You are free, and it isn't your choice.
I've always wondered why people love the idea of a post-apocalypse so much. What about the aftermath of ruin stokes people's minds and interests? As one who enjoys the genre myself, I have come to one underlying common theme: we like to see a world with dismantled rules. We cannot help but wonder what we ourselves would do in such dire, such free, circumstances. The hierarchies are gone, and our values are flipping faster than our lives. The world presents you with an opportunity to decide your next steps based on nothing but your own values and desires. Do you seek out friends, families, or other survivors? Do you seek to reestablish the order lost in the chaos? Do you intend to supplant the old order with the new to carry humanity to its future? Or do you become a savage, looting and ravaging bandit hellbent on salting the wounds of the earth?
(That would be me to some degree, loathe as I am to shoulder whatever negative impression that gives you.)
People's answers to this question are more revealing about a plethora of values than you might at first consider. Perhaps you can't know for sure all you would do in such dire circumstances, or perhaps you know exactly what you would do, since you have indulged so often in the fantasy. In reflection of this, we are forced to imagine a version of ourselves who is confronted with such a choice. The quality of character of this imagined self is no doubt someone you have the potential to be. The very fact of you imagining such characteristics means they lie within the realm of possibility for you to exhibit. It doesn't mean you will ever face the same situations you imagine yourself in; no, in fact, we almost never find ourselves to be. The world, as we always learn the hard way, is quite a bit muddier than the simple contrasts we tend to use in painting it with our minds. Things are grey and complicated. People do horrific things for relatable reasons.
It is not up to us to predict the future of the world or its state; it is only up to us to predict the future of ourselves and the person we wish to become.
If we cross-apply this imaginative exercise to the present, we can learn to navigate our choices now with the same eager fervor we might for our favorite fiction. Unfortunately, we do not live in a world of ink. Instead, we live in a world that can make worlds of ink, and this is something just as valuable. And characteristic of a world that makes worlds of ink, we too can write our own destiny. We cannot wipe away the ink that's dried, but there are many pages yet to look forward to. We must imagine ourselves as we do in our fiction; we must wonder what we might do in the face of trying circumstances and aim to embody the traits of our greatest imagined self. As you venture out into the realms of love, ambition, creation, or the sublime, aim to act as close to this person you imagine as you can. The better you come to know yourself, the easier it will become to imagine and embody this greater self. And if none of this rings true in your mind if you feel defeated before you can even imagine your own brilliance, take solace in knowing that the feeling of this defeat is a certain milestone on the path to becoming someone great.
For now, we play the game of society as it is. We must learn the rules to have the influence we desire. We must acquire wisdom, skills, and the will to pursue both. We create value for others and ask for financial reciprocation because this is the world as it is. The game is that of money, and while it does indeed lubricate the machine of material progress, it also renders us blind to our more human requisites. Of course, we may deny this aspect of the world altogether, and in fact, I believe this to be crucial in specific circumstances. When a loved one, a parent, or a child needs help, do you demand reciprocation? Probably not, for their sake and the sake of your psyche. Giving up your time to others is not the same as wasted time, for what you get, in turn, is more valuable than gold could ever be. We help each other in the ways we can and establish the value of trust and mutual kinship.
Go, grow, become, and fill those pages with something beautiful.
Until next time.
Subscribe for more.
Comments