Living your Life as a True Activist?

July 28, 2013
Ziad K. Abdelnour

Exploring Financial Strategies and Economic Insights

The narrative emphasizes the transformational role of activism in addressing systemic issues and personal growth. It argues for activism not as occasional engagement but as a way of life, ingrained in daily actions and decisions. The blog advocates for a proactive stance in advocating for change, emphasizing that genuine activism involves continuous learning, empathetic engagement, and the courage to challenge prevailing norms. It underscores the importance of integrity and persistence in effecting lasting societal change.

I believe that many people are living a life just for the sake of existence with no real purpose other than going with the flow or seeking an elusive happiness that never seems to materialize.

Have you ever thought about living your life as a true activist? What do you think this would entail?

Here are some personal thoughts.

As George Orwell once said: “Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.”

Well I believe we’re all here for a reason. There are many forces that would distract us and prevent us finding it. Seek your reason, and in doing so you will find consolation and purpose.

I’d suggest, by and large, society today is geared up to turn good people into bad. It’s a society run by bad people in favor of bad people; bad meaning the self centered and selfish. People are forced to tow the ridiculous, individualist, greed driven line in order to survive.

The metaphor I use is that of someone who’s in a hole in the ground. The hole is filling with water and they are bailing out the water just to stay alive. The bigger their wage, the bigger their cup. The problem is that no one is given the time to ask the very simple questions, ‘Why am I in this hole, who put me there?’. They’re just kept too busy bailing and become exhausted in the process.

Remember Tolstoy? “Money is the new form of slavery”.

A friend of mine refers to this as ‘the upside down world’. Such an observation of society’s contradiction is correct both in moral and practical terms. We are doomed in both respects as long as we keep believing the great lie which forms the basis of economic models around the world, that of ‘infinite growth.

If you’re interested in reading a very interesting work on the fundamentally flawed economic models used to keep us all captive and grind the Earth and its resources to dust, check out Professor Tim Jackson’s work entitled ‘Prosperity without Growth’.

Notably, the Sustainable Development Commission which commissioned and published this work was shut down in 2011. It’s stated aim was to ‘Hold government to account to ensure the needs of society, the economy and the environment were properly balanced in the decisions it made and the way it ran itself’. It was axed as part of the coalition spending cuts enforced upon the people to pay the price of the banking industry’s excess.

As mentioned above in ‘the hole dilemma’, if people had the time to stop and think how their society has been butchered by the greed driven power politics of big business, and the consequential harm to society and social services, I suspect a great many politicians would need to put their running shoes on…

Thomas Jefferson summed up and warned of our society today nearly 100 years ago. I believe it is applicable to all, if not the vast majority, of nations.

“And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”

In short, we are governed by the morally bankrupt and criminally corrupt. Though I am of no specific religious denomination, I pray to all and any deities that one day we find the strength to stand up and put an end to this horror.

I would also add that to my mind the idea of nations is as primitive as stone age tribal thinking and that patriotism is just nationalism by another name. We are one planet, there is no disputing that. What harms one harms us all. What helps one helps us all. The universal bond that connects us is one that cannot be broken and should not be allowed to be degraded by the politically motivated manufactured consensus based on an ideological madness.

All I can say is hold on, be strong, start contributing by educating your fellow citizens, live your life like a true activist. Change is coming.

You don’t need to change anything external like your behavior or your circumstances. You don’t need to have “worth” to society. If you want peace of mind and happiness, you must change the way you perceive your world and start doing something about it.

A person’s contribution doesn’t need to be grand or even positive, as long as we’re not stuck in solitary confinement our actions and behavior will contribute. I’ve learned and benefited from all levels of society in many countries. Lawyers have taught me, beggars have taught me, doctors have taught me and other species have taught me – everything and everybody has in some way affected and raised my awareness.

I live to cut through, endure and learn from the suffering and pain because it’s so very worth it to experience what comes as a result. I realize that for some, suffering consumes the majority of their lives and may well be inescapable. In that case it becomes an individual’s choice whether or not to continue. This is an ecosystem, it isn’t fair or intrinsically purposeful, life is a struggle with intermittent rewards.

So I say, struggle and find your rewards, use all your wits and resources to glimpse those fleeting moments of joy, share your life with others, share the struggle and the joy, bite the bullet and see if you can outsmart the system. Keep doing it, learn and fight, bite and scratch for your piece of the cake. Find solace in whichever form works for you, understand the sharks you swim with.

Life isn’t pretty but by living your life as a true activist you do create an enormous ripple effect no matter who you are.

Share your thoughts.

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