I've been so lucky in life to be the by-product of cross-culturing -- an interesting mix between sometimes paradoxical dichotomy. I must admit it's been quite the fight and the tension experienced due to such a formula has, up to this point, left me void of processing identity and therein I find difficulty in those steps that follow with a fully (as near as one can get) processed identity. That's not to say identity is static by any means, quite the contrary.
I suppose the point I'm attempting to reach is that I've been in slow in figuring out in life what is important to me and with which things I tend to identify. And that brings me to one I find important after many experiences this remains ---->
Freedom is a symbol (as any word) with too many referents. Unfortunately for humans our inefficient communication (symbols and referents) leads to an exceptional amount of cross-and-intra-cultural miscommunication. Now dammit we need to neurological evolve and physically mutate to be able to communicate in sonar like dolphins and whales! Anyway, that's a rant for another time, one I am taking time to research and hoping one day to deeply delve into the subject....
back to the point at hand -- freedom.
I suppose a word to cross-reference my idea would be autonomy.
Having lived in locales with no rule of law, others with little and mostly ignored, surveillance state, rigid European norms, rules, etc. for everything ... und so weiter. I've found in all I've conducted myself the same and not according to the cliche that humans will act selfishly and somehow evil if there is no law or norm/standard for every act for every living moment of our day. I behave as myself without the micromanaging by a police, camera, by-law, familial member, boss, etc..... and I think I'm far from alone with this.
It's getting to the point where authorities in this world are feeling power shift; the imminent threat of losing what they deem "theirs". Just like a stubborn and shitty parent who, rather than grant autonomy (and all the principles attached to this) to a "rebelling" teenager, strangles and attempts to smoother (i.e. control) their child... we all know how this story ends. We also know the inevitable always happens and that teenager breaks free and processes an identity that they can consider their own. Sometimes such a battle is indeed intense and dangerous. Collateral in a battle of wills can extend horizontally and vertically bringing down much in it's wake.
I know that is a shitty and undeveloped metaphor filled with holes but I think one can understand to which it is I refer...........
Powers-that-be are not a boogie-man metaphor. They literally are institutions with groups and individuals intent on power and control. Men and women with deep issues filled with skewed perceptions of reality and what it means to be human. A few have the clarity to see the world for what it has become and the extremely negative consequences due to their actions and policies but are drunk on power and greed to stop -- filed with insatiable desire for adoration and gratification.
My point... the harder you squeeze the longer you may hold and control but the larger the reaction. As the pendulum now swings in it's critical mass, take heed, and be prepared for the pendulum to swing in it's opposite direction.
All I seek is autonomy for myself. Autonomy for those with which I network. A world where much is based on mutuality. A Freedum of unnecessary bureaucracy and complexities... A simplicity...
Fuck me; I know such a thing is a paradise lost and not to be seen with my living eyes BUT knock me out and bury me alive if I ever stop attempting to form that world with those forces that I have in my orbital dance.