal because, “I’m only stealing money from the big guys!” Fuck, what is morally wrong with taking money from a greedy billionaire?
Stagnant people will rot in that same mental state, and the criminals, I guess, will continue to reason. You will say things like “You shouldn’t say that”, “Why would you do it like that?”, and you will even go as far as saying “I am free”.
Free; not under the control or in the power of another; able to act or be done as one wishes.
Please explain how obiding to society’s laws and acting in agreement with a pre-ordained set of moral values is in any way free. Explain how paying money to live on Earth, a place you were unwillingly born into, is free. Explain how sacrificing each day to work for someone richer than you is free. Explain how a piece of paper with a designated value that was put in place by the government can control the world you live in. The world you call free.
Our definitions and ideas of good and free are skewed. Since when did life become a game of survival that bases your destiny on how much paper you have in your pockets; or a dance that is danced to make us believe we owe work and time to spend money and have happiness.
Society’s castaways, your castaways, will forever live above you. But hey, you don’t even need to think for yourself.
