Are you proud to be drunk on the sense of belonging?

Several of our social problems are connected to an out-of-control sense of belonging. Being a proud “redneck” is a problem many rednecks don’t even acknowledge. If someone is proud of being a redneck, they are intoxicated by an excessive sense of belonging. A bully has a strong need to impress others, which is also tied to this sense of belonging, to the point it can become a mental health issue where they disregard the harm they inflict on the people whose approval they seek.

If you can’t balance your sense of belonging with your sense of being a free individual, you are a weak person brainwashed by the knowledge provided by your belonging groups. You were not created by God to be this way. All human knowledge is beneficial until an individual starts to feel superior to others.

There are all kinds of prejudice around. You could be an educated person who thinks those less educated are inferior. You could be brainwashed by your belonging groups—nations, races, or religions—that preach they are superior, and since you are part of them, you believe you are better regardless of your character. You could be gender-biased, thinking you are stronger and thus superior. Spiritually, this is all wrong because we are all connected as an organism and are most valuable when we are practically useful to humanity.

I am an individualist, but I draw my lines with my freedom itself because I know I can’t function alone as a cell. As an intricate component of the body, I know my place, and spiritually, I feel it’s my duty to reciprocate while I am alive.

Whenever you feel you are better than others for any reason, you need to start thinking deeply. Feelings are strongly connected with thinking, and unfortunately, our knowledge and wisdom providers don’t realize how much damage they cause to humanity by turning us against each other. People fight over how to pray to God and kill someone over selling beef, yet practically, nothing is done for the less fortunate. Are they really pleasing God? I personally would not want to believe in a God who is pleased by human suffering. There is nothing spiritual in these kinds of fights and prejudice-related wars. They are all political wars, with God’s name and individuals’ religious convictions used by leaders to gain power and control. I believe in individual education so that one can see through the atrocities of the politics of belonging.

From terror attacks to sitting behind drone control boards, we are all individuals making decisions with our free will to join the causes of our belonging groups. I compare this to drunk driving—you make a choice to drive after drinking, just as you decide to join a cause. The blame lies on the individual.

How vulnerable are you? Do you believe in shouldering your responsibilities or hide behind excuses like “I have to do my job,” just like religious people hide behind God and the Devil to commit spiritual crimes? One must understand why each of us has been blessed with free will by God. After your umbilical cord has been cut, you take pride in being an individual, but learning the responsibilities that come with free will is most important. You can choose a career that does not involve killing other human beings because, even if they belong to other groups, they are still human. If you feel drunk, even if it’s on the alcohol of God, it’s still your responsibility to shoulder it. You can’t choose to kill in the name of God, especially if you have been influenced by politically charged religions.

The spiritual part of every religion starts with compassion, forgiveness, sacrifice, and love. If your religion takes you away from these jewels or fundamentals of spirituality, you are following a political group that leads you further from spirituality. Even if you have been promised heaven, that promise has nothing to do with spirituality. Without spirituality, there is no heaven—not in this life, nor the afterlife. The same goes for individuals who think their nation is the most important; you have been taught prejudice. Even if they say prejudice is bad on the surface, it’s all about practical living. To understand prejudice without the bias of belonging to a group, look at it as a spiritual being. If you have passed the genetic test of being a human, pass the spiritual test as well. Stand against prejudice, be equal to all, and advocate for equal human rights for everyone. This will bring you to the spiritual world in this life. And no, I am not promising anything in the afterlife because your living years matter the most. No one can say for certain what happens after death—there are several theories and religious beliefs—but one thing is for sure: you can only do good things practically while you are alive.