I really, really meant to write another blog post earlier, but laziness got in the way. :p
Anyway, as i was saying, this book im reading, talks about the 'mind-forged' nature of many things in today's societies. Just the points that struck me, lest this blog bores you to death.
Hodgkinson believes that everything has no instrinsic meaning, like good/bad, ugly/beautiful. Their so called values are imposed upon them by Man. So, lying is neither good nor bad.
These mental manacles that we create ourselves chain us to a meaningless system, thus we lose our freedom. We delegate responsibility for our own enjoyment and purpose in life to other people, to things. Which in fact never do what they promised. Have you ever felt that you never need another bag again after this 'perfect' one? Have you never grumbled at how cumbersome goverments are?
Since these external things are mind forg'd, and life is absurd anyway, we might as well take charge of our own lives. Creating things, however badly, is better than watching others do it well. Getting a life, instead of watching others live theirs.
For lack of a better word, Hodgkinson uses anarchy, but i believe this is an assertive way of being responsible for how you truly want to live your own life.
1st post aft surviving lack of Internet
Ok, I know im supposed to blog more often since e last post, but my freaking pc just died on me last week.
Definitely an experience i would never want to have again. So for e whole of this week, i was moping around e house, and cursing e pc...and also myself, for over relying on e internet.
As mysterious circumstances would have it, i also happen to be reading this v.interesting book 'How to be Free'. One point e author makes is tt we rely too much on others to entertain ourselves - reading what others write, listening to music others make, watching media produced by others. That pretty much sums up what i do with my 'free' time. How tragic. Along this thread, he argues that we give up part of our power to these people, fragmenting our lives over which we are powerless. I'll dedicate more time to this topic in my next blog post...there are too many things to say!
So anyway, my life actually got more varied with e absence of Internet. Went out with real friends, instead of exhanging politely friendly virtual messages with people i don't know tt well. Did some cleaning up, got a job, read more books and magazines, instead of looking at how much more 'happening' other people's lives are. I actually enjoyed myself. Of course, i missed watching Legend, my daily dose of blogs and music...but I more than survived e ordeal.
Definitely an experience i would never want to have again. So for e whole of this week, i was moping around e house, and cursing e pc...and also myself, for over relying on e internet.
As mysterious circumstances would have it, i also happen to be reading this v.interesting book 'How to be Free'. One point e author makes is tt we rely too much on others to entertain ourselves - reading what others write, listening to music others make, watching media produced by others. That pretty much sums up what i do with my 'free' time. How tragic. Along this thread, he argues that we give up part of our power to these people, fragmenting our lives over which we are powerless. I'll dedicate more time to this topic in my next blog post...there are too many things to say!
So anyway, my life actually got more varied with e absence of Internet. Went out with real friends, instead of exhanging politely friendly virtual messages with people i don't know tt well. Did some cleaning up, got a job, read more books and magazines, instead of looking at how much more 'happening' other people's lives are. I actually enjoyed myself. Of course, i missed watching Legend, my daily dose of blogs and music...but I more than survived e ordeal.
