One Easy Step Towards Self-Liberation

There is one easy step that you can take to liberate yourself from all kinds of constraints. It requires only a sheer act of will and thought: to forget about all the concepts, the mere words, that internally constrain you unnecessarily. Forget about God, morality, duty, conscience, loyalty, honour, virtue, nations, ethnic solidarity, and familial piety. Forget about the ideals that you have not chosen and those that you refuse to allow yourself to challenge. Forget about all these things and just ask yourself: how will this action really make me feel? How badly will betraying a friend really make me feel? How good will helping someone in need really make me feel? This is what’s important; everything else is just nonsense.

We are subject to all kinds of external constraints that we cannot get free from so easily. We are constrained by the fear of other people thinking badly of us, and consequently being less friendly with us and maybe even ostracizing us. We are constrained by the fear of being violently harassed by people, whether from the government or otherwise. These oppressive constraints we must, for the moment at least, put up with, and we must modify our actions accordingly. Why reinforce this oppression with internal constraints, constraints which we can liberate ourselves from so easily? Why reinforce the oppressive force of public opinion with internal moralism? Why reinforce the oppressive force of the State with internal legalism? Why subject ourselves to a whole new, and often bizarre, set of internal constraints by becoming religious?

The threatened cold shoulder of the people we want to cooperate with, the guns of the political State; surely these are constraint enough! But perhaps you say the world would be an uglier place without the concepts of honor, loyalty, duty, morality, etc… But if you think that way, then just create your own, individual versions of these concepts! Don’t just swallow the pre-packaged versions of these concepts, formulated by other people for purposes very different from your own. Create your own versions of these concepts if you like, and if you don’t find the concept useful anymore, than just discard it! Make these concepts your creation and your servant, not your master. If this were done, then finally these concepts would be suited to the individual’s own purposes. Only in this form would they be worth retaining.

How will the immediate result of this action make me feel? What will be the remoter consequences of the action and how will these likely make me feel when they arise? Are these not much more simple and useful questions to base your decision-making on than: What would God think? Would it be moral? Is it legal? Is it in the interests of my nation? Am I displaying virtue, honour, and loyalty? Is my duty done and my conscience appeased? You will have successfully taken a great step towards self-liberation when you can look at this latter set of questions and respond with: who cares?