Misplaced defense mechanism

June 20th, 2023

Being in society helps me. There are rules — not very clear and numerous and usually bent — but rules nonetheless. And if you play by the rules you will get somewhere, or so I (and everybody else) were told. And I go along with it, play by the rules, play a role that doesn't suit me all the while my life escapes from every day.

Society provides a well-fortified line of defense against individual and personal impotence. Society creates a hero system and hero worship that lets us pretend that we can escape the mundane (and even death) by participating in something worthwhile. Or in something that will last for a while — at least longer than our fleshy vessel will.

We delude ourselves that we can achieve immortality by repressing our bodies and denying our bodily needs. We ache for immortality while toiling to build a temple (better and bigger and to a truer god — than those on the other side). We expect immortality while dying to establish or conquer an empire. We await immortality through toiling to establish and raise and provide for the family, by amassing a fortune, by progressing on the property ladder, or by becoming more prosperous than the other guy.

Or we could simply count on immortality by writing a book. Or painting a picture. Or recording a song.

If we do any of those heroic deeds, then we will transcendent death, or (which is much worse) — oblivion. That is why we operate within the rules laid out by society. Those rules are intricately and covertly religious, no matter what society. And those rules are so deeply embedded in all of us that we don't even see them for what they are — defense mechanisms against becoming a true and honest to yourself individual — and that cannot be allowed.