The Singularity of Struggle

By Sylvester Cooper

“I cannot expect those who do not know if or where they are chain-bound, to understand a struggle for liberation.” 

If you live in accordance with the status quo, I ask you to look at your wrists; bound by the chains of illusory opportunity, and feet; shackled to the floor of a rising pool of debt, much of which is not your own. Odds are; you’re in between jobs, maybe you have one now, but you know the pay is not the kind that your time and energy deserves. Or maybe you’ve stepped out of the box to pursue a passion with full faith. In both of these instances, while I greatly commend your dedication to keep moving forward, I also urge you to notice the sounds of the chains around you. They are heavy.

These chains bind you to a system in which your inherent rights, your freedoms are grossly imposed upon with a quiet potency that knows no negotiation (you know who we don't negotiate with). You may think “But I can vote!” I am sorry you take that biennial ballot for a place at the table where your, your children’s futures are decided. Your next resort may be to withhold financially from the systems that dictate your every move, “I’m keeping my tax dollars!”. My dearly beloved, do you really think they need them in order to operate? It is simply a symbol of your compliance, and the great minds of history have always known this. Yet today, we do not even see tax as paying tribute to the pillars and roof over our head, we see it as civic duty with a consequence for not participating.

So here we have two great measures of currency, Fiat (a physical symbolic representation of energy) and Attention, both functioning as measures of compliance over an already shackled population that thinks the freedom of choice is choosing between McDonalds or Taco Bell, or between Louis Vuitton and Gucci. A population that first understood “Freedom of Speech” as permission to speak freely and honestly, now understands to speak in carefully calculated mental measurements that ultimately stand to discolor truth.

Now, for a short time I ask you to reflect; “Where are my chains tethered? What are they made of? How can they be released?” I cannot give that answer as straightforward as you’d like because it requires deep self reflection. This same reflection requires a reclamation of these currencies, which even our shackled masses understand comes at the cost of other, more precious currencies; Time, Energy.

We are encouraged for a short time at a young age to use our imagination. To create art, to instill a basic sense of empathy and to shape solutions on the playground or the classroom. As we grow older, our parents and teachers (whether intentionally or otherwise) begin to trim away at our capacity for imagination. Because in “functional adulthood”, imagination becomes a secondary skill to conformity. This happens all the time through tiny nudges that I’m sure you've experienced in your youth, even up to current day: “Try something else” “Be realistic”, casting doubt over ideas rather than taking interest in seeing what your mind paints. 

Here I would like to propose an idea; the mind as a womb. When you are asleep your mind is similar to an empty womb, but upon intentional imagination, that womb gravitates all the components of your existence and perceptions to its core, then most importantly: your momentary intention, arrives to give birth to an idea. When we think about the mind in this way, we treat it as something precious, with the capacity to bring life into our physical plane of existence.

 To understand this idea gives way to understanding children as an oppressed class, we limit their imagination and withhold their autonomy: the ability to make decisions for one’s self. They have the highest levels of energetic currency, yet we limit them nearly every waking moment of their lives under the guise of safety. (And to be absolutely clear I am aware of a range in parenting styles and lack thereof). I am not saying that it is inherently wrong to consider that we’re protecting them from danger by doing so, but to instill a heightened awareness is far superior than a blinded protection.  

As we routinely guide these children away from the ever expanding scope of their imagination, we are getting them ready to experience the paradigm of limited autonomy we have in our own lives. We tell them: “Curiosity killed the cat” so many times that the phrase itself becomes a blade in their small and shackled hands. 

I hope by now this is beginning to feel familiar to you. If not, I encourage you to ask yourself: 

-Who or what limits your curiosity?

-Who or what protects you, whilst keeping you blind?

-Is it truly protection if you are unaware of the other side of safety, the

opportunities that land holds?

Now at this point a child makes a decision: Hide their precious imaginary pet well enough to assimilate, or let the weight of a chained arm fall down to kill it. This decision alone is the crux of generational conditioning, and ultimately it is an individual decision affected by a plethora of external factors that the child is too young to understand. However, what the child does inherently understand, is: to relinquish their capacity to imagine, is in a way, a death sentence. Because what kind of life is one you grow into without autonomy? Slavery, or something that smells like it. 

I am sure you understand that by now what ensures you hold that autonomy as dearly as possible is indeed, your imagination.

 I am devastatingly uncertain how much these kids will understand the impact of the figurative and literal constructs of slavery and the importance of abolition work. Both greatly imaginative as well as physical practices throughout time and space. Abolition work ranging from legal statues, to being simply inevitable due to the minds of people like Harriet Tubman, John Brown. Inevitable due to events where humans reclaimed their autonomy from other humans in countries outside of the US-centric view, the unfairness some free men felt about not having the means to own another person, to the fact it is still being worked on today. But they must, at least in allegory understand. Whether or not true history can be erased. If we are not just their teachers but human reminders. 

The ethos of a true holistic Freedom must be asserted, whether or not it may be achieved. The imagination is powerful. Whether independently or collectively, it is important to remember the optimal stimuli of the mind’s womb. It must be quiet and it must be tended to, and the idea carried to term.

A more light example, a friend of mine routinely runs at least 30 minutes a day. One day he traveled to a different place where he didn’t know the area. Some would simply decide not to run due to the location of the routine being changed, unwilling to spend a comfortable couple of seconds thinking about it. But he decided to take the run anyway. I am not saying he had to theorize on how to run. But I am pointing out his ability to use the same type of self-questioning, to immediately suppose: “what-if ” regardless and then nurture that idea with reasons to follow through. There is no “what if, if you quit early. That instant decision was a simple act of autonomy.

You can see by now your autonomy comes at the cost, or rather against the balance of other currencies; time, attention, energy. To reclaim the value of these currencies you must behold a new economy, one where generation of fiat is no longer necessarily based in negative value: debt, the fear of being impoverished, the cost of life. An economy where your immediate dedication to the things you care about, the things you imagine, pays you back in more value than your fiat can properly express or contain. 

When you start to reclaim your value even on a micro basis, it builds a new system to replace the one we are typically molded into as we grow. Our personal status quo changes, our lives improve. But we also then begin to question the world around us, holding it to the same standard of questioning we put ourselves through. Here lies the great disconnect in this burning room; “Why do I feel so awake?” becomes “How can everyone else still be sleeping?” The room is filled with smoke after all. The truth of the matter is that there is more oxygen closer to the ground and to attempt an escape means being able to imagine it. 

Our solution to this problem is simple as it is complex; inspire that autonomy you have over yourself, in others. Inspire new patterns of thought by first understanding that the shackles we spoke of come pre-fabricated, and then encouraging others to find where theirs lie, and show them they are a lie. This will not always work, you will find that many people are comfortable with their chains, some even pay for them, pray to them and cannot imagine living without them.  Let it be understood clearly that it is not your job to save the entire world, but it is entirely your job to make your world more worth living in. 

I encourage you to ask yourself, “In what ways do I provide for my world, and in what ways does it provide for me? Where do I place my energy, time, autonomy, to invest in a wholesome return?” Many people immediately think of community and that is a very good place to start, but I encourage you to extend this further. Humans are inherently social creatures and because of this, no matter where you are placed in the world you will chiefly be likened to another human, and at this point in time whether we like it or not, all humans are a part of this community.  Obviously we will not always agree on what to do or how things should be done but you have been graced with a greater understanding on how to contextualize these situations. Some things that seem irreconcilable become background noise when that room is burning, and some other things must remain in that room. Discernment.

As we move rapidly into the future laid out in the media we consumed as children, it is important to understand that all that was projected in front of us, was, or rather currently is that mold we grow into, the chains we adopt. And the most key principle of media is imagination. We passively  grow out of the practice of imagination the more we consume someone else’s stories without space for critique. 

Knowing this all is one thing, but actively internalizing that knowledge is another thing. We cannot stand to change anything we cannot conceptualize a difference in, and that is the key premise of affecting the world that is worth living in to you. We see people internalize this practice in extremely subtle ways; lending a hand to a friend for a move, a garden trade, extending time and energy for childcare and in return receiving support or resources at a later time. The list goes on and is unlimited due to the inherent property of imagination.

 Here, in a world where the worth of fiat currency is rapidly inflating, I may spend time wondering if the price of a dollar can afford things, but I do not ever wonder if it will be able to keep up with the true value of them beyond the price tag. It can't. When people say that you can’t buy happiness it is heard as a cop out, an excuse to be cheap but in reality, you can indeed buy things that make you happy- for a time. 

For most humans there will never be a sentimental enough purchase to measure up to the actual energy behind those happy moments. Never will there be a financial decision beautiful enough to be fondly reminisced on a deathbed. But on that bed you will still remember moments  -time.  

You will remember the ideas you let slip out of your hands in your youth,     the ones you held close enough to take action on through adolescence,  

you will remember what fulfilled you in old age,   

you will remember who and what gave life back to you,  

you will remember beauty and the true value of things, tangible or not, before you learned how to count the price of them.

Now my Dear Reader, my challenge for you is to assert yourself, whenever the opportunity arises, to reclaim whatever autonomy you can. Use your imagination obsessively. Protect it. Direct the flow of your future. Remind yourself and others that the worst fate possible is one you settle into, the one you shrink, melt and conform to. 

Quite candidly, if you were able to read this far, it is clear you are up to the challenge anyway so my words of encouragement for you are: “You have found where your shackles start to lie, now find how to let them go”.

Made by a human—no AI was used in the creation of this work.