We want someone watching over us. We want to feel we’re being watched over, even if that means manufacturing guilt. We want to abdicate our power, our birthright.
We make ourselves feel guilt because deep down we know, in Reality, there is no guilt, there is nothing to feel guilty about, That we are truly innocent. That there are no moral or ethical consequences. All that is made up; an overlay.But more, there is no one, no GOD watching over us. Judging us, Approving or Disapproving. Nothing watches over us. Things, experiences happen and ripples are formed, but there are no “repercussions” of right and wrong.
And no “us”.
What if there were no “consequences” – no cosmic, religio-spiritual punishment? (In Groundhog Day Bill Murray’s character says this. I think about ALL the things he did to everyone in every possible combination and ways for all the YEARS he was there.) I think people are afraid to realize there is no higher authority.
I can say that I am free and that I can do anything I want and know what that means and all that goes along with it. I think most people would freak out if faced with that. Yet that truth is as true for them as me. We are all free.
They would scream in fear and terror that if they could do anything they want they would do it to excess and society would fail and so on. But, really, I don’t see that as automatically following.
Just because I KNOW I can do anything, doesn’t mean I will automatically do it.
Amsterdam may be (have been) a good example. While soft drugs were easily available, the locals rarely partake and then in light moderation – it’s all the tourists coming from areas w/ tighter drug laws that created all the issues.
So, do something that you have always thought you would get in trouble for. A classic one seems to be: eat a can of frosting. Or 10 Twinkies. And see what happens when we do the one thing(s) we’ve thought or been told or believed would cause the world to end, and the world keeps spinning. Because, really, no one is watching and no one cares. It’s all perfect. All of it. Even the nasty bits.
We want to feel we matter, that we are special enough to deserve attention, and if that means punishment along with it, then so be it.
I’ll take being a “Free Nothing” over that any day.