new thread
(I post this because I think it relevant to many long-haired men and because of the huge response I got to an earlier post.)
THE INVISIBLE WALL by Daniel Quinn (author of Ishmael)
Because my books deal with issues that trouble them deeply, I hear from a lot of young people. They want to know how to avoid becoming wage slaves. They want to know how to live in the world without contributing to its destruction. They often dream of running off to some wolderness where they can "live off the land" or to some utopian commune where they can live as if the rest of the world doesn't exist. In the end, they're all struggling with the same thing: the capitivity that holds all the members of our culture in the place. In the book I'm the best known for, Ishmael tells his pupil:
"You're captives of a civilization system that compels you to go on destroying the world in order to live."
This is where Ishmael starts with his pupil, because understanding and acknowledging our captivity is the beginning of freedom. We actually have ourselves captives. No outsider locked us in. We locked ourselves in--gradually and unwittingly. And we're all locked in together: People like Bill Gates and Donald Trump have luxurious cells, but they're just as much
prisoners as the rest of us. Liberation has to begin with understanding the nature of the wall that surrounds us. It doesn't do any good to scream at it or to curse the hundreds of generations who built it one stone at a time(thinking they were doing something terrific). So this is my recipe for freedom:
Understand how the wall got there and how It works; then start looking for cracks. It's not Indestructible, but it has to be seen before It can be destroyed.
Well, I'm perfectly happy where I am in my "cell".
This is powerful material, Mike. Thanks for putting it up.
Robert
I am a leftist and everything, but this destroying society thing wouldn't work at all. If one were to find these cracks and destroy the "system", a new system would be put into its place that a certain group wouldn't like. Government is all pretty subjective. Certain people like certain things. I find it best just to accept that fact and go on as best as you can, keeping some kind of hope in the fact that you are in a sence higher than those who blinding follow where they are told. These are the people that go from advertisement to advertisement looking for their identity. These are the people that don't think of things so much as "What does that mean to me?", but more as "What show was that on?". Its not really something we can change. We can try, but in the big picture, it will always be the same.
This is why I am growing my hair out. One day, I went to get a haircut. I looked through the little book of styles and found myself not really wanting to adapt to what the platic people told me. In the end, I don't care what I look like or what people percieve me as, I care about what makes me happy. And this makes me happy - this freedom, this pureness. The way we dress and the way we cut our hair doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it goes a long way in this hollow shell everybody seems to carve for themselves.
Don't worry, that's not exactly it. This isn't an author who advocates the "Fight Club" approach. It goes much deeper. It's impossible to describe of course, which is why he had to write four books on the topic to articulate what he was saying.
If you are interested in this you can visit
http://www.readishmael.com
And forgive me for sounding so much like an ad. A lot of long-haired men share my interest in these issues... moreso I think than the "general" population.
Your post, Mike, made me go out and buy Ishmael today. Thanks for the insight, it will be a great read on my 16hour bus trip through Mexico this week.
Cheers,
Scott