This will be the first of a parallel posts about Life. I can't cover nearly everything, and there's a lot to cover. It all falls under the heading of the Beginner's Guide to Life. So, this will be the first.
What is there to say about life? There are no guides, no rules, no second chances. Every minute you've spent on life is a minute you will never have again.
At this point, you may be wondering where I'm taking this. I've already said that there aren't guides to life, and I'm sticking by that (this post is a little miss-labeled). Rather, what I'm going to do is present a few ideas about life, and about how you can live your life. It's up to you to accept these ideas or not. And that in itself is the first idea.
You are you.
As clichéd as it sounds, it's true. You are, as a thinking, acting, feeling individual,
are unique. However! If you stop any performing any one of these three functions, you become exactly the same as everyone else who has forsaken that part of them. Only by retaining, and most importantly, exercising these gifts can you be truly individual. Of course, difference comes at a price. By thinking/acting/feeling, you lose the benefits of groupthink. Yes, by exercising your inborn gifts, you put yourself at the mercy of society, the great sociological machine that powers itself by strip-mining the singular instances of thinking, acting, or feeling.
This is the second idea. Look upon society, upon all societies, as machines. Recognize this human creation as an unthinking automaton, perpetuated by the voluntary rape of it's creators' gifts. Some societies are seem better than others. These take less and give more. Some are worse, using up people at exponential rates and never giving anything back.
This is a very important idea, and a very powerful one. This single idea can free you from a lifetime of servitude and slow death. Recognize that, while two offerings to the Machine from one person perpetuate it, all three will cause it to break down. The Machine cannot process all three of the gifts of a single person. Thus, in the life of that person, it loses its hold. And it's going is not pleasant. A person who tries to voluntarily throw to society their thought, actions, and feelings will undergo a trial by fire. Either they will live with a greater understanding and appreciation for non-machines, or they will be destroyed by, as J.R.R. Tolkein put it, "the fires of Industry."
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From this point on, I'm going to assume that you've realized and accepted the idea of society being an unthinking sociological automaton. If you haven't, pretend that you have and come along for the ride.
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Now, post-"eye-opening", there are three choices. Accept the Machine, leave the Machine, or destroy the Machine. I'll start with the first.
Accepting the machine can be done in a multitude of ways. There is one unifying factor to this, however. Anyone who accepts the Machine will gradually forget that idea, and live on without that knowledge.
Now, there are two extremes to acceptance. There is the complete acceptance (and the accompanying apathy towards yourself that is required to do this), and there is the wary interaction undertaken by the types of people who get their sustenance from food co-ops and farmer's markets. These people are still powering the Machine, but they are minimizing their involvement. However, as I said, they will eventually forget that they are part of a machine.
Next is leaving the Machine altogether. This is the group dominated by survivalists, anarcho-primitivists, hermits, and full-time philosophers (such as Socrates and other ancient philosophers. Most philosophers these days apply their skills at a different job). Completely removed from society and the Machine, people who have done this usually live in remote areas; the Machine is very seductive with its promises of comfort and luxury.
Many of these people will advocate against the Machine. Very rarely will you find any of them actually doing anything.
Lastly comes the third option; fighting against society's manipulations. This is both the most productive and the most dangerous, both physically and mentally. Agents, people who have been so seduced by the promises of an inanimate entity that they are nearly zombies, will try their best to convert or destroy all resistors to the inexorable march towards destruction. All the "hippies," activists, anarchists, and militants who have "grown out" of those roles and have jobs, careers, fringe benefits, the whole shebang, have been swayed in their convictions by the unconscious desire for comfort and security. The Machine preys on these desires by offering an easy way out. It gets harder to resist as you age. It's hard to resist something that comes from inside your own head.
Once you've made your choice of who you will be, it is up to you to follow that path.
As I said, there are no rules. There will be no one to correct you if you make the wrong choices or decisions, or if you say the wrong thing. No one will present to you a step by step walk through to your choice. I have merely (hopefully) opened the windows to the outside world. It is up to you to walk out the door.
If you accept these ideas, these possibilities, that I have laid out, I will help you as much as I can. If I can't, I will direct you to those who may have more information.
Questions, comments, and constructive criticisms can be left in comments or PMs. Outright denials of anything or everything expressed in here are best left for yourself.
