“One of the most remarkable lessons of the past seven days is just how quickly the mind can make the unthinkable thinkable.” Even genocides become a norm for the righteous when unthreatened. However, this blog is neither about politics nor the essence of human mind for I am an ignoramus in both these areas.
It is about pulling out extracts from Prison Notebook pertaining to words and language prevalent today, such as, isolation, loneliness, boredom, seclusion, social distancing, etc. Though, in Prison Notebook, the emotiveness of their meaning may differ from its present-day context, yet since the book’s underlying theme is ‘detachment through practice of selfism,’ it will be interesting to randomly pluck pertaining quotes.
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QUOTES FROM PRISON NOTEBOOK
Solitude has always been my preferred companion.
It is only second to death in ultimate freedom.
Societal living makes essence supersede existence.
It turns human life into a numb, perfunctory experience.
Individuality is replaced by conformity.
From birth you are thrown into the vortex of civilization.
It swallows you to feed its own appetite.
Once digested, it buries you like its excrement.
Living becomes a mindless, robotic ordeal.
Within its abyss even paradoxes lose their meaning.
In slavery you are made to rejoice in your freedom.
In submission you are made to exult in your dominance.
And in obedience you are made to gloat in your autonomy.
But I escaped from its clutches.
For over five decades I lived alone in the woods by a river.
Fending only for myself.
It was a period of tranquility and abundance.
Where anguish and economy were mere concepts.
Today they shifted me to an isolation cell.
Now again it is tranquil like at the cabin.
There is solace in uninhabited surroundings.
No mundane communication with other inmates anymore.
Neither any need to indulge in purposeless pleasantries.
Nor hollow salutations.
… – my now incapacitated prey.
He was kept in isolation so we could only see him through a glassed partition.
He was bandaged like a mummy.
We were told he was heavily sedated as the pain was unbearable.
My foremost experience, living in isolation, was cleansing of the mind.
It was from all of society’s imposed clutter of sights and sounds.
Tranquillity was increasingly adorning my senses.
Very shortly, I started to live in rhythmic harmony with my natural surroundings.
The urban mindset of distraught was vanishing into ether.
Clarity was gradually eclipsing obscurity.
Soon, a mood of calm had enveloped my complete being.
“You have lived for so many years in such isolation.”
“No, in peace,” I corrected him.
“They say living in this isolation, you are either a god or a beast.”
“We are all beasts.”
Live by myself in isolation.
Become self-reliant.
It was the dawn of the Selfist revolution.
Society for its own survival creates interconnectedness among its subjects.
It categorises them within a complex machinery.
And streamlines them into performing very specific tasks.
They call it harmonious coexistence.
I call it annihilation of the individual.
Within the system, living is at the mercy of others.
Or of uncertainties.
There are artificial anxieties imposed by society.
The experience of living becomes a tediously futile endeavour.
Also complexities that enslave its inhabitants.
All are trapped in a delusionary pursuit towards some imaginary horizon.
Like a quest to reach where the earth meets the sky.
Exhaustedly they keep stampeding in that direction.
Often trampling over others or getting crushed in their plight.
Mindlessly seeking and yet never being able to reach their destination.
Such is the perfunctory life of the civilised human.
Pain and pleasure are not the exclusive privileges of any group or species.
They are the trappings of life to preserve and propagate itself.
Both are of same parentage.
Pain is the stronger of the two.
The agony felt by the one on whom the pain is inflicted is extreme.
While the pleasure experienced by the perpetrator is of lesser intensity.
Pain is for protecting while pleasure is for luring.
These are life’s helm towards its own preservation and perpetuation.
Similar to society’s creation of hell and heaven, it is a ploy.
Inflicting pain in killing is a part of natural order.
Torturing for sake of grooming is a cultural trait.
Prisons are created for this purpose.
Similar to educational institutions, functionally they are manipulative.
By enchaining the body, they attempt to enslave the mind into submission.
When schools fail, prisons come to their rescue.
In the end, it is all towards keeping the fabric of society intact.
“Why are you so critical of society?”
“It is slavery in disguise.”
“Society demands interdependence while mental peace requires independence…”
Life is a meaningless continuum.
Yet, in society humans derive their purpose from its mechanical order.
Remove its unnatural structures and there is only preservation and procreation.
The two commandments ingrained in all life I have hitherto seen.
I was resolute in abandoning society.
The surgery gave me the ultimate sovereignty I wanted.
From this point onwards, the only person I needed was me – singular.
Selfism was no more just an idea or a belief or a concept.
But, my way of life.
At the earliest possible point, I was determined to sever all ties with social cohabitation.
Self-reliance was the answer to my freedom.
The week is also another of society’s manipulations.
It tells the multitude when to work and when to rest.
Even the god they created was made to rest on the seventh day.
Nature has not coded us as social beings.
Instead, it is society for its own sustainability.
Schools are their preparatory indoctrinating factories.
They encode blind allegiance to cluster mores.
With fear and enticement they cement the herd mindset.
Conformity is rewarded and individuality penalised.
They litter the minds with the glitter of social acceptability, responsibility and functionality.
Finally, at graduation you are certified as suitable, reputable and a vegetable.
Similar to schools, the media is society’s contrivance to control public thinking.
Governments steer their subjects towards who to like and who to loathe.
Commercial institutions manipulate them into what to procure and what to vend.
They are like the puppeteer’s two hands.
Each tangoing with the other.
They (trees) were my sanctuary from earliest days.
Offering me the solitude I desired.
It was from where I could see the world yet remain invisible.
“Life at the cabin was very different.
“I was self-sufficient in all my needs.
“Control of my well-being was in my hands.”
“Did you ever feel lonely?” He finally asked.
“Solitude brings only peace, not loneliness.
“How could I feel lonely?
“I had myself.
“I feel lonelier amongst others.
“The city is full of lonely people.
“Become your own ally.
“And you will never feel alone.”
There is tranquility in solitude.
Selfism was no more just an idea or a belief or a concept.
But, my way of life.
At the earliest possible point, I was determined to sever all ties with social cohabitation.
Self-reliance was the answer to my freedom.
