Untitled Document

INDIVIDUAL DICTATORSHIP

What we want you to do
1. “Behavioral form, the manipulation of people by institutions and other individuals, completely penetrates, permeates and overwhelms our society. The only way we can change our behavior, and society, is to reject it.

You are formed, and therefore, to a greater or lesser extent, enslaved by social convention, by the expectations and demands of others. I want you to look at the world in a new way: to recognize form in all of its manifestations, and to defend yourself against them. I want you to fight the form of your specific life circumstances, ranging from your genetically-derived characteristics to the conventions of society, and through this to gain your freedom from them.

In this effort you will have to work on your own, and with your family and friends. But, you can do it. Your goal is to rein in your own negative characteristics, and to give the people and institutions who try to form you a surprise. You want to be stronger than their conditioning and preconceptions. You want to be yourself.

When you are in a situation where there is a noticeable influence, say to yourself, and others: “That’s a form.” When you see news of problems on TV, or read about them, think of the forms which are responsible and whose interests are being served. When people try to manipulate you, tell them: “Stop telling me what to do. Stop forming me!”

To the extent that we can encourage the use of this word, we will also further the thought - the education - which underlies it. We want everyone to become sensitive to form, even preoccupied with it; and to use the word to such an extent that it achieves the status of common currency, and replaces the influences and usage of such terms as “cool.”

Only when we learn to view problems this way, i.e., when we recognize that there is a deeper problem and set our minds to confronting it, will we have a chance of finally curing what are really only symptoms, including their habitual recurrence. And through this we can see that the revolt against form is a real revolution, actually, an evolution, since it will not involve a reversion to the same old state of affairs.

A good place to start is to question all of your own, and society’s, assumptions and practices. Anything at all that you think and do is potentially a valid subject of scrutiny, particularly those things which you take for granted.” (FFF, Religion, Your Future, Society)

What we intend to do
In combination with our other campaigns, we intend to assist individuals to regain greater control over their will. In Freedom From Form, there is extensive personal advice on how you can counteract the dictatorship of behavioral form (including of your own form - the different ways in which you impose yourself on other people). Also, in this effort we believe it is important that you concentrate on those forms which drive us, as a species, to overpopulate, to overconsume, and to develop a dependence on technology.

Of course, you may argue that you have complete control over your will, and that you make your own decisions (and that you are never, personally, a dictator). To see if this is truly the case, we invite you to take a quiz: Are You Brainwashed?