Does society serve us, or do we serve society?
In a conversation with a female friend she mentioned how she had been brought up to be submissive. I felt an inexplicable pleasure at this and since I believe inexplicable deserves explanation, it set me to thinking. The rather shame filled results of those thoughts appear below.
There are powerful feelings embedded in words like submissive. Powerful things I have realized are not all the good we’re raised to believe they are. As a boy, I was trained to not show emotion, to “be strong”.
What a crock of nonsense!
Being strong bears no relationship whatsoever to our ability to suppress emotion. Yet our loving parents are so conned by an uncaring, manipulative society that they raise their kids to fit neatly into predefined stereotypical roles. Roles that religion reinforces to the benefit of a system structured to churn out obedient, unthinking thralls who will marry, and raise another generation of obedient, unthinking thralls.
Society makes me sick.
So why did my hearing a woman admit to being submissive make me feel good? Because just like her, I’ve been raised in a stereotypic fashion. My parents loved me, yet they also raised me to believe men should be dominant and women submissive. That is wrong.
It is incredibly difficult to break the mold in which we were shaped. If we’re to achieve a system where people actually matter more than their ability to serve society till they’re worn out… If we’re to achieve a family that serves for more than churning out another generation for corporate mills or uncaring governments to use and discard… If we’re to achieve something that matters then we must break the mold in which our characters where formed.
We must teach our children that what lies in their hearts is theirs to decide, not ours to determine. We must teach our children that they are valued, that they are loved, and that they are free. We must teach them to question, not to obey. We must teach them that they are free to chart a course outside of the serfdom society needs to keep its skewed systems functioning. They must learn that they are free to chart a course to happiness, wherever and with whomever they find it. We must teach them that their happiness cannot be at the expense of others, and that if they are to matter then they must treat everyone they meet as also mattering.
Both you and I have shackles we must break. Those shackles bind us into a society of extreme disparity where the vast majority serve, and the miniscule minority do not. Those shackles demand that we train our children to obedience over thought. Those shackles are what make us favor the normal over the unique. Those shackles make us value inanimate material objects over living beings. Those shackles bind us, and in return they grant us nothing but an illusion of safety. Those shackles don’t even attempt to grant us an illusion of dignity.
I am no man’s servant. Are you?
Instead of clinging to an illusion of freedom let us cling instead to the hope of an understanding love.
