On self-actualization

Society is a ready-made crap necessary to hold things together.

Society is structured.

First, we have the family, the very first group of (usually biologically related) individuals. Thereafter, we go to another social institution: education. After which, we have the government. Should the government fail to institute a man, he goes to religion and deal with a bunch of belief systems which all target his inner musings. There’s one more thing in the list: the economy.

This pattern leads to boredom, truth be told. One gets born, earns education, goes out to government, learns to believe in supernatural entities, participates in economy. It is a model where we just fit in every single thing, except for the first social institution, which is nothing but an accidental, going-out-of-hand case.

Society is a ready-made crap necessary to hold things together. A family is nothing but individuals whom we associate ourselves with; so we put them in papers for seamless identification. Then there are types of family: nuclear, blended, extended, etc. which all dictate how we are seen by society: the values we have, the tradition we maintain, the culture we enjoy, and all of it. Then in education, we get all the knowledge, the refinement, the skills, the other values, the universals, among other endless human inquiries on human progression. The kind of education we get gives room for others’ judgment about who we are, again. Then the government steps in. We have plenty of types: democracy, dictatorial, monarchy, among all others. Then we get judged again with that crap. Then we have religions to choose, most of which give another room for us to be judged by others. And then economy. Do we have policies to this-and-that, are we jobless, are we employed, how is our goods here, among all of the bunch of craps again.

Do these institutions self-actualize a man? No. Almost everywhere we associate ourselves with, we are judged to hell. We are skinned alive. Everything is out of control. We don’t know our family, our education, our government, our religion, our economy. We don’t like getting associated to anything we do not have a complete knowledge nor control of.

Where do we go then?

We go to the Arts. And in the Arts, mostly, we are alone.

We write poetry; we sing; we play instruments; we paint; we sculp; we mold; we dance; we design our clothing; we craft; we forge ways to express ourselves through the Arts.

In essence, the Arts is independent of social institutions, though we may find them therein — say, paintings and sculptures inside a religious building.

Given the dictations of society, we are desperate to have our sense of being, of autonomy over our lives. We all want that sense of selfhood.

Get your ass out and paint that fucking tree with a lot of leaves, write that damn novel exploring whatever subject and theme you want to explore, move your fingers across the piano, guitar, or blow that loud annoying trumpet, tire that throat with the song you like, dance to the music and have fun, just go to the Arts where your soul screams and is heard.

The Arts will touch every fiber that you have, soothe you in the nerves, and actualize and refine you for who you want to be.

Go and redeem yourself from the harsh dictations of this world. Be the main character of your life and have a good death afterwards.