Liberation Thinking, or How to Begin Freeing Yourself From a Collapsing World

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Hi! How’s everyone? Welcome back old friends, welcome new ones, and here’s a little funny Snowy grin to brighten your day.

Today we’re going to discuss a little counterpart, or maybe subset, of Havens Thinking. That, remember, is the art and practice of finding havens, in a collapsing world. Or creating them, too.

We’re going to discuss what I’ve come to call Liberation Thinking.

It goes like this.

How do you feel these days? First and foremost, this is an age of fear. People are anxious, worried, terrified, and panicked. That is why they’re making such bad decisions that we’re now in a historically, startlingly bad decade.

People are scared because their lives are in a mess. And anyone who tells you they’re not scared because they’re in a mess is lying. They’re lying to you, which is maybe OK, but worse, they’re lying to themselves.

Now you might think to yourself, as the kinds of dudes who like to try be clever do, that there are exceptions to this rule, but there aren’t. Not really. There are just Greater and Lesser Pretenders. 

Take anyone you might think this doesn’t apply. Think of Donald Trump. Don’t think he’s in a mess? Think again. He just won an election because people expect him to deliver a better economy. But he’s about to find out just how hard that’s going to be, how difficult, and how impossible. The problems in our economies are so grave and so great they can’t be fixed by strongmen alone, if they could, LOL, would we be in this mess, and so Trump is now in a mess.

Very shortly, people are going to expect him to deliver a better economy, and he’s going to eff it up pretty badly, even if by some miracle he gets it right, because at this point, it can’t be done.

And that brings me back to an absolutely capital-C Crucial Principle you must understand.

Let’s call it the Messiness Principle.

The Messiness Principle, or Choosing the Right Mess

The world can’t get out of the messes it’s in now.

Our societies can’t get out of the messes they’re in.

Can’t. Maybe you think they can, but if you do, you are dead wrong. Have you spent your lifetime studying this stuff? Probably not. Don’t expect me to fix the plumbing, ask my wife the doctor about medicine, but me? I can tell you how things unfold. 

Messes at the levels now cannot be fixed. They are baked in. The time they could be fixed has passed. There was a window, true, but now that window has closed. For everything from climate change to inequality to democratic decline and so forth.

Don’t be the kind of wishful thinker who simply thinks that everything’s going to be fine again, just because. Just because, just because, just because. Greater fools in newspaper columns proclaim it, some random person said it, or just because it’s more comfortable that way.

Your gut already know that’s not true.

And that’s why we’re all scared.

All of us. Take, I don’t know, the fanatics who’ve hijacked politics. They make a big deal about beating their chests and playing macho. But at the end of the day, they’re scared of everyone from women to babies to kids in dresses. That’s sort of an extreme level of fear, and it’s there to prove the point that we are all scared.

But you have to understand why. We are scared deep in our guts because we know at that level, the unconscious one, which is the most synthetic, intuitive, powerful, and accurate one, the one that can gather together all we know much faster and deeper than our minds, that none of these messes can be fixed now.

That is why the world is convulsing in fear. Why it’s exploding in irrational rage. Why it’s ripping itself apart in stupidity.

Fear makes us stupid, above all. It contains a wisdom in it, but when it overwhelm us? We’re capable of destroying everything we love, just—snap!—like that.

So. This is an age of fear because we all know we can’t fix the messes we’re in now. Not at the macro levels. Can’t be done anymore. Some react with the irrational self-destruction of “then burn it all down!,” which only makes it all worse. Some panic and get paralyzed. Some despair and lament.

And so the vicious cycle accelerates.

Nobody can fix the messes we’re in. Nobody. But you can still fix your mess, and maybe have something like a relatively normal life again. Wouldn’t that be nice? That’s reality, versus fantasy. And it’s a purpose, I think, worth embracing. We can’t have it all. 

The world has made its choices, as foolish as they are, driven out of its mind by fear and rage. Now you must make yours.

Which ones will they be?

Liberation Thinking

So what’s my point? To…scare you? Nope.

I’ve said that now it’s time for you to have a confident, poised, and mature relationship with the world. This world. As scary as it is, and we’ve just discussed why so that you can start that new relationship in an adult place, which is admitting you’re scared. Not denying it, letting it paralyze, or lashing out in idiotic rage.

To have this new relationship with the world, we now have to liberate ourselves from our fears. Our worries. Our concerns and anxieties and worries.

So that we can have normal lives again. Just…you know…nice ones. Ones that don’t feel this bad, all the time.

Don’t lie to yourself. You can life to your spouse, partner, kids, but don’t lie to yourself. And don’t lie to me. You don’t have time for self-deceit, and I don’t accept it, I know there’s better in you.

I know that you’re scared, and I’m driving the point home because you cannot take the next steps in the journey of renegotiating your relationship with the world from a place of self-deceit. Wearing a happy face that becomes a rictus grin. Putting on a mask and pretending it’s all fine.

Because none of it’s fine, is it? That’s what your gut’s shouting at you, after all.

This is the beginning of Liberation Thinking.

We are in a deeply troubled age and time. We’re inches away from all kinds of calamities now, some of which have already begun, and I don’t have to name them for you anymore, do I? And in that place, we are beginning to be overwhelmed by our fear and rage.

It’s destroyed our politics, hasn’t it? Our politics is now nothing but fear, really. Nobody offers a positive vision anymore. The same is true in business. Big Business now operates from a place of fear, and so it tries desperately to make a quick buck, which results in brand destruction, like for Starbucks or United Healthcare or whomever, doesn’t matter.

So if this is the case, if this kind of fear is so endemic, I want you to understand that it is now beginning to affect us gravely. On the one side, it leads to rage and spite and hatred. On the other, to paralysis and despair and lamentation. Neither one is OK.

They’re not “equivalent,” and don’t intellectualize this, this isn’t some dumb pundit column, it’s about your life.

Now you have to begin liberating yourself from the fears that are destroying us all, sweeping through our civilization like wildfire, or else, absolutely assuredly, you will Sink With the Ship. If you’re paralyzed, you’ll sink, right? And if you’re busy lashing out in blind rage and hate…you’re going to sink even faster, no? 

The Practice of Liberation Thinking

Now let me make Liberation Thinking very clear for you. It’s not about grand theories or intellectualization. Not at all. It’s just about liberating yourself, as simply and fast and permanently as you can. From these fears, anxieties, worries, before they curdle in hatred, spite, paralysis, despair, or maybe taking you back from that brink, too.

Let’s go through the most common things people are “worried about,” and that’s a euphemism for the truth, which is more “terrified by,” in this day and age.

—I won’t have enough money to survive, live on, get by

—My career is at a standstill, not going anywhere, won’t exist

—My relationships are under extreme stress

—My society is becoming unlivable

—I don’t have, can’t find, struggle for, a purpose, and I’m bewildered

—The world doesn’t value me, and it seems to want to annihilate me 

—I’m overwhelmed by a daily basis by all this

Those are universal fears now. 

They aren’t unique to you, or to me, or to anyone. They don’t divide the left and right, ironically enough, they’re common to both, only interpreted and expressed in different ways. 

The question now is what you do about them.

I’ve already pointed out that most people have two responses. Basically, fight or flight. These fears are so endemic and so extreme and so primal—they’re about survival, after all—that some people react by lashing out in rage and hate, and some by freezing into paralysis. This is why our societies are imploding around us.

The question is what you do about them.

So what…can you do?

Now we’re going to get (super) pragmatic.

Liberating Yourself From an Age of Collapse

These are fears.

One way to handle them is by talking to a therapist. You’ll understand them better, you’ll learn how to handle and manage them better, and so forth. Good idea, not a bad one.

But there’s a deeper truth here.

You must listen to your fears. Not ignore them. Not deny them. Not wish them away. And on the other hand, not sort of obsessively hear them and them alone. But you must listen, and then reflect, because they are telling you things that are absolutely vital these days, in the truest sense there is, which is about survival.

So now we’re going to go through all these deep fears, and talk about them, and what they’re telling you, and what to do about them.

—Career fears, like my career won’t exist, is at a standstill, etc. This fear is telling you something absolutely crucial. Your career probably won’t exist in not so much time. It’s already happening to tech and marketing and plenty of forms of white-collar work, which are never coming back. So: switch careers. Don’t wait. Do it now. Listen to your fear. It is trying to help you survive. Don’t let your mind overrule it, because your gut is a far better thinker. In this case, get serious about a new career, right this second.

—Money fears, like will I have enough to survive on, make ends meet, etcetera. This fear is also telling you something utterly crucial. The answer is: probably not. We’re now in an age where inflation is never really going to end, and meanwhile, our economies are going to stagnate at the country and world level, while going into depression for many social groups, like white-collar workers in plenty of industries right now. So: act now. Save. Invest. Pinch pennies every which way you can, while finding ways to generate more income, and we’ll talk about those more in later posts, but the point for now is: listen to your fear. It is worried about your survival, and it’s probably right. How many of us are going to be able to retire comfortably? Anyone under the age of, what 50? LOL, good luck with that. This is serious, and you have to get serious about it.

—Relationship fears, like my relationships aren’t working, I’m lonely, I always struggle to navigate sociality, etc. This fear, too, is telling you something absolutely vital. These are times of deeply broken sociality. Younger people can’t afford to start families, which are forms of foregone relationships, while older people, meanwhile, are incredibly isolated and lonely. So choose wisely. Cut toxic people out of your life ruthlessly. Love those whom you genuinely do just as fiercely. And listen to your fear. Form new relationships, and we’ll talk more about how, real ones, which you do just by being more human on an everyday level, which isn’t easy in a fast-dehumanizing world.

—Societal fear, like my country’s becoming unlivable. Listen to your fear. It’s telling you something, again, utterly existential. Move. The world is a big place, and there are lots of happier places in it than societies which are choosing the misery of collapse. If your fear is telling you this, then listen to it closely, and start the process of moving. Or at least explore it seriously. No, that isn’t easy, but the point is that most people won’t listen, and will end up trapped on a Sinking Ship. Don’t be one.

That’s a lot already, and if that helps, we can cover more fears in future posts. But for now I want you to understand the point, and purpose, and mechanism, of Liberation Thinking, how to practice it.

Make a list of your worries, anxieties, and fears. Just list them, in the way I’ve done above.

And then ask yourself: what can I do to liberate myself from this one? Think about it. Write down some responses. But that’s not really the important part. Just mull it over consciously for a bit, then go away, and over the next few days, let your unconscious mind work on it. Let ideas bubble up. Let some intuitions form. It will begin to guide you and lead you. No, these people aren’t worth it. What about this kind of career? What if we did that, not this? 

Then do that for the next one, and the next one. 

This is the practice of Liberation Thinking. It has several components, as you can see. You face your fears. You begin to explore what you can do about them. Practically, as in, right now. You let your unconscious guide you. And then you act.

We’ll talk more about the acting part, and we’ve already talked about it a bit—in my language, it’s Kinesis and Poesis, taking action in a troubled age. And it’s OK not to get it right, to sort of fumble the ball, before you take those confident strides. No biggie. Don’t pressure yourself. To even get that far, I think that Liberation Thinking is a framework for beginning. 

Beginning to renegotiate your relationship with the world. None of it’s going to happen instantly, and of course you can book a session with me, or talk to your friends and loved ones, and receive any amount any of support and guidance that you need. Just…let it soak in for a while. Come back and re-read this several times. You won’t get all that you can from it the first time. This is a practice that will transform you if you engage with it properly, which is a deep thing.

Its point is that you liberate yourself. From the fears and worries and anxieties of a desperate, dismal age. Before they overwhelm you, and you Sink With the Ship. Wouldn’t it be nice to live without this constant grinding dread of all the stuff above, from money to politics to society to relationships and so forth?

Hello, that’s what a normal life is. Or should be. The point and purpose you should give your life right now? Is just getting back to that place of formerly normal again. That’s more than ambitious enough for now. And to even get that far, you must liberate yourself from the poisons that are weighing down our civilization enough that it has begun sinking under the weight of its own…fears.

You can’t fix the messes of the world of our societies now. Nobody can. But you can still fix the mess of your life, and have one worth living, not this fear-despair-stress laden wreck and shell of a ruin we call one right now. That is the seed of a purpose. Take it, plant it, and watch it grow. 

Lots of love,

Umair (and Snowy!!)

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