Writing, Liberty, and Spirituality

I never saw myself as a writer really, just a guy who loves liberty. But it’s hard to say that I’m not a writer either, because what do I do? I write. Should I stop? No. Should I move to other formats? Probably. I suppose that I need to just let myself go to town, instead of trying to tailor every piece of writing into something specific as if it’s a sculpture I’m trying to perfectly craft. Understand that I’m not perfect and that I’m going to make mistakes sometimes. It’s okay.

I’m thinking about writing another article about politics as spiritual warfare. This isn’t the type of writing that I’ve been doing lately, but it’s pretty obvious that I’ve gotten out of my mind by becoming saner. Isn’t that weird? It’s delightful.

As strange and eerily leftist as this sounds, I should not focus so closely on the facts. Facts are important, but I also think that I’m losing myself trying to quilt together facts in this journalist job of mine. I should focus more on my own thoughts and opinions than anything else and put out content that I enjoy even though it might be different from what I usually post. That’s the only way I’m going to be able to become a better writer and break out of the mold.

It’s funny how doing this sort of job can become so taxing in ways you would not necessarily expect. The better that I get at reporting in a non-biased way (or less biased), the more that I lose out on my real self and become more like a robot. I don’t want that. I should just do what I feel at the time, rather than expecting everything that I do to fit into this narrow box. That’s killing me.

And here I am, writing again. One thing that I’ve noticed over the past few months is that it’s incredibly important to do what you think and feel at the time. Don’t do anything too stupid, but the thought that you can sit down for a little while and articulate the best possible plan for yourself is incredibly arrogant in a way, as if nature is wrong by creating a person who wants to do certain things with their life that don’t align to what your idea of “progress” is.

On the other hand, ideologies are important because they act as a test to see how beneficial our actions are. It’s all very complex, and I’m not quite sure what to make of it. The one thing that I’m learning from all of this though, is that you have to follow your own journey. You can’t just create a mold of what you think you should be or do and then go for that. Individuals have unique paths that are based in their desires, driven by biology, fate, and to an extent, mind and ideology.

I don’t believe that the greatest people in history had this mentality of putting their life in a box, but that’s what we’re all expected to do. I don’t like to think of it as “society” placing these burdens on us, as if everybody is out to get us, but rather the unfortunate shortsightedness of acquiring human needs. We all need basic things like food, water, reproduction, etc., as well as social needs and self-worth needs (see Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs), but that doesn’t mean that any one person is brilliant enough to articulate exactly what to do in such a complex world. This is why I like the idea of liberty and the constitution, because they place restrictions on other people, whether it be an individual or collective, to decide your own fate for you.

Freedom is absolutely essential for human beings to progress in a true, honest, and natural way, because the more centralized power becomes, the less each individual determines about the way the future unravels. In a true dictatorship, the human journey is reduced to one man’s journey, with the rest of us used as cattle to drive the whims of the leader. On the other end, you have anarchy, but I believe that it is reasonable to have universal rules to protect the life, liberty, and property of individuals who do not have the resources to defend themselves from superior private force. But that’s a discussion for another time.

This is the piece of rambling words which my mind has created. It’s a thought exercise and a gift to be able to use writing as a tool to better my own, as well as others, human and spiritual experiences. That’s how I see it.

Is there a focus? Not really. I’m just thinking “out loud,” trying to situate myself better and learn what I want to do with my focus of attention. I think that I do not want to be this shell of a self that I have been lately, mostly being professional in my media life and never taking risks or thinking too far outside the box, the part of myself that articulates a plan rather than being really honest with myself. I don’t think that is really fair to anyone, and I believe that it would benefit others more as well if I started being more real.