What’s an inherent trait that we all cherish in our lives? It’s our freedom of expression. Our life trajectory is guided by our innate desire to speak what lies deep in our heart. Our actions are fueled by the righteous causes that inspire us to seek freedom and justice for all that we do.
Have you ever crucified your inner voice that intrigued your mind to write about topics that most of us fear the most? Have you ever felt the skirmish between your passionate mind and the shrill sound of opposition from your heart when you tried to speak about politics with friends with whom you share most other things about life? We all have.
The stigma of an outward freedom of expression for topics that impact our lives comes from our feeble reasoning to remain likable to those who may oppose our views. We constantly engage ourselves in a mental chatter to abstain from topics that we love to speak about at length with our alter ego — politics, religion, our principles and our happiness – yet remain silent once we step out of our house.
We want to wear the tag of acceptance from others that prevents us from expressing our views that may not be aligned with their views.
Ironically, these are the topics that we need to be vociferous about to make our world a better place to live. These are the topics that make up the core of the peace that we seek to benefit all of Mankind.
If there was ever a contest for a role model who spoke on any topic, including those that we’d rather not discuss, Mark Twain would win outright. Mark Twain often spoke without a speck of fear on those topics that you and I would rather shy away from.
We all can learn the art of freedom of expression from this man who has spoken on almost everything and still loved by billions around the world.
So, let’s learn from the master of the art of self-expression so that we can instantly put his wisdom to work in our lives and speak from our hearts with humor and feel proud doing so.
No party holds the privilege of dictating to me how I shall vote. If loyalty to party is a form of patriotism, I am no patriot. If there is any valuable difference between a monarchist and an American, it lies in the theory that the American can decide for himself what is patriotic and what isn’t. I claim that difference. I am the only person in the sixty millions that is privileged to dictate my patriotism. —- Mark Twain
Topic 1. Religion and Politics.
“In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.” —- Mark Twain
We have witnessed our politicians pretending to share the pain of an average citizen and promising to do all in their power only until they take the oath. Their actions speak volumes about their ignorance of what matters most to all of those who elected them to the office. The world has witnessed this phenomenon in which the voice of the common people gets diminished by the act of indifference from our political and religious leaders. The politics of honesty lays its foundation on the core issues that matter most to the welfare of its population. Our vote shall not be a considered a blind act of loyalty. Our vote shall not be sacrificed to defend the party lines; rather it should be used to bring common justice and opportunity for all.
A religion that comes of thought, and study, and deliberate conviction, sticks best. The revitalized convert who is scared in the direction of heaven because he sees hell yawn suddenly behind him, not only regains confidence when his scare is over, but is ashamed of himself for being scared, and often becomes more hopelessly and malignantly wicked than he was before.—- Mark Twain
We blindly follow our beliefs because we fear the consequences as preached by religious leaders . We are brainwashed in a way that limits our ability to think, study and form a deliberate conviction based on our ideals. Some form of religion and religious beliefs are vital for our own personal growth and character building, but we should never allow dumbfounded reasoning or scare tactics to guide our religious beliefs or to form a stereotypical view of others who don’t conform to our own. A religion should show us the pathway to happiness by practicing moral values and compassion for all Mankind.
Topic 2. Our principles.
We all live in the protection of certain cowardices which we call our principles. —- Mark Twain
When our actions are not congruent with our own beliefs, we take refuge under the hood of our principles to justify our act of cowardice. If we avoid expressing our views of fairness and justice for any just cause that we feel deeply about, if we ignore our own inner voice to bring about the change that can transform our world for the better — we are doomed to forever fail to do what’s right . We use this word ‘principle’ at work and at home to avoid engaging ourselves in those actions that jeopardize our imaginary sense of security.
You cannot have a theory without principles. Principles is another name for prejudices. —— Mark Twain
All of us have formed a stonewall of theories to justify our mental views of other people. When we don’t like something and when we struggle to rationalize our dislike, we wrap ourselves in the comfortable, secure blanket called ‘our principles‘. How can we grow ourselves if we are not truthful to our own inner-self? How can we make our world a better place to live if we wrap our views in a colorful yet fake stereotype formed on baseless reasoning? Try to abandon those fake theories that you have formed and embrace awareness by witnessing every thought that guides your every action. You’ll be amazed at the power of clarity that you will feel when you devote your life to bring about a profound change.
Topic 3. Our Happiness.
Happy is he who forgets (ignores?) what cannot be changed. —- Mark Twain
Have you noticed that most of things that we complain about in our lives cannot be changed just by our sheer will? Our incessant stream of worries cannot influence these things. Have you also noticed that we seldom discuss with others what makes us happy? Why? Happiness resides within us but we tend to seek out our happiness in terms of possessions. Why do we worry about the population of the world? Or the next epidemic that may wipe human race?Or the upcoming hurricane season? All of these things are beyond our capacity to change.
The perfection of wisdom, and the end of true philosophy is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities, we will then be a happy and a virtuous people. —- Mark Twain
Don’t most of our financial woes come from our desire to spend beyond our means to repay what we borrow? When we spread our legs beyond the reach of our blanket, we’re prone to harsh treatment from nature. If we learn to possess only what life demands, if we learn to dream only what we can achieve with the capability and resources at our disposal —- we can find true, inner happiness. Our worries and problems that we’d rather not discuss with others come from our insane desire to dream without any regards to either our financial or physical means to achieve these dreams.
Happiness is a Swedish sunset–it is there for all, but most of us look the other way and lose it.
—- Mark Twain
Our freedom of speech is a sacred virtue. Have we abandoned our need to seek justice for the greater causes of Mankind by our deafening silence to discuss topics of politics, religion, our principles and our happiness?
