Like most people, I think most people are rational, loving, and empathetic. The vast majority of humans today live lives of complete wasted potential, unfortunately and a very small minority of people are able to achieve material prosperity that enables them to think about "beyond me" topics such as the fact that we exist in a certain condition, and we have no real idea yet what to do with ourselves. Located mostly in affluent countries, these people explore the possibilities of what is and what can be for humans.
The fact remains though that most people are rational. The man toiling in mud to provide for his nation's food supply without proper infrastructure has no less capable rational faculties than Albert Einstein. In both of their cases, their brains simply adapted around the conditions thrown at them, and each decision throughout their lives was what their brains believed would maximize their happiness. Sometimes, they may lack information in their decisions or behave irrationally temporarily due to intoxication or some biological infatuation with a thing (addiction, or even attraction to women) but in normal circumstances, most people operate with similar levels of rational decision making (as very best as they can given their needs and desires).
For this reason, it is simply self-evident what colossal waste is caused on humanity by needless harm on others and violent hierarchies (such as gangs, violent companies, and governments). Every child working in a diamond mine today could have potentially grown up to be as brilliant as Einstein. The only issue is, there is someone that believes his potential contributions are maximized by slaving away in a mountain getting rocks of no utilitarian value to buy him a big house and frivolous expenditures to impress his friends and family.
For this reason, it is simply self-evident what colossal waste is caused on humanity by needless harm on others and violent hierarchies (such as gangs, violent companies, and governments). Every child working in a diamond mine today could have potentially grown up to be as brilliant as Einstein. The only issue is, there is someone that believes his potential contributions are maximized by slaving away in a mountain getting rocks of no utilitarian value to buy him a big house and frivolous expenditures to impress his friends and family.
For the de facto slaves of the world (and even the bourgeoisie minority free of manual labor), this condition poses many unanswered questions about their psychologies and reasons for why they sometimes feel complete lack of motivation. This leads the slaves to believe they simply aren't "rational enough" or "strong willed enough" to succeed in the society they're in. However, this mystery is shattered when one simply examines the world outside the slave, and not the psychology of the slave him or herself. This emotional state isn't a biological error, as many people assume. It's the logical conclusion, and the process begins with the knowledge that one's life is unnatural and being driven at the whims of some other human. Freedom is self evident. One knows when one is free and when one isn't as easily as when one knows when they're in love. Levels of freedom are simple and potentially come a priori (in other words, knowledge about how free you are is innate and part of your biology from birth) to humans thanks to our evolutionary roots. Below I present a simple logical way to classify people based on freedom.
1. The direct slave-- being explicitly under the control of another, and having no control. May or may not involve conscious awareness of slavery. However, happiness doesn't exist. Nothing will ever feel enough. A void sucking happiness and occasionally inspiring evil exists in this mind. The world is simply a terrible place to this mind.
2. The potentially free-- being in a state of capture, but still having some control over the direction of life. For example, a captured prisoner in the process of escaping may not be free yet, but he does have some control and is able to steer his way towards his goal. Happiness does exist, and only a matter of time away.
3. The truly free-- Has autonomy and self-interested purpose behind actions. All actions are optional to this mind, and there is plenty of energy and time for daily maintenance of the body, higher-goal directed actions, and personal growth. This mind feels free and knows it. This mind has strong personal control and strives everyday to expand awareness to further secure their freedom and happiness. Virtues such as benevolence and loyalty most commonly exist with this mind.
All people are aware life isn't always fair. Most people know there are people occupying positions of power which are keeping them from having "more", be that resources, time with family, or time for writing revolutionary essays. The injustice people face on a daily basis against their own society is that they live in a world where their lives are completely managed outside of their control. Taxes, regulation, police, and the rest of the planners of society take what they want and tell everyone else they're lucky to have crumbs. Often times, the pressure to conform to this society is multiplied by the use of religion and state-mandated scientific doctrine (such as the "scientific" views Nazis held with race) to force millions into unnatural roles, worrying about people and conflicts they should have no interest in if they were free. Laziness, stagnation, and a state of near-physical paralysis is the logical conclusion to living in a world like this. Laziness is the mind saying "I'm on strike."
Unable to understand this strong subconscious hold on the conscious mind and its commands, many people go through life blaming themselves for what their completely honest subconscious knows is the correct action. Laziness clogs the machine, it wastes resources, and it leads to the tumble of rulers when practiced in mass without need for exposure to physical violence. The mind gives a simple signal when it's had enough: "I'm not doing anything today" and this is when man can encounter extreme difficulty in tasks as routine as getting out of bed.
Repression of this impulse is futile but people try in vain regardless, always fearful of potential punishment. A prisoner's dilemma is created for everyone suffering from laziness, and the truly exceptional find ways to be lazy without appearing so to any of the other busy-bodies. Being in a state of laziness (or should I say, strike against society) forever though, is a waste of life for anyone attempting this. Unfortunately, so is continuing to try to work for establishment plans. For anyone stuck with no way of getting out or any means of being able to resist, the logical conclusion is suicide, and suicidal thoughts are also a perfectly rational thing to consider when the situation appears hopeless. This statement may seem ghastly, but when one considers why people commit and campaign for assisted suicide, the use of suicide does have apparent appropriate situations (unless the individual's religious beliefs forbid it).
This essay is not meant to convince anyone to view suicide as the best solution, though. Inaction is the weapon of only those with no weapons left and no reason to try to hope for better later. Many people stuck as "direct slaves" from category one of the freedom classes have the ability to work towards a chosen goal and therefore reason to maintain hope. This puts almost everyone within category two. Runaway slaves from every empire are common throughout history, and conspiracies to rebel and defy empires are themes as strong in our past as sex.
The truth that we work so that we can enjoy our lives is a fact as self evident to all as 2 + 2 = 4. I believe in the coming future, as this truth becomes widely known and available from all fields pushing towards this (neurochemistry, psychology, economics, and history) truth, it will even creep its way into religious institutions who place great value in the protection of the family. Philosophy has also raced its way to this truth. The entire movement of Marxism is one directed at liberating the proletariat from this unnatural serfdom, made possible only by shoving honorable men and loving women into the darkest pits of slavery and never knowing what they were truly worth. Objectivism has been the right's charge at the ruling classes as well. Atlas Shrugged was Ayn Rand's most popular novel, and one of the most popular books of all time. Rand also knew of the importance of happiness and any educated Objectivist is aware of this obvious fact. Spoiler alert, stop reading here if you haven't read Atlas Shrugged. The original title for the book was also intended to be "The Strike", and the whole book is about what would happen in the world if the "men of the mind"-- the businessmen, scientists, authors, musicians, etc. all went on strike because the state believed they had "too much" and no longer deserved the reward others were willing to voluntarily give them for their work.
The future is imminent.
The future is imminent.
