MENTAL SLAVERY

BORN FREE: SHED THE SHACKLES

Living in Bondage

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!” ~ Bob Marley The fact that thinking is what elevates man and differentiates him from other living beings makes living free a result of mastery of thoughts and the ability to overcome the bondage of prejudices, half baked knowledge and false belief systems. Especially ones that have been passed down from those we look up to in our daily lives. Be they of culture, from an elderly sibling, parent, teacher, close friend, role model or other authority figures in our lives.

According to psychologists, the bulk of our thoughts are shaped by early experiences of our formative years that is, ages 0–8 years. During this period, we absorb most of what will eventually form our personalities and determine the direction our lives take. This means that we have these years to learn the basics of life and often more times than not we hardly question the veracity of what we learn. We accept all that comes our way during those years because they come from relationships of trust, affection and family. We have no reason to doubt because most occurrences are the first time and we have no prior experience to compare with or judge against. Hence, children born into conservative families would perceive that as the acceptable standard everywhere, likewise, those from liberal backgrounds and sadly even those from abusive backgrounds would perceive the status as the norm everywhere( a reason why child abuse of domestic nature has a penchant to go on for long without discovery or revolt from the victims).

Reality and growth set in with the integration into the larger societal space in form of perhaps school, skills or vocational learning centres and boom! the child learns that there are other ways to live than the one he knows. This realisation often expresses itself in different ways depending on how the formative years was navigated by the child. Truly, in my opinion, this accounts for the difficult and deviant behaviours exhibited by teenagers, adolescents and young adults culminating in the labelling of those ages as the most difficult years. They are the years of questioning, a recognition of a self distinct from the family or other groups one identifies with. It is the time of deliberation, understanding, choice and identity (who I am and who I want to be). Hence we see different attitudes been showcased, be it conformity, rebellion or retreatism. Funny enough, these behavioural tendencies continue into adulthood and most times are a huge determinant factor of career paths and choices.

Adulthood is heralded by a lot of social changes and expectations which can be pressurising. The need to be independent, successful and free to be who I am and become what I have always wanted escalates. Be it a Billionaire, a notorious socialite or Celebrity, an activist, politician, a quiet homebody or the likes. However, the freedom to be is more pervasive in this stage than any other and being the sexual stage according to Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual stages of development we notice the unending buzz and clamour for freedom of expression of sexual preferences or tastes whether individually or as a group. However, true freedom in whatever form can only be achieved with the mastery of thoughts by which I mean wholesome positive thoughts that can stand the test of time, and reason. That is free from the need for validation, but centre upon a universal truth that is irrevocably constant and unaltered or unalterable.

Undeniably, the life of man from childhood to adulthood can only be successfully navigated by foremostly having a healthy and effective mental constitution, along with the physical and social constituents. But when we have negative behavioural tendencies seeking validation as freedom, liberation and nature then the whole collection of humanity suffers from the repercussions. Take the example of the LGBTIQ community, while the trend started with the acceptance of these societal original outcasts, as having rights to make their choices without being criminalised (which has been successful in some nations across the globe), till date these issue spans controversies upon controversies for it is not based upon any universal truth. These persons fight with their biological makeup and use advancement in the sciences to achieve the natural norm of sexuality, that is, reproduction. This goes to show that the effort being made to be perceived normal is, in fact, futile and reeks of deliberate rebellion to the natural order.

However, the acceptance of the LGBTIQ community has only sparked off more trends seeking to create confusion and chaos in the nature and order of mankind. For instance, the evolving trend of non-binary, gender-neutral or genderqueer aiming to postulate the idea of gender being a choice and not determined by nature. Despite biological makeup at birth clearly showing otherwise. This is without prejudice to the predicament of a hermaphrodite an anomaly in the biological constitution. With all these trends sprouting from each other, it comes as no surprise that the age is plagued by serious mental health issues characterized by self- hate, and other anomalies (e.g psychopathy, paedophilia) vying over each other for popularity and placing the vast majority of people at risk of harm and confusing the younger generation. Particularly hindering adjustments into adulthood, because the world is no longer simply the case of a boy growing into a man who can and may sire a child and a girl into a woman who bears the child but complexity of confusing interchangeable roles and manifestations.

The matter remains that if attention is not given to ensure the maintenance of positive thoughts and ideologies stemming from universal truth, then our base negative tendencies and thoughts would keep gaining waves in a guise of civilisation, liberation and freedoms. While in reality, it is debasing of human nature and race. For emphasis, our thoughts, philosophies and ideologies stemming from base instincts and caprices over freedom are enslaving us and only an equally stronger set of these stemming from cogent reasoning, logic and senses would set us free.