Do more, share more, be more, everything more. For what? I don’t want more. I have enough. To fit in I need to want more. Compete for attention, validation, acceptance. But, I need none of it.

We want land, but do we really? As soon as we get it we will look back at now, a simpler time and long for less again. The cycle continues. But, we’re pushed so hard to want. Wanting keeps the machine rolling, consuming, paying out the most miserable ones, those at the top. The ones that have been in control for generations. Enslavement comes naturally to them. It’s not called enslavement though, it’s job creation. Helping us peasants find our place.

I’m over it. I don’t want to play the game. It’s rigged and the outcome has proven time and time again to be bleak.

I’m sitting here in the wilderness. All I see in every direction is wilderness. No buildings, no houses, no signs of humanity. Just trees, rocks, and shrubs, butting up against snowy mountains. The vastness is near unbelievable. An abundance of free, open land. But, we’re all in fierce competition to own our piece.

Once we have our place, then we’re safe. Even when we take ownership of “our” land, the government holds true ownership. If we don’t pay our rent, it will be stolen back from us. It’s inescapable, the arbitrary foot on our throats. We need more to keep even that which we’ve already earned. Our indentured servitude has no end.

Maybe I’d feel different if the direction of our government was generally good. The majority of its momentum leans to war and control. I feel fear of incarceration for even saying things of this sort. Given the creeping plague of senseless laws, it’s difficult to live a day completely within the confines of legality.

And there lies another rub, the conflict between morality and law. Virtue and legality. What is good and what is lawful are not always congruent. Distinguishing the two can be difficult, especially for those wearing a badge or wielding a government appointed gun.

So what drives this tyranny? Why is the momentum toward corruption so great? The greed ceaseless? Desire for control ever creeping?

Fear. People are scared. People at all levels. Fear is profitable. Fear is sold to us. It’s taught in our schools, preached in our churches and regurgitated in our media. Fear is natural. It’s one thing that all living things can surely feel. It’s deep in our consciousness. The deepest and oldest bits of our brains key on fear.

We need to learn to see when fear is being used against us. In modern times, we have far less to fear than we ever have. Though we’re told to fear more. We are scared of so many things, most of which arbitrary.

Greatest of all though we fear death. It happens to all of us. Death is as natural as birth. We needn’t be scared to die. Think back to before you were born. Remember how peaceful that was? No yearning, no desire, no responsibility, no fear. Worst case we go back there. To a place of eternal peace. Doesn’t sound so bad really.

There is something to being alive though. We are all born with a drive to live, to be life. We all share the yearning to be. We feel fear, to protect us. To keep the mind body and spirit united. Fear can be useful in keeping the spark of life burning, but in excess keeps us from living at all.