An alternative VISION to the one of the TYRANTS PART 4

TO PART 3.

If you’ve read my previous blog posts in this series you should have seen two common threads that intertwine in them. The first is that, depending on what we believe about God and spirituality, our priorities should change. Not because of a hope for a reward or fear of punishment, but because it just seems silly to try and get as much wealth and power for ourselves in this life, or experience as much pleasure as possible, when know that we are going to live forever with God. 

The second thread is that there is a right and a wrong way of acting. Objectively speaking. Because God has created a natural order. And knowing this, it should be self-evident that we want to strive to act in the right way. 

If these two propositions are correct, people that believe in them should be able to come together in a spirit of harmonious cooperation.

It’s not that people that believe these things will automatically agree on everything. We don’t have to. Disagreements don’t have to lead to hostility. We can cooperate and respect each other anyway. It’s just our egos that die a little bit when we recognize that we don’t always have to be right. We don’t die from not being right. Even if it may feel like it.

What if we could live in a world where the norm was that we took care of each other? What if we could live in a world where we did our best not to judge each other? What if we could live in a world where everyone freely contributed to making things better, while no one was forced to do anything that they didn’t want to? What if we could live in a world where everyone focused on what truly mattered to them? Where everyone was given the opportunity to do so.

I believe that we can create such a world. Not immediately of course. In the beginning, such a world will just be possible in small places, where likeminded people come together and decide to build the first steps towards such a world. 

Now I’m going to go ahead and single out a group of people that I believe is causing all of our problems. It’s not one of the groups that normally get singled out. I would never do that. 

No, I’m talking about people that, in one way or another, want to force their will on others. I don’t believe that these people have any place on the right side of history. One obvious exception is when someone stops someone else from forcing their will on someone. And of course I’m not talking about when someone willingly obeys someone else.

You may think that I’m talking about a utopia as unreachable as any other utopia in history. But we are many that are going through a shift on the inside right now. Some are showing signs of it outwardly. But I believe that this process, for most people, is still in its infancy. Many probably don’t even understand what is happening to them yet, until something makes them look up “spiritual awakening”. And even then they will be faced with loads of contradictory ideas. I honestly don’t know exactly what it is. I’ve been led to Christianity, which most people don’t seem to have been.

We are obviously on different stages of our individual awakenings. We may also have very different beliefs about what is happening. And our certainty about these beliefs may vary. But no matter where we are, to me there is no doubt that we’re supposed to come together. That we’re supposed to cooperate and build something wonderful. Something that is based on freedom, growth and cooperation, rather than coercion, crisis-management and oppression. 

In the end it comes down to making a shift from focus on what others do, to taking personal responsibility. Mainly in two ways. Taking personal responsibility for our own lives and growth. And personal responsibility for our role in the collective. Not because someone forces us to or even says that we should because we are bad people if we don’t, but because we know that this is right. Because we know that this is the way forward, if we want to create sustainable happiness and prosperity for both ourselves and those that are affected by our actions.

As for the tyrants, we don’t need to fight them. We just need to resolutely refuse to do as they say. Then we offer something better than what they suggest. Build something better than the world that they envision. 

An alternative VISION to the one of the TYRANTS PART 3

To PART 2.

In the two last posts in this series, I will talk about what I believe to be the future of us that want to build a better world. Those of us that don’t seek to dominate others, and don’t just want to manage problems as best we can in an ever more troubled world.

The questions that I will first ask you to ponder have everything to do with this, which I hope that you will see as the blog post progresses.

What is it that truly matters to you? How do you want to spend your time here in this world?

Many people go through their lives without taking such questions seriously. Or they believe that such questions become irrelevant because they drown in our everyday struggles. Questions of how to keep one’s head above the water, consume and build some security take precedence.

So, here’s what I want: To help waking people up and break free from the control system that preys on our lower natures. I want to give my contribution to an alternative vision of the future. One that is built on personal responsibility and voluntary cooperation instead of coercion. One that has meaningfulness, freedom and the striving towards something higher as its foundation.

Now, I’m still struggling with lots of things. I haven’t figured the human condition out completely. But I’m seeing things now, that I was blind to just a few years ago. I understand things about myself, about the world and my relation to it, that I’ve been clueless of for the vast majority of my existence on this planet. And the more I dig, the more I find.

Until I started to wake up, a little over fifteen years ago, nothing in my life seemed really real. And it wasn’t until about five years ago, around the time when I met my wife, that things really started to fall into place. 

Even though I do feel the constraints of everyday life, I use much of my sparetime to explore spirituality and try to understand what is going on. Because in this I’ve found something that I know to be absolutely true, even if I don’t know exactly what I have found yet.

What I also know, is that if others would see what me and my wife have seen, their priorities would likely change too. Their egos might resist it at first. I know that mine did. And still does. But the real me, the one that holds my real wishes and desires, knows that I want to seek God and be part of something bigger than me. That this is undeniably what is truly important to me.

I know that this whole series contains lots of pretty words. But during my lifetime I fully intend to put my money where my mouth is. Or die trying. Because I refuse to let the trivialities of modern life have the last say when it comes to my existence on this earth. And honestly, life is only as trivial as we make it.

If I fail, I hope that I at least will have learned something when I leave this life and move on to what comes after.

Today I know that there are people in powerful places that have an entirely different vision. One that cannot be described with any other words than “tyranny” or “slavery”. They fly private jets and eat luxury meals while preaching to the rest of the world about how we need to live more sustainably. Which clearly means more oppressive control, radically less freedom, more surveillance and in general radical changes for everyone but our overlords.

Some will cheer on as this happens, others will live in denial until it’s entirely impossible to do so, and yet others will join their agenda because they won’t think that they have a choice. 

But I know that we can do better than just try to manage our problems as best we can. Because I know that we are so much more than what we have been led to believe. If more and more of us start to make conscious choices, we can create something that is infinitely better than what we’ve ever had. 

TO PART 4.

Nicoll's The New Man and concept of rebirth

An alternative VISION to the one that the TYRANTS want PART 2

To PART 1.

The question ought not to be: “How can I change the world?” or “How can I change other people?” The question ought to be: “How can I change myself?”

Because as far as I can tell, most of us are pretty confused about basics, such as who we are and what we truly want. 

So why not start here, with the individual and the individual’s understanding of him/herself and the human condition?

Whenever manmade disaster strikes, you can always trace it back to someone wanting to force their will on someone else. Every time! Whether it’s overt coercion through violent force or quiet coercion through propaganda and taxes that are meant to alter people’s behavior, is in my estimation just a matter of degree.  

How about we just stop doing that and see what happens?

We’ve had many utopian visions in the past and they’ve never worked. But there is one we haven’t tried yet. And that is to build utopia one individual at a time, not through coercion, but through understanding of ourselves and our condition. 

I think that the time is ripe for such a vision and I’m not alone. This is not really a new idea either, even if I think that our understanding of ourselves today is new. At the core, this is classical liberalism, albeit a spirit-centered one. And I think that we actually got it right with classical liberalism. It’s the neo-liberal version that has turned liberalism into an abomination. 

I believe that peaceful anarchy, as far as earthly rulers go, is the natural end-goal of our political development. But it has to be a gradual process, where we get used to gradually more freedom and responsibility, while freely allowing God and Jesus to take control.

Again we are coming back to the individual. Focus on the individual is a natural consequence both of Christianity and of liberalism. Ultimately we should be as free and responsible for our own destinies as possible. And a well-functioning individual that has his/her priorities sorted out, should also naturally want to take on as much responsibility as possible for others and for the world at large. Without anyone having to force him/her to do so. 

And here we naturally come back to the question of meaning and trust in God. Because if we believe in a personal God that has a will for us, it follows more or less naturally that there is a natural way of functioning. That if we find out what this way of functioning is, we will gradually become a positive and not a negative force in the world. And if we believe this to be the case, it must follow that this is an important aim for each and everyone of us. To do our best to become the way God intended us to be. It is vital to our own wellbeing, as well as to other people and the world in general.

We are at a turning point right now. Because we understand more of our psychology and human nature now than ever. We also understand how changeable we are. Therefore we don’t have to accept our animalness as it is. We are more than animals. There is something higher in us. Something that is made in the image of God. 

So there is much hope on the horizon. But we are also facing what I would call our greatest threat so far. And I’m not thinking about what most people think when they hear such a statement. I’m much more hopeful about problems that we don’t seem to have control over than most. 

What worries me are those that want total control under the guise of wanting to save the planet. What worries me is the ideology of political correctness that is taking over the minds of mainly young people. An ideology that seems to be pushed heavily by the same people that seek to control us. 

What worries me is the nihilism and hopelessness that is so prevalent among people that don’t have a belief in something higher and only see a bleak future. What worries me are all the conveniences of modern society, that make people numb, sedated and lazy. 

What worries me is how our ever move soon is surveilled. What worries me is how algorithms govern our behavior. What worries me is that we get more or less the same policies no matter who we vote for. What worries me is that freedom more and more becomes equivalent with freedom to do what is bad for us, freedom from moral restraint and freedom to force others to go along with our beliefs. 

And what worries me is that all of the worries above, seem to fit into one and the same agenda?

If we truly want to be free, it’s pretty obvious that we cannot allow someone else to set the parameters for how we use our freedom. 

You are free… To eat as much processed junkfood as you want, drink yourself to death, watch pornography, decide what gender, or even age you are, have as much casual sex with strangers as you want in any way you want, as long as it is consensual, watch whatever mindless entertainment you want or mindlessly scroll on your phone all day.

Of course I’m not saying that any of these things shouldn’t be allowed. And maybe some would choose some of them even if they truly knew who they were and what they wanted. But we don’t know that, since most of us are more or less strangers to ourselves. Strangers that are influenced by all kinds of factors beyond our control, whether it’s from our own psyches or from manipulators in our society.

And while I believe that you should be allowed to do whatever you want with your own life, provided that you are an adult, as soon as you want to force others to do or say things, you overstep a moral boundary. And as soon as you start manipulating others into a certain behavior, you are also stepping over a moral boundary. 

I’m not alone in my views by the way. There are many public figures, such as Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand and Joe Rogan, that believe the same thing. Admittedly people that are considered controversial by the mainstream. But isn’t it the mainstream that has become extreme? 

So, to reiterate: We stand before a unique time in history. What this time means and where it will end no one may know for sure. But if I’m right, what is needed is an internal revolution. One that entails that each and everyone of us start to take responsibility for ourselves and for our choices. That each and everyone of us start seeking what is higher and let go of all that which corrupts and enslaves us. No matter how far we have fallen, there is something noble and good inside of us that is calling on us. If we embrace this, we embrace meaning and dignity. If we persist, we can day by day become forces for good in the world. We will more and more naturally gravitate towards creation instead of destruction. This will happen both on an individual and a collective level. These levels are intertwined. But it always has to begin with the individual. It has to be freely chosen.

We are so much more than intelligent, pleasure seeking animals. It’s time that we recognize this and start to aim for what God intended for us.

To PART 3

An alternative VISION to the one of the TYRANTS PART 1

Beliefs matter. And beliefs about the fundamental nature of reality matter in a fundamental way.

When I found my faith in God it changed everything for me. I still have a lot of things to figure out when it comes to it. And there has been lots of struggles over the years. Struggles with behaviors and habits that I didn’t want to recognize as problematic. But I can confidently say that I would be in a very different place in my life if I hadn’t found my faith. 

At the core of this was the shift of going from viewing life as meaningless, to viewing life as permeated with meaning. 

In a sense, our beliefs truly create our reality. Because we act on our beliefs and our actions create our reality, both on an individual and a collective level. 

Right now many consider us a burden on the planet. We often hear that there are too many people. Many consider humanity a problem that has to be solved. Some even go so far that they think that it would be better if humanity was wiped from the planet. 

I think that such conclusions are easy to come to, when you see a world devoid of an ultimate meaning. And it’s obvious why you would dismiss the idea of such a meaning. People look at all expressions of religion spirituality and say: “where is the evidence?” But slapping the label “belief without evidence” on all religion and spirituality, and thereby dismissing it, is beyond narrow minded. I will get back to why I believe this to be the case in a moment. So please bear with me.

Now, what if a higher meaning is what our future is dependent on? I keep coming back to this over and over again: It’s either freedom in God or some sort of tyranny. On a personal level, we can freely choose to live as God intends, or we will be ruled by our instincts and impulses. And on a collective level we can either put our trust in those that claim that we need stricter regulations to save the planet. Those that say that we need to be monitored, manipulated, taxed and forced into compliance. Or we can put our trust in God. In that he will not let us perish from problems that seem to require unacceptable solutions. Solutions that may not work anyway, I might add. Because we have never been very good at predicting what our measures lead to.

When we have faith in a higher meaning and a life after this one, our perspective shifts. We no longer need to take what we can during our brief, meaningless existence. Because we have something in our lives that is infinitely more important than the sensory gratifications that this short life has to offer.

Said hunt for kicks and empty sensory gratifications was more or less my life, up until I was twenty-three, which was the time when I embraced faith. You may think that I could have been a decent person anyway. Because quite frankly, I wasn’t. What I'm trying to do here, is not to excuse bad behavior. What I want is to show you how my beliefs affected my approach to life.

Now, I think that the kind of nihilistic lens that I viewed life through is much more common than people realize. It’s just that most people don’t spell it out for themselves and live out its consequences as much as I did. Because I was quite clear about my views and their consequences for how I chose to live my life. 

The impulse is still there though, even in many that don’t consciously embrace nihilism as a philosophy. And it guides their actions and allegiances. 

As for finding meaning in religion and spirituality, I understand the whole idea of that the burden of proof falls on the shoulders of the one that claims something. But isn’t that the world is only what we can perceive with our five senses also such a claim that needs to be proven? And isn’t the testimony of countless people throughout the ages, that swear that something higher exists, worth anything in this context? Since subjective experience is the foundation of our being in this world, can we really dismiss it? 

Admittedly, the difficult thing with subjective experience, is that unless it can be tested somehow we only have people’s words. On the other hand, testimonies are used as evidence in trials all the time.

In this case, the testimonies may not point clearly towards one particular view or interpretation of a reality beyond our physical. But they do point to the fact that there is such a reality. 

You may even partially see this blog as a testimony of this kind. Because since I met my wife almost five years ago, we have had some really strange experiences together, that have confirmed the faith that I’ve been carrying for seventeen years now. 

This is the crux of the matter. Today me and my wife and many others know that there is a spiritual side to reality. We know that God exists, even if we sometimes have a hard time putting our trust in God, at times when life’s difficulties seem insurmountable. Because of the nature of our existence, there is no way of proving that God or this spiritual reality exist. But I know. My wife knows. Many other people know. Contless other people throughout history have known. Because our experiences tell us this, in no uncertain terms.

Throughout this text, I think that I have made a pretty strong case for the idea that the belief in God changes how we act in the world. Because our priorities ought to change when our beliefs change. Fundamentally it’s the difference between a perspective of finitude and meaninglessness, contra one of infinity and meaningfulness. And ultimately it’s a choice about what to put our faith in. 

To PART 2.