Carpe Diem

Not only is social solidarity which transcends race and religion superior to the kind of social solidarity which is based on race and religion from an intellectual and scientific standpoint as has been evinced by our discussions on “organic” and “mechanical” solidarity, but this transcendental form of social solidarity is also superior from a moral and philosophical standpoint. Ali Ibn Abi Talib, the fourth caliph of the Islamic empire, argued that there are two types of brotherhood. For one, there is brotherhood in religion. And second, there is brotherhood in humanity. And of the two, brotherhood in humanity is the greatest based on the teachings of not only Islam, but of all the major religions and thought systems of the world. Hence, bigotry, bias, and racism are inherent in all racial and religious groups unless our own disposition and outlook towards social solidarity evolves through a richness of moral education and a richness of experience in life. 

After finishing my graduate studies almost ten years ago, I had no plan to take me to where I am today with this blogging endeavor. Immediately after finishing graduate school, I had no plan in life whatsoever, and I was on a constant search in order to figure out what to do next. My instinct, quite frankly, was to experiment and try as many things as possible. Immediately after finishing graduate school, I volunteered for a short period of time with a couple of aid groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) before going to law school due to social pressures and then drop out in a blink of an eye because the law school experience was utterly intolerable. Immediately after dropping out of law school, my main focus was to disentangle myself from all the controversies, dramas, and subprime people which had plagued me in my personal life in order to free myself and in turn do some soul searching and figure out what it was that I really wanted in life.

Moreover, the expectation we have of people to have a sure plan in life and to know exactly what it is that they want in life right off the bat is also wrongheaded. Although I was shooting for jobs and internships because the coercive force of conformity was still besieging me to a certain extent, I ended up resisting the coercive force of conformity after graduate school by doing what I wanted to do. But I was doing what I wanted to do in life only because I had the freedom afforded to me based on the fact that I was not trapped in a miserable career or job path that would have deprived me of my freedom. I was reading, writing, and traveling so much that I ended up publishing a book of my own. 

And as evinced by this blog, creativity and freedom do not and should not die with just one book project in one’s late twenties, and as a result, the creativity and freedom have to be preserved and sustained with much energy and effort. This blog project became the main instrument or tool through which I could advance and achieve my personal goals of creativity and freedom after publishing my book five years ago. Thus, even if this blog project were to come to an end and become a “final product” per se, the creativity and desire for freedom will have to find another conduit or outlet in order to stay alive, given that creativity and freedom are both essential and necessary for a happy, healthy, and prosperous life.