It’s no secret.  I live in an authoritarian household.   It’s dominated by an individual who fancies herself as The Boss…of everything.  I try to defend myself with logic & reason, when the Authoritarian makes her illogical decrees, but it always ends up with the same conclusion.  The Boss has the final say, against what is right and true.

 It occurred to me just now, after facing and fighting off another illogical attack, that authoritarians and authoritarianism are the real problems in this world. 

 They cause aggravation towards individuals who want to operate under the banner of truth, logic, and fairness.  The world really is a calm and peaceful place, it’s  just that ignorant authoritarians disrupt the realization of that gentle truth. They cause distress where none was due, and send people into a flurry trying to get back to the orientation point they started at before the storm started.  

Even natural storms found in weather make sense and are tolerable compared to the inner turmoil storms that result when an authoritarian starts their malfeasance upon your soul.  It occurs to me that if we want balance and function in this world, it is imperative that we somehow deal with all of these misguided authoritarians who are ruining this world, and ruining what could and should be a normal / pleasant experience. 

Before I go any further, I think I should provide an example of ignorant authoritarianism just in case someone living and meditating in a cave has not experienced it lately.

It goes something like this:

An authoritarian orders that you must throw the lids off of the cans into the garbage because they cut themselves when trying to recycle them.  You rebut that it’s contrary to the purpose of recycling if you are going to throw away 1/5 of the metal in the garbage.  You tell them the lid can be placed at the bottom of the can and turned upright while drying out.   They snuff back that “the can cannot dry unless it’s upside down”.  You correct them and explain that the minimum droplets of water that will be left over after rinsing the can will easily dry while the can is in an upright position, given the hydrological cycle of evaporation…slower on higher humidity days.  They snuff back that the paper on the can must be removed.  You inform them that the paper on recycled cans does not need to be removed as the recycling process will easily burn up paper very quickly before the metal even begins to melt, and that this is accounted for during the process.  They tell you not to argue with them and just do what they say. 

So you go away feeling like illogic and authoritarianism has won out over truth, reason and fairness.  It surges adrenaline in you…and for a split second you imagine what it would be like to overtake and conquer the person uttering out the authoritarian decrees.  You go back and forth in a balance of power, and you weigh your options and realize the authoritarian has the upper hand, as they are playing with all the cards at the present moment.  So you go back to your room, grab your guitar and try and breathe deeply clearing the ignorant authoritarian from your being.

 Now this is a small example of authoritarianism played out in a domestic situation between a mother and her son.  The examples climb higher in different scenarios, in different areas of the world. 

• Military personnel receiving orders they believe to be dangerously ignorant
• Police ordering someone around unfairly
• Mayors of small towns unfairly conducting proceedings and getting stern with citizens trying to speak at public hearings

The examples are endless, but the themes are all the same.  One human places themselves in dominance over other human beings, and we are forced to take their decrees, whether they are good, fair, true or not.

 When you try and live a life that pays attention to truth and reality, you’ll find along the way that many in this world, sadly, operate against those grains.  The world instead operates under power and authority, which uses money as a medium to overpower other humans. 

This money is backed up by law enforcement who recognize only those who have assets and resources.  Since shelter is a huge commodity which humans must possess to stay out of the rain, humans must subservient themselves to the powers that be in order to keep that shelter over them.  It could be a boss, a parent, a landlord, a mortgage lender, a bank.  

 Someone is always there to umbrella over you, and because of this, you’ll never get a chance to follow a true course seeking truth, justice, logic and reason…unless you are lucky enough to be surrounded by those who are that way, and even then you'll eventually butt up against those who do not.

 Since I was born into an ignorant authoritative household, I can only dream of such circumstances.   Part of why I solicit for a sanctuary, is because I recognize that in order to truly be free…humans must physically extricate themselves from these dominant, authoritative, controlling forces.  Life is stunted until this happens.

 I don’t believe I’m the only one out there who is stunted.  I believe the overall numbers are larger than we may know.  If only we could somehow recognize and name those who wrongly authoritate, we could somehow seek to quarantine them, passing on the word that so-and-so is a dominating control power freak.  We could name it finally as an illness in the DSM-V diagnostic manual for psychiatrists, we could take evasive action, and we could one day get on the path to becoming free.

 Freedom from this authority is only the beginning.  Imagine the world of possibilities after that in a post-authoritarian world.  It makes me giddy with excitement thinking of it.   If we could get all the authoritarians to suddenly die tomorrow, I’m convinced that the Earth would become a paradise, Eden would return.  God would show himself and announce to us that we are all now finally free.  

Has anyone ever entertained this idea?...because religion in its present form isn’t doing too much in my opinion.  I think this could be the new religion.  The religion to be free from authority.

Aristo