Paul John Moscatello

"I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest."

- Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Never underestimate just how casually dishonest people can be when it comes to their opinions or moral standards; their loyalties are often little more than a kind of survival mechanism for their artificial personas, while their displays of empathy are geared toward manipulating people in their environment to satisfy their most immediate, superficial need for approval.

It’s incredibly frightening that, in the age of social media, anybody can just make a claim about someone’s behavior, views, or agenda, and somehow, a significant number of people will find this to be evidence enough to go on emotionally charged, malicious crusades against these individuals, despite having literally no direct experience with anybody involved.

In case many of you are wondering why so much of social media has degenerated into a collection of emotionally charged political tirades, the algorithms typically elevate posts based on user engagement, such as what a controversial, dramatic statement or accusation might incur.

This formula makes sense from a business standpoint because highlighting posts that demand attention creates a user experience that ensures you’re getting bombarded with plenty of ads, but it also creates an artificial, exaggerated sense of turmoil and division that’s capable of instigating a kind of social panic, similar to how news stations do.

It will often appear that everybody is becoming increasingly neurotic, delusional, and unstable, because it’s all you see online, despite stemming from a severe minority of people. It’s important to remember though, that these posts receive attention and provoke scrutiny precisely because they’re outliers, not because they represent everyone everywhere.

"The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted."

- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

I sometimes receive messages regarding certain influential figures that I quote, where people will go into intricate detail about these individual’s political leanings, or immoral decisions from their past that would suggest poor character, as evidence for why I shouldn’t share these quotes.

You know, simply sharing a quote doesn’t necessarily deify the individual that’s being quoted; it’s simply a convenient way to network concise, potentially insightful thoughts and content, while crediting the creator.

Furthermore, perspectives and arguments don’t cease to be logical or compelling because of an unrelated incident regarding a poor decision that somebody may or may not have made at some point in their life.

A statement either makes sense to you, or it doesn’t; maybe you find it inspiring, maybe you don’t, but only considering opinions from people that have a reputation for being benevolent or Christlike, will dramatically reduce the scope and depth of wisdom and meaning available to you.

"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing our own skin."

- Andre Berthiaume

"Association with other people corrupts our character; especially when we have none."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

"Conformity is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

- Oscar Wilde

"Why so soft, so submissive, so yielding? Why is there so much denial in your heart? So little destiny in your gaze?"

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

It’s amazing that, despite how many people casually disregard religion nowadays, their entire system of ethics remains confined to the moral dogma ingrained in their psyche during their religious indoctrination. They might refer to themselves as “atheists” or “critical thinkers”, but nothing about their actual perspective or behavior in the world has changed, other than their preference to identify with labels that seem more intelligent.

"If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is."

- Charles Bukowski

"Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new."

- Henry David Thoreau, Walden

It’s Okay To Be Afraid

However, it’s not okay to utilize this understanding as a convenient rationalization for indiscriminately avoiding anything that’s remotely uncomfortable; knowing that fear is logical and healthy to some degree, shouldn’t be used as an excuse to surrender to perceived limitations, or as a justification for degenerating in self-destructive coping mechanisms.

Instead, recalibrate your fear to a serve a lifestyle of ambition, autonomy, and genuine fulfillment; rather than fearing the superficial inconveniences associated with being yourself and following your passions, be more afraid of the agonizing disappointment and self-loathing associated with never having taken the risks that were crucial to realizing your potential.

Rather than allowing yourself to be anchored to the fear that you might fail in some capacity or be rejected by those who don’t understand you, be afraid that you’ll spend the rest of your life neurotically trying to fill a void and temporarily abate the sting of your all-consuming self-hatred.

Fear being crippled by cynical naysayers and consenting to a life of self-disgust; fear being bludgeoned into conformity, consenting to anxiety and repression, and degenerating in complacency; fear being dragged down by a society of defeatists, justifying self-deception, and frantically trying to subdue your screaming subconscious with socially encouraged methods of escapism (substance abuse, toxic food, television, video games, etc.).

Fear that you will have lived in such a way, that you may as well have never lived at all; fear that you will be lying on your death bed, reflecting on a lifetime of squandered opportunities and potential relationships, all because of certain lingering insecurities that are so very trivial when compared with the crushing weight of regret, and knowing that all you have left is the hope that one of the hospital staff will pity you enough to sit by your bedside and briefly entertain your mourning and inner turmoil.

Fear banality; fear submission; fear that you will degenerate in fear, rather than harnessing it as the absolutely crucial, ever-present inspiration for evolving, and experiencing a vivid life, full of passion and meaning.