One of my eternal frustrations is seeing injustice in the world. No matter how much I try to understand the Tao when it says ‘the world will be what it wants to be‘, I am unable to reconcile my frustration with seeing people suffering at the hands of others.
I believe that this world is our ‘schoolground’ for experiences that we choose to be part of. I should be appreciative that everyone on this world are experiencing the life of their choosing before they were born.
But inside of me are values that came about during my childhood. The expression of my free will and opinions were suppressed by my parents, and I was punished for doing what they didn’t want me to do, even if my actions or expressions were entirely reasonable for a child. Since my expressed anger was also punished, this resulted in passive aggressive attitudes as I grew up, but that’s not the subject of this post.
When I see others having their freedom or expression suppressed or punished, I get angry, because it has subconsciously connected with my feelings about my own experiences in my past.
I only realised this recently, and at this stage I’m unsure how this knowledge will help me overcome my feelings of anger and frustration when I see or hear of people around me or around the world having their freedom or expression suppressed or punished. I get very angry, and very frustrated at my inability to do anything about it.
I guess my powerlessness is also an aspect of my own past. We are powerless against authority in our lives. It has tools of punishment, and the resources with which to administer the punishment. It makes the rules, and the resources to enforce the rules. If we don’t like it and we speak out, we’re punished for it, either by fines, imprisonment or even death.
Our world is becoming something that encourages the fear to speak out, to express ourselves. It punishes us for haivng an opinion it doesn’t like, or if we do something that harms no one but is in opposition to what it dictates. Our world is becoming authoritarian, where individual freedom is beginning to be suppressed or punished wherever we look.
So-called democratic governments are starting to look like the fascist dictatorships that we thought we were once enemies of, and there is no respite. More and more laws suppressing freedom are being introduced. Fear of questioning authority is replacing the desire to live free lives.
We are no longer free, and we haven’t been free for a very long time. We have the illusion of freedom that is supplied by those in authority to placate the masses. But step out of line, and you’re in trouble.
In a way, I’m feeling that the saying, ‘The world will be what it wants to be‘, is a defeatist attitude. It’s saying we shouldn’t fight against authority or oppression. We should accept it as being ‘what people want’, and we should simply become one of the masses that lays down and capitulates our life to an oppressive authority.
For all my adult life, I’ve felt that freedom is far more important than anything else. Struggling against oppression is our only choice. Fighting for what is right is far better than laying down and dying a slow death of oppression.
There’s another saying I believe in: ‘I may not believe in what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it.’
Will you fight for your rights as a human being, or will you let yourself continue to be oppressed and live as a slave to whatever the authorities dictate for you?
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