Strolling through the rice fields of Nagano, Japan, I am a universe unto myself. My brain is "telling" my heart to beat as it pumps approximately 1.5 gallons of blood around my body, providing oxygen to my muscles, and allowing my consciousness to function properly as I take in the beautiful sight of mountains, swaying grain, and the setting sun. It is funny. Each human individual is rather independent in this sense: we all have a brain. Were you to pop open the next passerby's head like a hinged lid, you would find it there. The brain. Command center. Filter and receptor, or transmitter (depending on how you look at it) of consciousness.
Imagine the Capitol Building in Washington DC. Pop it's "head" open. Lift off that oh-so-familiar white dome with its spire-like statue and see what is inside. One giant, pulsating with life, mega-wise, government brain? Nope. More individuals, all with little human brains. Except, there is one critical difference. Unlike me or you, walking in the rice fields or just going about our daily lives, these individuals imagine themselves to have authority over you, and your brain, and your inborn right to choose via your own brain how you will live. They deny that nature has granted you relative autonomy via this marvelous machine, and claim to work for an even bigger "brain" which you are not a part of.
Now, remember, this "government brain" doesn't exist. AT ALL. It's most definitely a hallucination, and a very dangerous one. More so than any extremist religious cult or terrorist organization. The people here in this cult are unnatural. That is to say, they have used their human birthright--power of choice--and consciousness (a power unparallelled anywhere else in the animal kingdom) to choose to deny the existence of a human's natural right to, and power of, choice.
"They" deny that an individual may freely use their mind via independent thought. That is to say, they have used their brains to choose to believe effectively that the brain doesn't exist and that no one has a right to use it, save a select few. Namely, those in "government." Apes live according to a higher and more sound logic than this. Slugs. Amoebas. Shit. Shit is more natural and in line with reality's natural order than government. And it's also more just. When's the last time you've seen a turd come out of the toilet and drop bombs on little kids in the Middle East for no reason? I have only seen shit do this once, and it happened to be a piece of shit with a Nobel Peace Prize, but I digress... People only turn into pieces of shit because of programming.
What do I mean by all this? Well, how are you reading this right now? Your mind, right? Your brain. The same mind that has helped you avoid traffic accidents, stay warm, know when to trust people and when to avoid them, know when food is rotten and when it is good, know that if you walk off that cliff you are going to fall, etc. This same brain/mind you have been trusting since birth, and which has more or less guided you safely through life, is the one thing they are telling you you have no right to trust, to utilize, or to fight for. This same brain is the one tool that is your birthright in this natural universe, and they attempt, via violence, to deny you the right to its use. There is nothing so unnatural as this in all of nature. And it is all a result of human choice.
My son, Isaiah, personifying the mind.
What separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom, in my opinion, is the degree to which we are self-aware, generally speaking. The degree to which we are conscious of our consciousness, and thus our ability tochoose renders us, as homo sapiens (lit. "man, be wise"), unique. Apes and cheetahs and lions and wombats and fish all live more or less according to a kind of natural order, and do not "question it" as humans question things. At least from an outside perspective it would certainly seem to be so.
The lion kills the zebra to live. The zebra knows this and runs. We don't see zebras picketing on the Savannah with signs boldly proclaiming: "ZEBRA JUSTICE! STRIPES FOR STRIPES!" We don't see primates building shitty capitol buildings and making legislation. The leader is the leader, and everybody gets this, and follows him. When it's time to mate it's time to mate. When it's time to move it's time to move. Even "inanimate" objects such as trees "get it." They follow their own natural trajectory of growth, programmed by nature, from seed to sapling, to mighty oak. The pine tree doesn't bitch about the maple tree's "funny leaves." So, where does that leave us then, the ever so strange homo sapien sapiens? How come "we" always seem to be at each others' throats, whining about every single difference we see?
Well, that leaves us with a choice. More so than any other animal in any other species, we human beings have the unique ability to truly choose how we will live. In a way, one might think this should make things easy. Wow! All the other animals just kill and abuse each other because they must follow their natural programming, but we can actually choose to live differently! Piece of cake! Except. Look where we are. Look what individual human beings have chosen.
What "we" have chosen to believe is the most destructive, vile, and illogical philosophy imaginable: namely, that the individual is subordinate to the "collective." That the abstraction is of greater importance than the tangible reality. That the mob proclaiming the necessity of "collateral damage" in war is more important than a dead child, lifeless in the dirt, who never had a chance to voice opinions in the fashion of his vociferous detractors and critics. Yes, you may say, but morality is just a human construct. To that I reply, fair enough. Is it a human construct you wish to live without?
Morality is not based on some "holy book" or on some wacko teacher, preacher, or sociopath politician. Morality is this:
Of all the creatures on this planet, we as human beings have the greatest power to choice, and to knowledge, and to awareness. Resources are scarce, and we all have needs. If we would not kill each other, and have the shared goal of living in a state of maximum possible peace, there are some philosophies that will work, and some that will not. Collectivism says one man or group of men will be "GODS." Individualism--indeed nature and reality itself--says that this is not sustainable unless it is voluntarily assented to. The gorillas following their leader are doing so naturally. Politicians forcing dissenting individuals to live in certain ways under threat of violence is clearly different. If there is no victim, THERE IS NO CRIME. If there is no violence, it matters not whom I marry, what I put into my body (or choose not to), how many guns I do or do not have, or where I live.
As human beings, we must accept and fully embrace our uniqueness in the order of things. Until we do, we will just be bashing about violently trying to decide who is "God" and who is king. Humans have used their power of choice to create something so mutinous, so putrid, and so hideously irrational, that it is sometimes hard to see that this power is not evil or good, but is simply raw power, and can be used conversely to bring about levels of peace never before thought possible by humankind.
Why is the individual superior to the collective? Well, it is rather simple really. It is a matter of order. Without the individual, their can be no collective. Without the collective, the individual still lives, eats, drinks, breathes, sleeps, loves, dies, screams, struggles, laughs, cries, and ultimately, and most importantly...IS.
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, writer, and musician residing in Niigata, Japan. He runs the YouTube channel "Voluntary Japan" as well as a Facebook page and Twitter account by the same name.