I am someone who enjoys listening in on random conversations in a café setting. Very often, the conversation will reach a point when one person declares, “it’s crazy!” about something they have evoked. I do believe we each have a fearful side of ourselves that is always censoring our public discourse with in/sanity in mind. I used to know someone who didn’t want to write down their thoughts in the medium of long-form email, because they didn’t want to unintentionally write something that seemed crazy. They preferred to get constant feedback on their conversation in person. What to do with a society which collectively fears having thoughts so outside the norm that they are stigmatised?
Sometimes I think the only difference between those locked up in psychiatric wards and the those who are not is their ability to signal sanity. To participate in modern Australian society is to continually affirm the righteousness of your worldview, and to exclude those that don’t play along.
Sometimes I am scared to think in certain ways. How much of society’s norms can I challenge without being seen as a lost cause? Do I have the energy to question everything? “Question everything” may be a good motto, especially when you’re a teenager or in your early twenties, and that questioning is foundational, but what happens when you wake up to a new reality where you have to choose a few norms to conform to for the sake of navigating the world in a simple and/or safe manner?
I mourn my lost explorer, my Alternative Reality Generating Mindset, my ‘question everything’ mode. I’m not sure what I have gained is ethically sound from the most radical of perspectives. (Perspectives I still have affinity with.) But I will keep modifying myself in relation to my environment. I will strike the balance necessary to remain safe in this world, with all the compromise that it involves. Perhaps kind and revolutionary souls will build on my work in the present and future, as I have noticed them doing in the past.
Sometimes I think the only difference between those locked up in psychiatric wards and the those who are not is their ability to signal sanity. To participate in modern Australian society is to continually affirm the righteousness of your worldview, and to exclude those that don’t play along.
Sometimes I am scared to think in certain ways. How much of society’s norms can I challenge without being seen as a lost cause? Do I have the energy to question everything? “Question everything” may be a good motto, especially when you’re a teenager or in your early twenties, and that questioning is foundational, but what happens when you wake up to a new reality where you have to choose a few norms to conform to for the sake of navigating the world in a simple and/or safe manner?
I mourn my lost explorer, my Alternative Reality Generating Mindset, my ‘question everything’ mode. I’m not sure what I have gained is ethically sound from the most radical of perspectives. (Perspectives I still have affinity with.) But I will keep modifying myself in relation to my environment. I will strike the balance necessary to remain safe in this world, with all the compromise that it involves. Perhaps kind and revolutionary souls will build on my work in the present and future, as I have noticed them doing in the past.
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