Leaving Society -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sections (TOC) : ---------------------------------- * 1 84 Words; 433 Characters * 2 8 Words; 40 Characters * 3 41 Words; 214 Characters * 4 47 Words; 295 Characters * 5 97 Words; 499 Characters * 6 80 Words; 476 Characters * 7 33 Words; 196 Characters * 8 23 Words; 118 Characters * 9 92 Words; 525 Characters * 10 103 Words; 620 Characters * 11 24 Words; 131 Characters * 12 39 Words; 237 Characters * 13 43 Words; 250 Characters * 14 22 Words; 135 Characters * 15 113 Words; 614 Characters * 16 90 Words; 497 Characters * 17 91 Words; 524 Characters * 18 23 Words; 143 Characters Sections (Content) : ---------------------------------- * 1 We are leaving. That is a word that says many things: to leave -- according to the poet -- is to die a little. But we aren't poets, and for us this parting has always been a sign of life. We are in constant movement, on a perennial journey...we are outside of a society in which we find nowhere to live; we are members of an exploited class, still without a place in the world. The departure was always a symbol of vitality. * 2 Who can go out but by the door? * 3 Even the savage still less than the citizen, can be made to quit that manner of life in which he is trained: he loves that freedom of mind which will not be bound to any task, and which owns no superior... * 4 ...he seeks the frontier and the forest, where, with a constitution prepared to undergo the hardships and the difficulties of the situation, he enjoys a delicious freedom from care, and a seducing society, where no rules of behavior are prescribed, but the simple dictates of the heart. * 5 It regards reality as the sole enemy and as the source of all suffering, with which it is impossible to live, so that one must break off all relations with it if one is to be in any way happy. The hermit turns his back on the world and will have no truck with it. But one can do more than that; one can try to recreate the world, to build up in its stead another world in which its most unbearable features are eliminated and replaced by others that are in conformity with one's own wishes. * 6 The contention holds that what we call our civilization is largely responsible for our misery, and that we should be much happier if we gave it up and returned to primitive conditions. I call this contention astonishing because, in whatever way we may define the concept of civilization, it is a certain fact that all the things with which we seek to protect ourselves against the threats that emanate from the sources of suffering are part of that very civilization. * 7 The Declaration of Rights, the Constitution, the laws published so majestically, have as their sole aim the statutory establishment of the fact that, in my own room, I can do as I please. * 8 I was cut off from the world, there was no one to confuse or torment me, and I was forced to become original. * 9 What is the meaning, then, of that principle, that a man, who, tired of life, and hunted by pain and misery, bravely overcomes all the natural terrors of death, and makes his escape from this cruel scene; that such a man, I say, has incurred the indignation of his creator, by encroaching on the office of divine providence, and disturbing the order of the universe?... Has not every one, of consequence, the free disposal of his own life? And may he not lawfully employ that power with which nature has endowed him? * 10 The Master, by responding to the vicissitudes of the world, remains in harmony with them: The universe is his home. Should the conditions of fortune and the world be unfavorable, he stays apart, leading a solitary existence, feeling that it is enough to be able to evolve with the whole of creation. And so he silently seeks out the tao and its virtue and has no dealings with the world of men. The self-satisfied criticize him; the ignorant think him strange: Neither recognize the spirit-like subtleties of his transformation. But the Master does not change his calling because of worldly criticism or wonder. * 11 We cannot hereafter, as in the past, recover freedom by going to the prairies; we must find it in the society of the good. * 12 "I haven't see him for five years," the abbot confessed. "And I'm ashamed I haven't. He's lonely. Ill go." "If he's lonely, why does he insist on living like a hermit?" "To escape loneliness -- in a young world." * 13 With the unchecked deterioration of environment in town, city, and suburb, get-away people are being provided with more and more to get away from. But where to? When millions are on the move to get away it is unlikely that many will succeed. * 14 Every select man strives instinctively for a citadel and a privacy, where he is FREE from the crowd, the many, the majority... * 15 Those who belong to this small class have tasted how sweet and blessed a possession philosophy is, and have also seen enough of the madness of the multitude; and they know that no politician is honest, nor is there any champion of justice at whose side they may fight and be saved.... He is like one who, in the storm of dust and sleet which the driving wind hurries along, retires under the shelter of a wall; and seeing the rest of mankind full of wickedness, he is content, if only he can live his own life and be pure from evil or unrighteousness, and depart in peace and good-will, with bright hopes. * 16 At last it occurred to me that what I had lost was a country. I had never respected the Government near to which I had lived, but I had foolishly thought that I might manage to live here, minding my private affairs, and forget it. For my part, my old and worthiest pursuits have lost I cannot say how much of their attraction, and I feel that my investment in life here is worth many percent less since Massachusetts last deliberately sent back an innocent man, Anthony Burns, to slavery. * 17 Would you like to liberate yourself from the lower realms of life? Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation. * 18 I've severed all ties with society, for reasons that I alone have the right to appreciate. Therefore I obey none of its regulations... Events : ---------------------------------- Leaving Society -- Added : March 12, 2020 About This Textfile : ---------------------------------- Text file generated from : http://RevoltSource.com/