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I lost my voice for half a day at a company function.When communication takes too much effort, we tend to retreat into ourselves and become isolated.
I learned two things: one, be sparing with your voice (you didn’t need to talk so much anyway), and two, some people are without a voice every day (be more sympathetic).
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By naming a thing, you create yourself in the image of the concept.
example: Once, you would have been “sad” or “grieving,” whereas now you can be named “depressed.” Once named (a more permanent state), you will maintain, or even nurture, the named self.
Other terms you can be named: hero, villain, victim ~ but there is no need to own the name.
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Our stubborn refusal to let the world fall apart is painfully costly. Yet, someone has to put in the energy to maintain the shape of things.
There are always offers of ease, often with a new language of priorities sidestepping difficulty. This is merely another entropy: the entropy of self.
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We tend to explain how something works to describe what it is.
We can break it down into categories and measurements, but this pretends to be understood without clarifying or enlightening.
We need to know how something fits into the world more than we need a fact sheet.
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Civilization functions because of impulse control to such a degree that ‘politeness’ is a virtue. Non-reaction is vital, yet this is not non-judgment.
Our society’s value placed upon the visible appearance rather than the internal struggle condemns us to a cycle of schizophrenic repression and angst in the populace. Hence, we have our meltdowns with a smile.
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To maintain submission, you must rewrite history.
Even this will not quail dissent when contradictions and hypocrisy multiply, yet a story with no alternative constricts the imagination, choking out possibilities in favor of momentum.
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It seems apparent that we should turn from detrimental chaos and return to accountability, responsibility, and transparent governance structures.
Yet, on a personal level, to become responsible is difficult because we enjoy our "freedom": freedom defined as a release from obligation.
On a societal level, to turn away from nonsense appears limited to capitalist or bureaucratic "logic": logic defined by economics and institutions.
These challenges are due to a carefully nurtured naivety, a soft spot for nonsense.
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Frustration at contradictions is an alert: the system is not serving us.
For instance: we have starvation amidst abundance. We are more connected than ever, yet people feel more alone and despondent.
When a system’s goals are out of alignment, either the stated goals are lies, or the system is not built to accept adaptive feedback.
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I find that by telling myself what “not to do” I become focused on that behavior. “Don’t do that thing” turns into doing that exact thing.
However, I fall into deep engrossment by distracting myself with a different task.
I am not doing that thing I don’t want to do because I’ve not given myself the opportunity (time or energy) to even think about it.
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The problem: Revolutions use the voice of the people to replace one tyranny with another.
Rosa Luxembourg says the revolution is shaped by listening, not insisting. You must serve the revolution, not yourself, Lenin.
