Speak Out
When the Song of Seven says: speak out, they mean that adults learn to think critically are not afraid to speak out regarding their own thoughts. Critical thinking is one of the three essential skill sets of the adult, along with self sufficiency and self defense skills. These three skill sets are essential to the second song, they help the adherent defend their ability to walk away and to take their life into their own hands.
And the the foundational skill set among these three is the skill set of critical thinking, and hence we deal with it first. Learning Critical Thinking is part of growing up. If you can’t think for yourself, others will be more than will to think for you. If you can’t think for yourself, you are at the mercy of those who can out think you. If you can’t think critically, you will miss advantages and opportunities. If you can’t think for yourself, you will make more mistakes and make mistakes worse. Critical thinking does not mean that you know many facts. Knowledge is not critical thinking. Critical thinking is the skill set, the mental tools, that enables you to examine and analyze information. Not all facts are, in fact, facts. Not all knowledge if created equal. And frequently we must analyze information without the ability to test or fact check what is presented. And so you must rely upon the critical thinking tool kit.
The first skill set of the third song is not completely internal in nature. You must speak out about your thinking. You must make your thoughts heard in the community. Learning how to Speak out and make yourself heard is a part of growing up. If you do not voice your opinion, it will never be heard. If you do not voice your concerns, they will never be addressed. If you do not speak out about injustice, justice may not be served.
Start Fires
The command to start fires is twofold. It means to learn how to be self-sufficient, as in literally starting fires to cook your food and keep warm. It also means start fires, as in protest and riot to defend your freedom. Learning Self Sufficiency is a part of growing up. When you were a child, adults raised you. They provided food and clothing and shelter which you could not provide for yourself. Without food, you starve. Without shelter, you die of exposure. If you are to continue existing, somebody must provide the necessaries for your continued existence. And if you cannot provide for yourself, you are at the mercy of those who provide for you. If you cannot provide for yourself, you wear a collar and a leash.
After you learn how to literally start fires, you must learn how to metaphorically start fires. Learning how metaphorically start fires is a critical part of growing up. Self-sufficiency includes the freedom to be self-sufficient. Would be kings and Queens have tried to restrict the ability of others to be self-sufficient. And if you do not know how to disrupt the accumulation off power, power will accumulate. Without active resistance to it, aristocracies will form. And those aristocracies will then attempt to control and restrict your ability to be self-sufficient. If you do not know how to disrupt the use of power, power will be abused. And power will seek to coerce otherwise free peoples into serfdom. And so you must work every day to prevent the spread of aristocratic infection. Otherwise it will become terminal.
And so you must learn to be self-sufficient, even if you work together in a community. And you must work to retain your freedom to exercise that self-sufficiency, or it will be taken from you from men with swords and crowns and delusions of grandeur.
Fight Back
We have spent two thousand years listening to people telling us not to fight back. That is the ideology of the Hungry Empire. Submit. Surrender. Bend the knee. Lie back and think of England. Think about this. For as long as the Hungry Empire has existed, it has attempted to horde the right to violence within the circles of the nobility. The European Knights and the Japanese Samurai share the same class system and the same monopoly upon violence. They could unleash that violence upon serfs and peasants, and the serfs and peasant were forbidden from fighting back on pain of more and worse violence.
We have a different ideology. Fight Back. Learning self defense is a part of growing up. If you cannot defend yourself, then you are at the mercy of those willing to use force against you. Learning to fight back is an essential part of growing up. If you cannot defend yourself, then you are either an infant or a victim. And that is what the Empire wants, workers who are infantilized and victimized. They want workers helpless in the face of violence and oppression. And it is not just state violence that were are discussing. The state has competition. Organized crime, domestic violence, and other forms of small government which attempt to use violence to control you.
If you will not fight back, then you will be abused and bullied. If you will not fight back, then you will tacitly support what use of force occurs due to your inaction. Fight back.
Recommended Reading
- You Are Now Less Dumb, by David McRaney
- Gaviotas, by Alan Weisman
- The Gift of Fear, Gavin De Becker
- Gang Leader for a Day, Sudhir Venkatesh
Professor Harbinger's School for Villains 