The Brick.

I have this problem. An affliction. An addiction. No matter what, I always see myself as the underdog.

I often see people with more than me as people who cheated or privileged nepo babies.

I’m a sore loser and I always feel oppressed by something or someone. I have what Nietzsche calls Slave Morality.

This is the default for post-colonial (Irish) and minority (Autistic) people. I’m both.

Add Black and White Thinking to this, and I live with an imaginary brick on my head.

We’re always fighting uphill against some enemy or unbeatable problem against greater resources and influence. Today, the enemies and problems are often either imaginary, or greatly exaggerated.

When the enemy is real, we go apeshit. Disproportionally rageful at the first whiff of oppression.

We rip into bigots, ableists, racists and fascists without a second thought or any pause at all to hear why they believe that, outside of our pseudo-psychological assessments of them that only feed our own confirmation bias:

There’s a quiet voice undermining us that says:

“ I’m a victim. I’m an underdog. And anyone that disagrees or is doing better than me is evil.”

This energy is seen in our media too. How many movies or shows have you watched where a decent, moral, usually well mannered protagonist faces a smug, unfair, powerful villain, and when the opportunity comes, the protagonist loses their mind, forgets who they are, and becomes gratuitously bloodthirsty?

I can name 20 off the top of my head.

This trope appeals to us. It appeals to Victims. It tells us we’re right. It tells us the other side isn’t human, and dehumanising them is.

“When they go low, we go high” is out of fashion these days.

Effects of The Brick

When conservatives call liberal beliefs a “woke mind virus” I don’t think the phrase actually means the policies, aesthetics, and norms. I think what the phrase “Mind Virus” really means is to have an imaginary brick be the core of your identity. To be disempowered and proud of it.

I’ve removed the brick for short spans of months and even years, but it always returns to the top of my head. I feel it in my dna and something I see enables it to come back.

Removing the brick is a conscious, difficult, worthwhile effort.

Examples of the brick:

I’m autistic and burnt out so I can’t go outside today.
I’m depressed so I can’t go exercise.
I’m Irish, we’re victims, so it’s my imperative to care about other oppressed people regardless if I even like them.
I can’t talk to people unless I look my best
Making money online is oversaturated, the dream isn’t real anymore
My girlfriend will leave me if I stop being hot and funny
I can’t lie to anyone, so I should avoid situations where that’s the only option
I have to act fake to get along at work
Everyone’s looking at me and judging
Life is a series of hardships
Nothing matters

Here’s what it looks like when the brick is removed:

I’m autistic and burnt out so I’ll get back into the flow by going out in my terms
I’m depressed so I must exercise
I’m Irish and proud of who I am, and that doesn’t control who I choose to be
I should talk to people while looking ugly, it’s an opportunity to see if they’re real
Making money online is possible. I and many others did it before, people are doing it now. I can do it again.
If being hot and funny was all I had I would still be trapped in loveless situationships.
I can’t lie to anyone and it’s my greatest asset for filtering people out
I enjoy this silly game of thrones office politics bs I’m ridiculously good at it
Everyone’s looking at me and I don’t care. Rent Free.
Life is a series of opportunities and I’m the captain of the ship
Everything is worth experiencing 100%

When my brick is removed, I become the main character again. I control my life. The momentum belongs to me. Everything belongs to me with enough effort.

It’s fashionable to be a victim. It feels good at first to be a victim. You make friends being a victims.

What you don’t get is a life worth living.

Without the brick, I Seize my will to power.

I Refuse to be a slave.

What is “Slave Morality”?

To control more powerful people, members of a less powerful group create slave morality, a value system based on guilt, fear, and a distortion of the will to power in which the characteristics of the disempowered type are praised as virtues, while those of the empowered type are condemned as arrogance.

This morality is common among "merely human" types who cannot face being alone in a godless world, whom Nietzsche calls the underman.

The underman turns to the group for power and, aware of its inferiority, resents all "higher types" and "elitist" value systems.

This resentment is a sure sign of slave morality: hatred of the powerful simply because they are powerful.

The concept of Slave Morality was used to justify atrocities, but it was never meant to increase division and feel superior.

It was meant to free you from a weaker version of yourself.

How do I remove it?

I want to acknowledge how lucky I am to have Persistent Demand Avoidance and no nonsense parents that encouraged responsibility.

Without these I may have never discovered life without the brick.

With that said, anybody can remove the limits.

This is how I remove my mental limits and overclock my willpower when I need to:

I make a tiny and achievable promise, like “I will do XYZ today” out loud.
I do it.
My word suddenly has more value to myself.
Repeat/Spam until my word is unbreakable.
Identify my word as controlling my reality, then direct it to bigger more difficult things

I say something, then make it happen. Then I can trust myself. Then I move to the real mission.

I don’t stop for limiting thoughts, I do it like life depends on it, because it does.

I must be credible to myself and never break my own word or it all falls apart and my locus of control gets fucked.

I hope this helped. Thanks for reading.

ASDKings.com

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The Self Imposed Limit