Tag: machine

Question authority

Don’t believe everything you hear.

Even if it’s on the news.

Even if it comes from an “authority.”

“Authorities” are just people.  With their own ideas.  Their own flaws.

Their own agenda.

How did this person get the authority they claim?

Some people have authority from God.  God doesn’t give his authority to just anyone.  If an authority in the Church tells me something I believe it, unless I have a good reason not to.

Is this person an elected official?  In my mind that gives them some legitimate claim to authority.  I’m more skeptical of them, though.

Is this person an unelected bureaucrat?  I may listen to what they have to say, but I won’t necessarily believe it.

Do they represent a large corporation?  I’ll hear them out, but I know they’re trying to make their corporation look good.

Are they a teacher?  Who taught them?  Where did they get their information?  Did they do their own research, or are they just regurgitating what’s in the textbook?  What are their biases?

Is this a TV news anchor?  Next, please.

Always maintain a healthy dose of skepticism.

I don’t believe in public school

Public school is designed to turn you into a cookie-cutter cog for The Machine.  That way you can easily replace someone, and someone else can easily replace you.

We were meant to be unique individuals with unique functions.

We weren’t meant for soul-sucking jobs.

School doesn’t teach how to be happy, or any number of other skills necessary to be a functioning adult.

School doesn’t teach you to ask deep, probing questions.

School doesn’t teach you how to think, it teaches you what to think.

School is the mold.  Break it.

I don’t want a cookie-cutter life

There’s a neighborhood near the place a I live.  There are a lot of big houses there.  The houses all look more or less the same.  They’re built from similar blueprints.  Some are probably even built from the same blueprint as others.  They’re all various shades of brown.  They all sit on lots that are really too small for them.

I’ve seen neighborhoods like this in other places.  New developments full of McMansions.

I want a house of my own someday.  But not one of those.

I want my house to be a reflection of who I am.

I want my life to reflect who I am.

I don’t want to do things just to fit in.  I don’t want to do things just to be different.  I just want to be me.

I’m not trying to reject anything that anyone else has.  I want marriage, a family, a home, stability.  But I don’t want to do things just because other people are doing them.  I want to think critically.  To make sure I’m doing what’s best for me and mine.

I want to be in charge of my life.  To make my own decisions.  To be as self-reliant as possible.
I want to be free to share what I want to share.  To keep private what I want to keep private.

Too many people are afraid to truly think critically.  To really think for themselves.  They do the things they’re told they should do, and never really question why.

I don’t think the Good Lord put us on this Earth  to be cookie-cutter people.  We were put here with unique strengths and weaknesses for a reason. He didn’t intend for us to be interchangeable cogs for The Machine.