This email is part of my secret newsletter society.
Jan 25th, 2018
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Howdy all,
Checking in from a long hiatus. I went to South America (some pics here) and now work in politics. I've not been emailing because I was busy traveling and all I've been thinking about is politics, and no one on here signed up for that madness.
But if you want to talk politics, certainly message me and let us dance dirty.
On my mind recently, though, is some philosophical pickings on how easily we delude ourselves into placing imagined laws over physical laws.
What is that?
Physical laws are things like physics and biology while imagined laws are things like American Law, morals, currency and, dare I say, religion.
While both sets of laws have impact on the physical world, only one does so directly and those are physical laws. Physical laws have at all times impact in the present world. For imagined laws to have an impact on the world, they must first be followed. Beyond that, the key difference is that imagined laws can be broken, and, for what we know, physical laws cannot be broken.
Consider this scenario: imagine we are at a stoplight. The traffic light is red and we have a walkman signal. We don't check for cars and we walk. Despite the light being red and us having a walkman signal, a car runs us over.
Most of us would be angry (if alive) because the light was red meaning it was our turn.
While we would be correct in that the light was red and in our system of imagined American law, that means we are safe to walk, it really doesn't hold weight in the real world governed by physical laws. That's because a red light meaning that a car will stop and we are safe is imagined. Truly our safety only exists if the cars stop, regardless of what color the light is. The red light only suggests safety. A car can break imagined laws by running a red light, but we cannot break physical laws like have zero injuries after getting smashed by a 50 mph truck.
The point of this is that in the above scenario, something I've noticed myself doing often, is that I put imagined laws first. In New York, I see the light is red, I see the walkman signal and I walk. I don't check for cars. We assume that because, in our system of imagined laws, we have the right of way, that we are safe. That we are justified. That that car will stop because it is the pedestrian's turn!
But --- does it really matter what color the light is? No.
I can break imagined laws all I want. I can walk on green, yellow, or purple. Doesn't really matter. It's all imagined. But as I said above, I can't break physics. The greater force will dominate the weaker force always.
This is just one example of something I keep reminding myself: sometimes it doesn't matter what our imagined laws say because our laws only exist within the constraints of physical laws.
The point of this story is to remember is that most everything we live by is totally made up. I don't mean to discredit our imagined laws. They are massively effective. We are evolved monkeys from the jungle and somehow our systems help get seven billion people food every day. Most people, at least.
But at the same time, it's important to not get too caught up in this imagined world. Titles mean nothing. Money isn't shit unless you use it. And whatever your boss tells you you can't do, or whatever the experts of your field say you can't do, just remember everything is made up and you can actually do whatever you want.
Style is made up: wear what you want.
If an airline tells you the rules say seat up on landing: remember that rule was shit by some random guy before his 10:00 a.m. deadline.
If you want to become President and they say you have to get experience first, well, look at Trump.
My greatest asset in life has been ignoring people, rules, and norms. It's more fun, anyway.
Be warned, though, don't let the realization that everything is made up let you think there are not causes and effects. If you don't listen to your boss, you might not have a job tomorrow. If you lean your seat back on a plane, you might not be on a plane in 20 minutes. And if you want to be President and don't get experience first, well, you might just end up doing terribly ;-)
And trust me, I've been kicked in the ass many times for opting out of made up rules.
Happy 2018 folks.--
The Change Network by Andrew