Checkout my latest project, The Naked Philosopher’s Journal.

The system, any system will destroy you.

The system would have you believe that you are not special, that you are a part of a whole. And if you show any sign of dissonance with the authority of the system, you will be locked up, ostracised, marginalised, made to feel like a freak, a non-hacker, a misfit who must be rounded up and weeded out of what is considered good and normal.

You may think the system is in place for your benefit. Think again. The system cares nothing about you. Remember those demon eyes of Staff Sergeant Barnes as he was about to smash Taylor’s skull in with a spade. Barnes, like The Machine, screams: “If you break down; we break down. And if we break down, The Machine breaks down. And I’m not going to allow that from any of you.”

The individual is dispensable; The Machine is not.

The temperature outside has started to drop. The storm clouds have rolled in. I guess winter is preparing for another assault. Becky sat fondling her name tag. She was in a meeting with three other teachers, or so I assumed, as I heard them talking about flogging the kids tomorrow when they returned to school. The oldest of the four spoke nearly nonstop, once a teacher… The others took notes.

We were in Cafe Nero. I came here to kill time and sip coffee before continuing on with my errands. Modern living is relatively mundane from moment to moment. I need to shake things up a bit, go on a few adventures into the unknown where all true art is to be found. But here’s the thing. Adventure doesn’t have to mean trotting off to some exotic location. Adventure can be found 100 yards from one’s front door. As Arthur Machen wrote, “he who cannot find wonder, mystery, awe, the sense of a new world, an undiscovered realm” within the places near home he “will never find those secrets elsewhere, not in the heart of Africa, nor in the fabled hidden cities of Tibet.”

My young cat would testify to that if he could speak. We recently have started introducing him to the outside world. Every thing that moves in our back garden is exciting to him. I watched him chase a wind blown leaf for 10 minutes.

Or the toddler next to me who has taken refuge under the seat while her mom and her pal chit chat about nothing. The little girl is exploring the nooks and crannies of the floor and enjoying every moment of it.

Simple minds…eh?