Day 514 Freewrite — Control — It's Just an Illusion! (01)

OK, so I was challenged by @fitinfun and subsequently by @mariannewest who founded @freewritehouse to try my hand at these "Five minute Freewrites" for 30 days.

This was after I had complained pointed out that it takes me a lot of time to make most posts.

I have actually done this sort of thing before, and it is a nice exercise in "thinking quickly." In this case, I am presuming that such things as creating headings, tags, removing typos and adding a photo is not part of the five minutes...

So anyway, here it goes...

Granite monoliths, Joshua Tree National Park, CA

Day 1 — Five Minute Freewrite Experiment — topic: "Control"

I don't know about this control thing...

I have heard it said that control is nothing but an illusion, and I tend to agree. And yet we — as a species — tend to try to control and micromanage everything.

And then I look at such things as politics and politicians. What are they, but master controllers? The underlying idealism is that they want to make the world a better place, but the cynic in me sees it more as a pervasive attempt to "control the horizonatal and the vertical"... You must do as we do, or we will no longer like you.

And what about relgion? What is religion, but another attempt to control people?

In this case, with fear. We make you afraid of "what will happen" if you don't act according to what we want you to do, both your thoughts and your actions. Because if you DON'T? Then you will not be "saved," or go to Heaven or perhaps the vengeful God (who LOVES you!) will strike you down.

And lets not forget economics and job safety. This is yet another fear based thing. We control your lives by imprinting on you that unless you follow OUR rules for how the world must be, then something bad will happen to you: You will lose your social circle and be cast out as someone not worthy of being part of the the mainstream; your benefits will be gone.

Why are we so afraid of losing control?

I am not entirely sure. Some years ago, I made peace with the fundamental idea of NOT KNOWING. And I am really pretty happy with that. In many ways, not knowing and not having to control makes life more peaceful.

Well, it was a Start...

I suppose I can do this for about 30 days, and hopefully still keep it interesting.

DO check out @mariannewest's blog for more details!

How about YOU? What are your feelings about "control?" Is it a thing, or just an illusion? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190318 23:22 PST
0937