Even since my last post, it appears that efforts by the powerful to impose cultural conformity are being stepped up. In fact, on the Isle of Man in 2014 national culture may well become compulsory (see http://www.isleofman.com/News/details/53890/island-of-culture-2014 ,
http://www.islandofculture.im/ for example), which is alarming for the civilised in general and individualists in particular.
We should note at once that all those cited as examples of ‘Manx culture’ are actually individuals who, through hard work and talent, have managed to escape it. This tells us all we need to know about the inanity and inconvenience being imposed. To anyone who has lived here, even in recent decades, it is obvious that the first thing the talented or intelligent do upon reaching adulthood and/or getting even the sketchiest off-island job offer is to leave and never return.
The real question, then, might be how those of us who choose to stay and resist can do so without at least meeting the drab host halfway.
Firstly, beware, dear reader, all calls to nation, company, family values or other abstract entities to which we are aligned without our true consent. Calls which, by use of the culture ‘trigger word’, appeal to our civilised nature are a sneakier variant on this, but the irony is that in answering them we would actually shed the last remnants of civility.
We must be constantly vigilant against ‘the Big C’. Always remember that whenever anyone in authority or representing an institution urges others to engage in culture then what they really ask is conformity to a plan drawn up solely for the benefit of those who need to stay in authority.
The remedy lies not in new age twaddle, petty-bourgeois self-improvement or management-speak but in a rigorous mix of self-discipline and detachment. Odd as it sounds, the idle arts are harder to pursue than life as a corporate collaborator, religious zealot, political extremist or other human vegetables whose intellect is indistinguishable from an actual couch-potato.
Consider, for example, the relative difficulties of staring at a TV, computer screen or mobile phone for half an hour and staring at a wall. The first requires only that you switch off your brain and pretend to be working/networking/learning. The second requires a will of iron and the mind control of a zen or yogic master.
Never try the full half hour all at once. Start with no more than five minutes and work up your applied sloth gradually over the months and years in small increments or you may end up in middle management or the civil service.
Ally this to quiet and disciplined reading – the hard or soft sciences, politics, engineering, architecture…. even the arts. The topic hardly matters, just the intent to build serious knowledge of the way the world works - and never because it will improve your job prospects.
Find (even insist on) a time or place with no aural or visual distractions, and take notes as you read – both to consolidate the knowledge and to suggest further reading.
With time, you will never turn on the TV or a computer screen unless with a fixed purpose and, having achieved it, will turn it off again out of sheer boredom or irritation. An unfortunate side-effect is that you also find the moron-mediacentric conversation of workmates and other compulsory companions more irritating. A strength is that you find it easier to tune out (which in turn makes you calmer in the workplace) and to only tune in when a problem blows up (which, thanks to your increasing in-depth knowledge of the real world, you are far better able to solve).
This will take years of practice. But the true individualist gradually realises he or she is in the elegant ‘anti-lifestyle’ for life. So the more you practice, the less the problem.
