Recently I've developed a new outlook on life. For a couple weeks I was feeling overwhelmed by forces out of my control. I was reading other people's thoughts on social media on how people like me are everything that is wrong with the world. I was thinking of writing a counter to this, but it would do no good and maybe I'm a little too afraid of opening myself up for criticism (I should work on that). The fact is we live in a society that claims to value individualism but at the same time is quick to stereotype and has whitewashed many of our identities. Think about America like a stew full of beautiful and unique ingredients but if any stew is cooked too long it becomes a brown indistinguishable mush.
The other aspect of life out of my control that was bothering me is what has become of the American Dream. People have lost the focus on the actual American Dream and only think of the stuff. The American Dream is the little house with the picket fence and two and a half kids. Those are the benefits of the American Dream but it is not the dream itself. Think back to Thomas Jefferson and the ideal American, the yeoman farmer. The self sufficient man. The American Dream isn't having a great credit rating so that you can go into massive debt and have all this stuff it is to be financially independent.
Financial independence was the entire reason for the American revolution. The original phrase copied from John Locke into the Deceleration of Independence is, "Life, liberty, property." Happiness in the foundation of America is the right to own property and full ownership of property can only come from financial independence. The bank owns my car, my condo, and most of the major purchases I've made have been done with debt. I and most other Americans are anything but financially independent. We are slaves to many masters paying off creditors for most of our lives and only ever possibly achieving true independence right before we die.
That is really my new goal in life. Not to have a lot of stuff, but to truly live within my means and be financially independent. Even if it means running off into the woods and learning how to be a self sufficient man. Living to survive instead of living to pay off debt, but I can control how society works as much as I can control the opinions of others, and my only real option right now is to go along to get along. It is frustrating and has the ability to wear me down, but that is only if I focus on it. It can only do so if I let it.
This is how I've reached my new outlook on life. Forget about everything that has past and only look at the future. We are powerless to change what has been but we can control our own future. We can make ourselves the best that we can be, do something everyday to bring about improvement. We can build upon the foundation of today tomorrow. Everything bad that has ever happened to us is in the past and all that exists in the future is the possibility for the positive.
It is all great to say stuff like that and say we're going to focus on the positive, but the world around us will not change. The majority of people are going to rush through their lives missing most of what is around them. They are going to think that getting through the day quickly will bring them closer to their next acquisition, their next enslavement to a creditor. The only person in the world I can change is me, and the only way to do it is to improve every day even if it is only an incremental improvement.
No comments:
Post a Comment