2021: The Will to Live

Free-will is the cornerstone upon which the Cult of Individualism is built. The core tenet of this cult’s doctrine is that each individual person is the master of their own fate—we are free because we have a will. With this will each individual person holds in their hands the power of their own life and death, wealth or poverty, sickness or health, love or loneliness, joy or grief. The power of force, self-discipline, and labor is all you need to conquer and subdue the will into manifesting whatever you desire.

This indoctrination into the myth of free-will has not illuminated the key to our liberation. Instead, it has created the most successful campaign of settler colonialism in human history.

This campaign of settler colonialism has been wildly successful because it institutes a form of colonization that does not require the conquering of a people by taking their land and resources. It colonizes the mind-body, first, which makes the colonized surrender land, resources, and labor without much resistance. In fact, once colonized, they become willing evangelists for the cause of free-will, doing the missionary work of the colonizers for them.

Human survival is as much about the perpetuation of power hierarchies, as it is about the perpetuation of biological life. Those power hierarchies use the myth of free-will to possess and colonize the bodies of those who would otherwise seek to preserve their own lives. Instead power preserves itself at the expense of the life and bodies of those it disenfranchises.

Grind now, sleep later. Be sure that you’re at the top of the tower of oppression. Scratch and claw your way up there. We’re animals. Dog eat dog. Fight to survive. Where is the freedom in this?

If your will is truly free, if your complete fate is in your own hands, then how could you or would you hold accountable those who use the constructs of race, gender, sexuality, and class to maintain their power over you? Your fate is your fault, right? What does power have to do with it?

Is your will really free if its ultimate function, if the ultimate evidence of its success is that you have overpowered another person, or group of people? Is free will free if it is compelled to be as adjacent to whiteness as possible? Aligning yourself with the cause of men’s assumed authority over all, so that you can benefit from patriarchy? To make sure that your labor is worth more than everyone else’s labor? This is your freedom of will? This is what you chose with it?

2020 made it clear that the will is anything but free. Instead, the human will is the unwitting host to the force of life. Life is a consuming force that compels, controls, and devours its hosts. It is not contained in a singular being or mind, rather it is the sum total of all that breathes, and all exists in the mind, conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. Our refusal to accept the true nature of the will has stripped us of any bit of freedom we may have had. 

What is the evidence of a colonized mind-body? Lack of imagination. Not only unable to see what does not exist, but unable to actually see what is, free from the lens and gaze of your colonizers. The imagination is the beginning of freedom. First, seeing clearly what is, then daring to envision an alternate reality. The will is the life force that compels us to bring down an imagined reality from the fantasy and dream worlds into the material world. Free your mind-body, and the rest will follow.

But you must first realize the reality of your imprisonment. How can you do so when your very survival instinct has been colonized by the myth of free-will?

In 2021, dare to feel. Feeling is the beginning of resistance. Rebellion starts in the body. And dare to dream. Imagine your way to freedom. Survival requires an active imagination. Decolonize your survival instinct.