Just imagine that for one sweet day we drop internal struggle and we listen to our impulses innate.../ We'll sleep 'til sunshine calls us and eat double chocolate sundaes and perhaps show up for work three hours late./ We'll blurt out "I'm in love with you" at moments inappropriate, and touch ourselves indecently on trains / But I doubt that we'd be tempted into violence or treachery in crazed pursuit of venal worldly gains.

::::::::

From animals descended, we retain an intuition that
_____sustained our forebears for a billion years.
We're out of touch with nature--and ourselves--but there's a distant Eden past,
_____toward which an inner driver steers.
This fundamental conflict pits our primal innocence against
_____the comforts and security we cherish.
If we drop the tiller, navigate on autopilot through the
_____concrete jungle--will we thrive or perish?

They tell us that a conscious choice to cleave to social norms
_____is all that keeps our fragile lives from being wrecked.
But are we so unsuited to this techno-social life
_____that we must constantly keep evil impulse checked?
Are ubiquitous temptations to addiction so persuasive
_____that we'd fall within their sway without strong wills?
And, if so, are these the fruits that we most value from
_____our culture, or its incidental chemicals and pills?

Just imagine that for one sweet day we drop internal struggle
_____and we listen to our impulses innate...
We'll sleep 'til sunshine calls us and eat double chocolate sundaes
_____and perhaps show up for work three hours late.
We'll blurt out "I'm in love with you" at moments inappropriate,
_____and touch ourselves indecently on trains,
But I doubt that we'd be tempted into violence or treachery
_____in crazed pursuit of venal, worldly gains.

They say in Summerhill the children all run free, no punishments,
_____no testing, no curriculum or grades
And students when they first arrive (from stricter British boarding schools)
_____do nothing -- but the novelty soon fades.
And once they trust their freedom, settle in and find relationships,
_____developing a passion all their own.
Statistics show that (as a rule) they flourish, and as adults are
_____more likely than their peers to be well-known.

The busy beaver has no need to budget time, does not consult with
_____engineers--and yet the dam gets built.
Bonobos know no jealousy; they stroke and fondle friends and come
_____to orgasm in public without guilt.
Even silly geese negotiate monogamy without
_____the benefit of matrimonial law.
And predators, once sated, turn to pussycats, don't hoard their prey--
_____It's man alone who's red in tooth and claw.

We pay a price for holding fast to self-control, negotiating
_____every trite decision that we make.
And freedom from that tension just might open doors to selves we barely knew
_____(if we don't overdose on cake).
I wonder if it's worth the risk to let authentic voices speak,
_____relinquishing control we know so well...
From comfortable purgatory, take a leap of faith, fly free,
_____and parachute to heaven or to hell.

And (humor me) imagine if our personal examples spread,
_____Became a wave of insubordination...
And (while we're fantasizing) our demand for more fulfilling lives
_____might trend our politics toward liberation.
Though there's no guarantee our freedom, thus asserted one-by-one,
_____would lead us to utopian solutions,
I'd bet my bippy on our primal souls before I'd put my trust
_____In any current human institutions.

-- Josh Mitteldorf

Authors Bio:

Josh Mitteldorf, de-platformed senior editor at OpEdNews, blogs on aging at http://JoshMitteldorf.ScienceBlog.com. Read how to stay young at http://AgingAdvice.org.

Educated to be an astrophysicist, he has branched out from there to mathematical modeling in a variety of areas, including evolutionary ecology and economics. He has taught mathematics, statistics, and physics at several universities. He is an avid amateur pianist, and father of two adopted Chinese girls, now grown. He travels to Beijing each year to work with a lab studying the biology of aging. His book on the subject is "Cracking the Aging Code", http://tinyurl.com/y7yovp87.