Friday, October 28th 2022
It’s a little before 5:00 a.m. and because it’s friday, everything has to get done. That’s just the way it goes and it’s part of the weekly cycle that I live by. Saturday is exactly my day off. Nothing takes precedence. I have to prepare for it exactly so I can have such a day off. I am not the most religious Jew in the world. I am aware of some of the group practiced nuances but I am in no way an expert. I definitely do my own thing and follow my own way but Saturday is Saturday and that’s it.
I wish I could put together or participate in some kind of global shabbos movement. The issue is that the moment I say this, natural Christian anti-Semitism takes over and I am rejected as an idea that simply because it’s Jewish. If people do not wish to be identified as Jewish or believe it is an absolute fact that they cannot participate in Jewish things because they are not Jewish, they are not allowed and such, they just won’t listen to the reason and logic.
The thing about taking a day off is that it is a day of freedom. It might not be freedom if you are obligated to certain group movements. Again, I do not practice the nuances of traditional Jewish sabbath. I’m aware of them but I just go my own way. What I like about it is the implication of the no work day is the implication and possibility of freedom. This is the direction I take this. It is my day of freedom.
Freedom from what is a good question. Freedom from abuse. Freedom from being used. Freedom from being put on someone else’s schedule. Freedom from suffering fools. Freedom from money. Freedom from social obligation or my own normal work schedule or production. Freedom of thought. Freedom of movement or freedom of lack of movement. Freedom to be myself. Freedom to sleep. Freedom to rest. Freedom to ignore the noise.
That’s actually quite a bit of freedom if you think about it. Somewhere this year I came up with the idea that sometimes we understand concepts by the lack of their opposite. I’ve heard it said that hell is the lack of God’s love. Happiness is the lack of sadness or anger or grief. Good health is the absence of pain. Therefore freedom is simply the absence of obligation. I am not obliged to do any damn thing I don’t want to do.
There is also a thought in the world that any person who engages in any anti-christian thought, any atheistic thought or any thoughts about anarchy, meaning the lack of government control, is automatically dangerous and violent. In the current groupthink, it is a reason for public security. People who do not think like us are automatically dangerous. This precludes the thought that they themselves are ridiculously harmful but that’s not the point. Anything outside the acceptable norms of one particular group automatically means danger and violence from the other.
The fact is that these things are not mutually exclusive. There is no direct connection with a lack of Christianity correlating only with violence. There is also historically no evidence that Christianity implies a lack of violence. Russia considers itself a very Christian country right now. They believe the Russian Orthodox Church is the glue that binds people together. At the same time and amidst all of this Christian goodness of charity and forgiveness, they’re just firing drones and missiles indiscriminately and calling ukrainians satanists. I’m sure Jesus would rightly approve.
Perhaps what’s really missing in the world is for people to come to their own conclusions of what morality or their moral obligations to the world are. Perhaps being fed other people’s idea of what is right and wrong is the biggest problem. We cannot know whether the person telling us what we should think is in fact more spiritually inclined or morally perfect then we are. We might be able to see that they have more money or have had the wherewithal or opportunities to be more in public and have their voice mean more. But there is no proof that they are morally Superior or more intelligent. They are better at getting attention and money and that’s all.
I think given the opportunity to truly think about things, most people would come to the conclusion that they like fairness. Fairness here simply means that you want people to treat you as you wish to be treated. Do you like walking around and randomly punching people in the face? Okay. This is an interesting hobby. But do yourself actually enjoy suddenly getting punched in the face or shot or murdered without any knowledge of the reason or rhyme for this violence? Do you actually want to live in a world where you couldn’t suddenly be killed? I sincerely doubt it. I am pretty sure some people get a lot of juice out of participating in a war. But I’m not sure civilians just trying to live their lives would sign any deal that says random murder is a part of society.
We can take this even further because it’s not just murder that we would worry about. Do you want to wake up in the morning and suddenly have unknown people take you away from your life and make you do things for them? I sincerely doubt that anyone would knowingly vote for a world in which they could become enslaved or used if they gave it a thought. Do you want to live in a world where you can get a piece of paper that says it’s your time to go and start murdering people? I would say that this was not fair. Almost nobody I know walks around kidnapping people and generally we consider this one of the most egregious crimes in the world. Kidnappers are the world’s most dangerous people and nobody wants them in polite society. I think almost everyone would agree that kidnappers are absolutely not wanted in a peaceful living situation.
But what I’m talking about is where in the current scream of mass media and wartime politics does someone take the time to think through these questions. I mean, you don’t have to be Einstein to have the fleeting thought that something is not fair. But you would actually need some time to formulate your ideas about what to do about this fairness. You would probably need some freedom of space, freedom from noise, freedom from usage and freedom of obligation in order to have some time to think. It would take people sometime to truly figure out their true moral philosophies and how they really want to live in the world.
This is also true for way more than simply figuring out your social philosophies. If you’re a young person, where do you have the freedom to truly think about what path you’d like to go down for your life? I understand that there are people in the schools or your parents or other people handing you a very brief menu. We all understand that coming from poverty means you only have a limited amount of places to turn to get your money. Crank up the heat from the government, add some violence and threat from the power structure and suddenly you understand you are being coerced into a specific life that you are probably not going to be happy in. In fact you’re probably going to be searching for escape almost every minute of your life from the hell of following these very much approved paths.
Freedom is a lack of servitude. Freedom is the opposite of slavery. A free person is exactly not a slave and a slave is never free.
Perhaps this is the paradox here. If you never have a moment of freedom, you may never realize that you have ended up a slave. If you never allow yourself a moment of freedom and peace to think through your problems, you never actually solve them. In fact, I’m sure quite a few people believe that having a bunch of unsolved and unsolvable problems around are the essence of their very exciting life. “Love me for my insanity” seems to be the current calling card. This goes along with all of the abuse and mistreatment that comes along with people marketing their insanity as friendship. Someone selling their chaos to the highest bidder is not a promise of happiness.
So I really would support an international non sectarian shabbos. I would actually love it if the entire world came to a complete stop on Friday at sundown. No cars on the street, no restaurants or cafes or clubs out there making money. No one fighting for attention. No fireworks or drunken behavior. No one walking around outside looking for something random to happen to them. Friday night, you just go home, say a prayer, eat a really nice meal and go to sleep. And when you wake up in the morning, the day is yours. This is not a day to accomplish anything. It is not a day to test yourself. It’s not a day to try and get a personal best running. It is not a day to go shopping. There’s no cars and no money and no stores and no games. No television. No internet.
Can you go hang out and talk with your friends and family? If you want to. Without any obligation whatsoever, you can. Could you kick a football back and forth? I imagine you could if you wanted to. I would probably say that it should not be competitive in any way but if you feel like moving. Should you do gardening on a Saturday? Jewish people would probably say no if you used mechanical tools. I would say you should not work hard at it. I would say that you should not really be hauling heavy things. It should not be work. It should be without obligation. Your day off is a day of rest. Rest.
But mostly what I think is that it’s just a day where you stop. Whatever you’re doing and whatever you’ve gotten yourself into, it stops. We just don’t do this today. Today is not today for this.
This is what I do. Socially, almost everybody who knows me and who has taken the trouble to get to know me understands that I will not be around on Saturdays. Not only will I not be around but they are not invited to come see me. I know this goes a little against something I said before but in my case and all things considered about my life, I do not want these social interactions on Saturday. 99% of the time it’s about money and I will not handle money on Saturdays. I will not buy anything, I will not discuss business, I will not have conversations with people who wish to talk to me about money and I will not be with people with whom my relationship is based on money in any way. If you ain’t family and you don’t get it, the gates are locked.
The reason I might be in favor of an international day off is that taking a day off is the number one thing that has taught me what it means to be free. I tried to bring out at least the best percentage of this issue with Lena this week. Last night she called and wanted to explain her failures. This is what Belarusians do. But I didn’t need to hear it because I already understood it. I wanted freedom from listening to her please herself on my time. I didn’t need to hear her say these words because I didn’t need to give her any energy. I didn’t owe her anything. I was in that moment free from debt and therefore it was my personal choice.
What I explained to her is that I was a free man and she had absolutely no right to infringe upon my freedom. That was going to be rule number one that she needed to understand. She herself has many addictions. We can be kind and romantic and reframe these addictions as desires but it’s not the same thing. Addiction is the opposite freedom. Freedom from addiction is freedom. You cannot talk about the appetites for life when they concern things that you have no choice in. Addiction is slavery.
I don’t drink alcohol because I don’t like the effect of alcohol. I suppose if I liked being drunk it would be for the reason that I seriously wish to escape my life and become numb and belligerent and oblivious and experience a moment of artificially enhanced pseudo freedom. I do not want momentary freedom. I want long-term sustainable freedom. I do not wish to enjoy stupid moments at the cost of My overall freedom. I like decent moments but I don’t take these moments with things that create physical addictions. I don’t want to become hysterical from need because of stupid addictions.
Where did I come to this decision? I started taking a day off. It allowed me a day of freedom and I found I liked my day of freedom more than I liked chemicals that led to dependence. I found that simply taking a day off really was enough.
I also found that I understood more and more the misery of other people’s slavery. If I can find some peace and wisdom from a regularly scheduled break from obligation, I began to completely understand what it is like for people who never get that day off. When no one is ever allowed to rest, no growth is possible. When people are controlled every moment of their life, of course life never comes to them. Of course they never become Free people.
This is why this place has no freedom of thought. This is why this place has so little entrepreneurialism. This is why this place has so little freedom. This is why no one can enjoy even a single moment unless it comes with abusively allowed music, alcohol, cigarette smoking and usually meat. Moments of freedom cost money and are always chemically induced. This is not feeding our sense of freedom or relaxation. This is just feeding our addictions. This is simply reaffirming slavery.
And no, I am not particularly lonely on Saturdays or anywhere in my life. I am not lonely from not participating in group endeavors. I’m not bored from a lack of excitement or Insanity. I don’t feel any of these negative things. I am just extremely grateful for my day of freedom.
It’s a great holiday. I eat really good food and I sleep when I want to sleep and I move around when I want to move around and it’s taught me to live a life with a lot of freedom in it. And I get this every single week.
So Fridays are a day that has a specific amount of tension to them. There is some tension and release. The house has got to be clean because you don’t really want to be in a messy filthy house on your day off. Why not? Because if the place is a mess you will be tempted to clean and that’s work. I know women will never stop fussing but for me, I am not going to clean up tomorrow unless I really have to. And if I plan my day well, I really won’t have to.
What are the basics? I need enough wood for fire because unlike traditional Jewish shabbos making, I will light a fire if I’m cold. This is especially true if I’m going to sleep a lot during the day. Freedom from suffering is probably the best freedom in the world. I’m going to make some bread because it’s great having fresh bread around. Freedom from hunger is an excellent freedom. I’m also going to make some hummus because it’s the greatest food on the planet and goes well with everything. I also have to gather some veggies because it’s my diet. And I have to make sure that I have plenty of water. I don’t want to have to go to the well on Saturday.
What else? Well, I do need to put the barrels into the barn and organize the hardware that ties them together. I could go out to the forest and start collecting some leaves for the last remaining boxes. I don’t have to do this but I could if I wanted to. Oh, and if I am going to make use of it before the service concludes, I have to make an order today of some food, some beans and rice and other staple products that I will get in bulk. This needs to get done today. And also there is an order for some window caulking. Also preparation for winter that needs to get taken care of.
That’s it. I might get a few minutes to spend with my ex partner when she comes up. She told me about coming up but then said something about it being Friday and that she would go and see Ria. I don’t mind this at all and I know that she really enjoyed walking in the woods last week. I think she’s worried about this operation and what she wants more than anything is to go walking around in the woods. To her, mushroom hunting is a meditation. I would never take this away from her. I do not require massive amounts of her attention and I’ll happily offer some of my own as she needs it.
Other than this, I think Tanya is also going mushroom hunting today. I am on her customer list so I might run into her too. Then I can lock the gate, make some really nice food, say a few prayers and eat until I am satisfied. And that’s it. That’s all it’s about.
I don’t think you can consider yourself a free person unless you ever actually have moments of freedom. Moments of freedom tend to multiply. Enjoying moments of freedom definitely gives favorable status to other types of freedoms. I suppose freedom is an addiction but it’s the best one I’ve ever had. Freedom from noise. Freedom from pain. Freedom from fools. Freedom. The greatest drug ever invented and perhaps the most sustainable one there is. A day of freedom. I highly recommend it.
***
I never thought of this before but if Saturdays were rest days and there was no commercialism or bar hopping, no place to spend your money and no transportation to take you anywhere, this would make Saturday nights much more peaceful. If people didn’t run out into the world in their insanity from the moment of freedom from work to waste all of their money in the quest of artificial escape, Saturday nights would also be absolute shit for the economy. I am not opposed to this. It is the economy that keeps us all slaves in the first place. I say fuck the economy. Give me my day off. Go green! Save the world! Walk lightly on the planet and take it easy for a change. I think this is much more sustainable and would probably lead to a lot more happiness.
***
This is actually one of the more beautiful and inspiring speeches from Zelinsky. October 28th is the day of liberation from the Nazis from the second World War. And yet 80 years later, here it is again. The speech is made next to a downed drone. This is definitely worth listening to.
Here is an update from the war effort from my favorite map reader, Mr Davydov. Apparently the better options are getting enthusiastically into things. There is no news of any particular effectiveness but Belarus is into it now.
I have three other clips that I want to post here that are actually about as brutal as you can get. I’m not saying this as a warning or as an invitation to enjoy some bloodshed free of charge. You can have a look and I think you’ll understand what I’m talking about.
The first one is from Ryan McBeth talking about a missile that is now available to the ukrainians. I have never heard him go quite this feral.
“We are cannon fodder”. This is more anti-russian propaganda. But then again, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. I believe these pictures to be true. It isn’t every soldier but my guess is that this is the prevalent idea. The Russian simply do not have their heart in this war. They have no moral advantage and I’m not sure anybody understands why they are there except for money or because they simply have no choice.
And finally, here again is Ryan Macbeth on why Ukraine is winning this war. Great minds think alike I guess.
***
Leave a Reply