The Thought

A lot of people may think this twisted of me but I have kind of a perverse curiosity about Charles Manson. I'm not going to go into a debate about what he did or didn't do or nurture vs. nature and all the standard topics of discussion that seem to pop up when his name is uttered. Instead what I am most curious about is his amazing intelligence that is often overlooked when television celebrities interview him and play up his crazy anti-social tendencies.

One thing that he always talks about that seems to go right over the interviewers heads is when he talks about the "thought." Now I have watched a lot of the interviews and pieced together the often times fragmented meaning of this. The reason this is often so overlooked is because he states it rather matter of factly and rarely even tries to explain it.

Now this set off a whole chain reaction of thinking in me and exploring this concept has made me see the world in a completely new way. A liberating and even frightening outlook to be sure. You see, in this concept the only thing that gives a police officer authority is the belief that he has authority. This belief is what he refers to as the "thought." Now that in itself is a frightening thought but it can be applied to every single aspect of our society. The only thing that gives anyone right of ownership is the belief of those around that person in their right of ownership. Or the only thing that gives money value is the belief that it has value. Do you see that in this construct there are no truths? In this construct all of our truths are merely a thought. And each one of our truths even our belief in right and wrong is also a method of control.

Authority, value, morals, these are all methods of control to make you follow the the rules made by man and by your very belief in them are truth. You could argue for physical proof of authority by such measures as imprisonment. But if you accept that your physical body is merely an appendage whose sole design is keeping your mind alive then what is physical imprisonment? Particularly when all the functions such as gathering food, providing shelter etc... are being met? The body is then obsolete. The need for freedom of movement itself becomes obsolete in this case. The mind itself can never be imprisoned no matter what kind of incarceration is imposed upon the body. In fact the only thing that can imprison the mind is the thought. If your every day routine is dictated by the belief in the constructs of our society ie... government, authority, religion, money etc.. then it could well be argued that we are the ones being incarcerated. In this case, who is the crazy one? The man who is liberated in jail or the man who incarcerates himself mentally every day?