A Spirit Is Born Free

How To Start A Non Violent Revolution

Whenever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love — Mahatma Gandhi

There is no final one; revolutions are infinite ― Yevgeny Zamyatin, We

First, let me say I agree. The world is a broken place and all of us are guilty, by our action, inaction or by our thoughts, of imprisoning our own free spirits. In an age where technology and our own parasitic relationship with our planet pose existential risks to our species, we are very busy imprisoning our minds within the narrow confines of race, religion, sex, caste and political identities. Remember, we are human first and we were all born with a free spirit. Why then should we restrict our world view to the narrowness of our mindset?

A lot of what I present in this story may seem counterintuitive because it is. However, what I show is just a different prism to see a revolution from. There are no rules dictating a free spirit just as there are no rules to build something anew. An unfettered mind is the foundation for an unseen future. So, I urge all my readers to first unshackle your mind while reading this story. I know some of you think the words “free spirit” is “hippiespeak”. However, that thought is the prime example of how we have systematically narrowed our minds. So, don’t let your background and past experiences cloud your thoughts. Read this article like a free spirit that you were born as.

An 1894 essay by the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw ‘How Do You Become A Man Of Genius?’ shows how this world was always a construct of what we made it to be — the best and the worst a matter of public definition. In the essay, Shaw writes:

The secret at the bottom of the whole business is simply this: there is no such thing as a man of genius. I am a man of genius myself, and ought to know. What there is, is a conspiracy to pretend that there are such persons, and a selection of certain suitable individuals to assume the imaginary character. The whole difficulty is to get selected.

By extension, a self fulfilling prophecy is just that- a vision of the world that is repeated so often that it becomes real…