What is the Meaning of Liberation in the Real World?
October 30, 2022 - 05:30 AM
Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog
Summary
・There are two aspects to self-liberation: external and internal.
・Rather than seeking liberation from unhappiness through an external system reset,
it is important to internally detach from the values created by the system.
・System beneficiaries may drive the system to collapse precisely because
they believe its collapse is impossible.
・If you reduce your dependence on the system,
you can decouple your happiness from its vulnerabilities.
・If you are not swayed by media or social media,
you will free up time and energy for self-reliance.
・You do not need the consent of those around you to be self-reliant.
Liberation in the real world is the result of becoming self-reliant and investing in your own happiness.
Liberation has many contexts. It can mean being freed from confinement or slavery, liberation from painful desires or oppression, or liberation from the prison of the mind.
Note that the first liberation is external/material, while the second is internal/psychological/spiritual.Many people confuse the two, blaming their unhappiness on oppressive systems rather than on their own internal adherence to the narratives and values created by those systems.
For many, liberation depends on the actions of others. If only there were another leader, another financial system, another energy system, another constellation of media, and so on—if only the powers that rule our world were liberating rather than exploitative.
Another approach is to take responsibility for our own liberation within the current system. Demanding that those who benefit greatly from the current system relinquish their wealth and power will not rebuild the order of the system.
Those who benefit from the system have:
1) an incentive to dedicate all available resources to maintaining the system as it is, and
2) an unwavering belief that the system is so powerful (the state, political parties, central banks, etc.) that nothing can destabilize their comfort, convenience, wealth, or power.
In other words, their belief in the permanence and immutability of the system is equally immutable. It is not an exaggeration to say that their belief is nothing more than hubris pushed to the limits of denial and delusion.
Thus, within an unbreakable mindset that believes in the god-like power of the system, believers who benefit from the system will prefer extreme policies that destabilize it rather than letting go of their privileges and power.
They may drive the system to collapse precisely because they believe collapse is impossible.One cannot argue with true believers in ideologies or arrangements where the self-interest of those in power is the organizing principle of the system.
Instead of blaming the powerful for being selfish and thinking that liberation is impossible without resetting the entire system,the alternative is to liberate yourself from the prison of the mind created by the system's media, narratives, and values.
Simply put, stop consuming "news" and "opinions" designed to bias, addict, and confuse you. If you stop paying attention, you stop reacting, and your time and energy will be used for yourself rather than making someone else rich in the "attention economy."
My "Creed of Liberation" summarizes this process of detaching oneself from the narratives and values that support exploitative power structures (from my book, Resistance, Revolution, Liberation).
I no longer care if the power centers of this society—the distant fortresses of the financial feudal system—change because of my actions. Because I am liberated by the act of resistance. I am no longer complicit in perpetuating the pathologies of fraudulent feudalism and the concentration of power. I no longer desire the marks of being a member of the upper caste that serves the wealthy.I have been liberated from the delusion that financialization by a self-destructive consumerist state, and servitude through debt and submission to sociopathic elites, leads to my own self-interest.
This self-liberation from the prison of the mind is only the first step toward liberation in the real world. The second step is to understand how the vulnerabilities of the current system affect our lives and to strive to decouple our well-being from the current system.
The core dynamics we should study carefully are 1) scale, 2) chains of dependency, and 3) stability. The problem with the global economy is that long chains of dependency—globalization and financialization—are unstably intertwined and must operate at a massive scale on a just-in-time basis.
This system looks robust when everything is working perfectly, but in reality, it is always on the brink of instability. Any disruption beyond the trivial threatens to unravel all the interconnected chains of dependency.
Path dependency is also important. The current system is the result of decisions made long ago in different times and circumstances. However, those decisions still dictate how the system functions today. In other words, minor policy tweaks cannot mitigate the system's instability.
If you reduce your dependence on the system, you can decouple your well-being from the incoherence and fragility of the system. This decoupling is called "self-reliance," which I cover in my book, Self-Reliance in the 21st Century.
Liberation in the real world is a matter of degree, not a false dichotomy. By sourcing what you need locally and building trusted human networks, you can reduce your dependence on long global supply chains and the debt leverage that accompanies financialization.
If you stop consuming or caring about "news" and "opinions" that you cannot control, you will free up the time and energy needed to invest in self-reliance.
The question of our own well-being ultimately comes down to what we are buying. What have we been buying—our desires and needs, what supports our identity and self-esteem, our sources of inspiration and goals, and our purpose in life?
If it all boils down to earning more money to buy more things, that is not decoupling; it is total dependence on an incoherent, fragile, exploitative, unstable, and unsustainable system that we do not want to change because we do not want to change.
Ideology is the walls and chains of the prison of the mind. Ideology leads to the idea that if only everyone would agree with me, all problems would be solved.Self-reliance requires no one's consent and no "likes" on social media. Self-reliance values trust, integrity, and track records.It is not a canned opinion spewed out as a "solution" when everyone agrees with me or is forced to agree with me in public.
Liberation in the real world is the result of self-reliance and investing in your own happiness. Opinions and "news" do not create happiness; they destroy it.