The Lone Path Home - Slumbering in Solitude

“What you avoid suffering yourself, seek not to impose on others. You avoid slavery, for instance; take care not to enslave. For if you can bear to exact slavery from others, you appear to have been yourself a slave.”

Epictetus, The Works of Epictetus, Fragments, XXXVIII, p. 411

Why Would You Willingly Surrender to Servitude

Have you become so disoriented that you willingly submit to slavery? Have you found your happiness in becoming a slave? Have you found your happiness in submitting yourself to unseen shackles? Have you lost total control over your individuality and, having done that, surrendered yourself to world-dominating corporations? Have you given up on yourself and let unseen and unnoticed powers control your decisions? Have you lost your grip on your own logical and analytical intelligence to let world-dominating corporations make decisions for you?

An Uncomfortable Revelation

If you deny all that, you are in for a very big disappointment. The clothes you buy, the shoes you purchase, the small items you buy, the food you eat, the snacks you consume, the car you drive and more are controlled by someone.

You do not have to believe me. Take stock of the situation. See what is happening around you. Evaluate your life, with your own analytical mind.

Ripping Away the Illusion

Who is the client who pays? YOU and I and every individual in society. If you propose the idea that I am propounding a conspiracy theory, let me open your eyes. Do not blame me if you feel hurt at the end of this exposure.

Coming Out of the Reverie

You live in a rented place, you have a job that pays your salary, you have a car that helps you reach your office. You might use public transport to reach your place of work.

You do not have enough time for your family, you need to be in the office on time, you might need to do overtime, you might be asked to respond to tasks at the weekend.

You are paid a salary, you might even get a bonus at the end of the year, for which there is no guarantee. There is no guarantee that you can remain in the job until your retirement. You may not want to, but that argument does not belong here.

Little Drops of Water Make a Mighty Ocean

On the way home, you need to go shopping. You do not notice that you only have a limited choice of items from which to choose. Your choice is limited. You need to pay the price that is listed. You may choose to go to another shop. You may find that you have a slightly better choice. You do not realise that the arrangement in the shop creates that illusion. You did not notice that, in reality, you do not have a choice.

Your choice has been limited. You are able to act only within a certain framework. This framework was not created by you. It was created for you.

You are using the framework presented to you. You can only buy what is presented for your perusal. Hence, you make your choice from what is on display. You did not make your choice. You were given the options and you had to make a choice. Hence, what was your choice? You need to ask what the options were. The two options were simple: Yes or Yes.

That was your choice. You were not happy to make that choice. You were not sad to make that choice. The reality is that you chose, despite yourself. Your discontentment did not count. Your discontentment, probably, did not even surface in the domain of your mind.

Simply put, it does not count at all. It is not a matter of concern. It is irrelevant. YOU are irrelevant. You are an instrument that finances, unwillingly, the lives of a few individuals.

Your consent was not needed. It IS not needed. You were forced into giving it without being discernibly forced. Your consent was irrelevant. You were not in possession of the ability to consent. That ability was taken from you. You did not even notice it.

The Tasks Entrusted to You

You pay your taxes. You pay for your insurance. You pay road tax, and you pay for parking spaces on public roads. You pay for the means of transport and, on top of that payment, you pay taxes again. You are paying taxes on almost everything that is accessible. You might even be paying taxes for keeping animals. When death arrives, even that is taxed.

You Are on Parole

You reach home late and you have only a very limited time to interact with the members of your family. You do not complain. You have no time to complain, you do not have the mental space to complain. Your perception is limited and you did not even notice it.

Dependencies Galore

Your employment is dependent on the economic market. You did not make it. You did not decide to make it. You could not make it.

Yet, you were making it, you were contributing to its progress, your income is dependent on the market and you yourself are dependent on the market.

You have become a slave to the market and you cannot do anything about it. At least you think you cannot do anything. We shall come to that topic, presently.

Taking Stock of the Situation

Nobody can survive without food. We need food to survive. If you were to lose your job, you would have no access to money. When you have no money, you cannot buy food.

I Have Starved

Yes, I have starved and I know what hunger is. Think about it. When you cannot buy food, you are going to be hungry, your family will go hungry, your children will be hungry and the worst part?

The worst part is, you cannot do anything about it, at least in that situation. The supermarkets have food, but you have no access to it, because you do not have the money. Friends, if you have any, might help out. How long?

Homelessness Hurts: I Have Been There.

You may be paying rent. Defaulting can see you being ousted. Unceremoniously ousted. Pity or human consideration will be conspicuously absent. Money plays the music.

You may have your own house or flat. If you are paying a mortgage, defaulting can result in the same experience for you as described in the paragraph just above this one.

Choices Can Make You. Choices Can Break You

Whether you like it or not, there are three factors that carry top priority.

1. Food
2. Shelter
3. Health

Everything else can become a liability. You may buy an expensive car and believe that that car will give you status in society. Society will praise the car. You are only the driver.

When you cannot pay for the fuel, the car will remain where it is. The same people who praised you will chide you. You will fall in their eyes and you will feel the hurt.

A palatial house will bring praise. The people will praise the house. When you do not have the money to pay for the repairs, the decline begins.

Coming Down From the Ivory Tower

If you grow your own food, you will never go hungry. If you have your own simple home, you will never be homeless. If you keep your health, you will not be dependent.

Instead of investing in an expensive car, save and buy land. Instead of spending money on expensive holidays, build a manageable house.

Self-Sufficiency Is the Keyword

Dependency is servitude. Servitude destroys self-respect. Servitude destroys dignity. Self-respect lasts only until you stretch your hands.

Your Family Needs You. You Need Your Family

Greed destroys family. It also destroys humanity. Greed has resulted in neither peace nor dignity. It fosters enmity and conflict.

Each member of the family needs to know the importance of standing united. Remember the old saying: united we stand, divided we fall.