Extraction.

It is baffling to me how people, strong in numbers, can line dance with society: synchronized with every hypnotic motion, following blindly the sirens of resignation and submission of oneself. The world forces us to become puppets and robots and sheep: prisoners to every program they design and reinforce. If we don’t work, we can’t eat. You can work and eat but you have to only do that because you’ll be given other things to consume your time. If you want a break or need time off, you can only take a week but expect your job to still pester you while you’re off and when you return, you’re in for a rude awakening. If we don’t possess a phone, we can’t access any of our personal information. If we don’t inject our bodies, then we can’t travel or be rendered services. You’re killing yourself to survive in a world that aims to drown you of every ounce of energy, money, and time that you have. It’s a pathetic and disgusting monster that people continue to coddle and tolerate. It is not natural to live like this and as humans, we are not designed to function this way. So, every morning, I prepare myself for resistance but slowly I am growing tired, tired of fighting and tired of constantly trying to offset the pressures of the world. I only want to stay present and connect with myself and what’s in the ground and in the sky. I don’t ever want to forget that I am born into a free world and don’t want to neglect it or take it for granted.

I do not agree with the construct of the man’s world, with society’s demands, and with all the regimes that shape human existence. The matrix that we live in manipulates us each and every single day, imposing on us the ways in which we are to function and behave: how we’re suppose to look and present ourselves when we step foot outside, where we’re supposed to be, where and how we shelter, the tasks we must carry out in order to survive, the schedule we must follow, how we arrive to our destinations, what and how we eat, and almost everything, that’s in between, that we think we have decisions over, are only available to us from a pre-selected, limited palette, one that’s carefully and strategically served in a manner to discourage non-compliance. The way in which we care and look after each other is even monitored and limited so that we don’t have the range and ability to truly support our loved ones. I call it the invisible shackles of the man’s world. Unknowingly, we are given directive in how to think and feel. How much and how often are we to eat. What our pleasures are and what we need to do to fulfill them: at what cost? Who are we? What is our purpose? The answers to these questions require a free mind, however we are being fed answers that are prescribed to us. We are born into a contract; one we have no awareness of.  A lot of people don’t realize that they’re not actually free in this world. Nothing is free. There’s no plot of earth out there that one can freely roam without some entity declaring ownership of it or imposing penalty. Water is not free, food is not free, freedom is not even free. It’s all fake. Chris Hedges writes the following in his book Empire of Illusion: “Sadism dominates the culture. It runs like an electric current through reality television and trash-talk programs, is at the core of pornography, and fuels the compliant, corporate collective. Corporatism is about crushing the capacity for moral choice and diminishing the individual to force him or her into an ostensibly harmonious collective. This hypermasculinity has its logical fruition in Abu Ghraib, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our lack of compassion for our homeless, our poor, the mentally ill, the unemployed, and the sick. ... We accept the system handed to us and seek to find a comfortable place within it. We retreat into the narrow, confined ghettos created for us and shut our eyes to the deadly superstructure of the corporate state.”

These ghettos are the little communities we’re thrust into, the office, the classroom (we all know history has been fabricated to some degree and what we learn is selective content), and even inside our own homes. We live in complacency. We accept life this way and enable ourselves to believe that happiness consists of having a nuclear family, a good job, a paycheck, a retirement fund, a vacation, a present, a car, a home, and whatever else fits into a “normal” life.  Every waking morning, I go to war. The anxiety that builds up throughout the day, the feelings of loneliness, and the signs that my body gives off are how I reject all that is around me. I refuse to accept that this is all life has to offer me and so I will do all that is within my power to walk in my own path and live according to my own terms. I am so in tune with the natural world that I constantly find myself feeling ostracized. So many people are stuck in bounded rationality, and I wish I could save the world by helping people see that there is so much more to life, that they are superior superhumans and that if they could tap into their divine powers, they’ll unlock the shackles that confine their mind and their bodies. The system shames those who protest injustice and that speak out or question authority. Even a free-thinking student sometimes experiences resistance if they challenge thought in the classroom. We are conditioned to fear change and to expect discipline if disobedient. It’s important to remember that real world changes that have occurred were due to the courage and bravery of those who were willing to compromise their “normal” lives and fight the system in place. We’re convinced that by going to war, we’re serving our country when really all we’re doing is perpetuating more egoism, power struggle, and corruption. When Mohammad Ali refused to join the army, they immediately stripped him of his heavyweight title. He justified his decision by stating “I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end…The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom, and equality…If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people, they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow…So I’ll go to jail. We’ve been in jail for four hundred years.” His words ring true today, that we, not just people of color, are still in jail: every one of us. You must work, you must have a job. You can’t explore the world. You must pay taxes, no matter where or how you get money. You must give every part of yourself; your energy, your body, your time, your resources, all of it, in exchange for money. There is no break, no mercy, no redemption. I often wonder what it might be like if an entire nation of people simply said no and if they just decided they would no longer operate under the system. They can’t punish us all, can they? Who’s more powerful? I’m not sure what that would mean in terms of changing the world, but I do know that if there’s a collective effort, we could really shift the way we lead our lives, a way that’s truly fulfilling, and how we share the earth. I imagine it as an extraction from the matrix. One that would free us to experience true abundance of love, peace, harmony, happiness, and nourishment.