Learning and Unlearning

The process of finding our own voice is not one of learning, but of unlearning. Not of acquiring baggage but of jettisoning it.

To find our true voice, we de-program ourselves of every convention, identity and belief that has been hammered into our skulls by well-meaning parents, teachers, coaches and counselors; by our families, our religions, our ethnic and regional origins. We hollow ourselves out and refill from scratch.

The appeal of cults or extremist organizations is to this (honorable and sacred) seeking of one’s true self. The cult offers to take away the pain of not-knowing-who-we-are by proffering a ready-to-wear, off-the-shelf alternative.

“Il Duce” Benito Mussolini

This cult-self comes to us complete with new friends (other cult members, possibly even lovers), as well as an entire world-view and cosmology, an approved diet, attire, schedule for the day, month and year. In the cult, we are told whom to love, whom to hate, how to eat, sleep, breathe and even how to die.

The problem is that the self we are being presented with is not our own.

The artist’s journey is the opposite of cultist’s. That’s why when cults like the Nazis or the Fascists take power, among the first groups they exterminate are artists and innovators.

The post Learning and Unlearning first appeared on Steven Pressfield.