In the last video, I talked about how we have this desire to break out of this whole system of being taken care of, and we’re always part of some bigger institution that’s taking care of us.
And as much as this is absolutely efficient, safe, it’s really the best way to operate, compared to just a bunch of independent humans in the wilderness- for almost everything, it’s better to have this kind of organized, cooperative, developed system.
I believe it makes life better for the most part.
But there’s something missing when it goes too far, when we allow too much of our lives to be taken care of.
And so there’s a part of us that just kind of wants to break out of that, and that is drawn to maybe living in the wilderness, or going off with- forming a commune or a compound, or maybe living as a hermit, or wandering the world.
Whatever the idea is, there’s something calling us for that kind of- to try to take some of that autonomy back.
And it seems like it’s not really practical, for the most part.
If we’re living within this highly organized society, we can’t just live like we’re these kind of independent operators entirely.
It’s good to recognize where we’re being taken care of.
But I think that we can use some of that spirit, some of that feeling of being independent and autonomous.
I think there’s a lot of room to bring some of that feeling back into the way we live, even though we can’t go all the way with it.
So of course, one way is to actually go to the compound or commune and go out into the wilderness.
Even then, it’s going to be difficult to break free of the whole organized system.
And it’s also just not really that practical for most people to living a good life.
So how can we, within this society, within this organized system that we have, how can we still bring out some of that feeling of that autonomy? And I think that one way to do it is just by becoming aware of all the ways that we are being taken care of.
Instead of it just being in the background as this sort of automatic “that’s the environment we live in, and these things automatically happen”, but to instead look at all the ways in which we are being “institutionally” taken care of by these highly developed institutions, through government, education, business, all the ways that we have interactions with these systems.
With the governments we interact with, we’re bound by their laws.
We pay their taxes.
We also receive services.
With education, if we’re involved with an educational institution, we sign up for their rules, and get their services and benefits.
And same for any business, any kind of interaction with a business, either we buy something, or one of those interactions like with the tech companies like Google where we basically say “Here, I’ll use all your free products, and in exchange you can get my information and sell it.” Well, all these things are interactions with institutions, that they are sort of dealing with us, they’re shaping the world that we live in, shaping the environment of our interactions.
And it’s so easy just to go through them, go through all that and just not think about it, because it’s just so automatic in the background.
But I find that to become aware of it, to see it as not automatic, and to think about each of those relations, and choose to do them.
Instead of just doing them automatically, or feeling bound to someone, we can choose to make those agreements.
Even though, of course, you could say the case with government, well, you can’t just choose “I say no to the government.” You could try to move to a different country.
But even within the country you’re in, you could say, OK, with all the things that are wrong with it, I’m still choosing to be under the protection of this government.
I follow the laws, in exchange for the protection and services of the government.
And it’s like this kind of deal.
Even though you could say it’s not a deal between equal members that are making a contract, but still in some way, we are an autonomous force.
We have our own personal government that we are responsible for ourselves, And we’re operating in this world where we interact with these other organizations.
And it’s really just a mindset shift, because maybe you can’t really break out of it.
You may not even want to.
But just by choosing to be aware of it, and to see it as a voluntary choice, that I am choosing to follow these laws and to be part of this system, I find it gives a feeling of autonomy.
It helps me to feel that well, as much as I am being taken care of, still, none of this is automatic, and we are each independent operators in some way.
And so I’d be curious to hear if you’ve tried anything like this and what you think of it.
#autonomy #independence #personalfreedom