The Ultimate New-Age Lifestyle

Oh, where to begin? This is a pseudo-guide written by an 18-year-old

male self-professed new-age South African citizen, but it may apply to
males or females of any age in any country.

The “guide” consists mostly of my social, political, economic and

pretty much all views, which are extensive and cannot be discussed
in a single sentence (as required by Facebook and other social
networking sites).

If you are reading this, you agree to my disclaimer: I am not

advocating this as a way of life from any position but my personal
opinion.

I’ll start with a simple point: Socio-politically, I am liberal. (Do not start
making judgements before you have read the whole paragraph).
Unconditionally, I am neither racist nor sexist. I am pro-choice with
regards to abortion (which I shall discuss later) and similarly, I oppose
the death penalty and just about all religious ideologies that are not
based on morals, but rather the opinions of the creators of the
religion(s).

I support a free-market economy in which all industries have

competition. If a company holds the majority over an industry, it is the
responsibility of the government to control prices in order to preserve
consumer rights.

I support an education system in which there are private and public

schools and universities. The education system widely varies from
country to country, but an “ideal” education system would focus on
sport, academics and cultural fields equally, with a choice of people to
focus on specifics from high school onward, and then pick a
specialisation in university (if the student chooses to go to university).
Abuse in schools, overcrowded classrooms and children who dread
getting up in the mornings should be a thing of the past.

Socially, I advocate atheism. Many brilliant essays have been written

on the several reasons to choose atheism over any religion or even
agnosticism, and I shall sum them up in the following sentence: All
religions are based on human opinions, many of which are
nonsensical in today’s terms, and the idea of a God or gods is
implausible and cannot be proven or even justified as a good idea.
Although this has many implications in my daily life, the most
common are that I oppose a harsh prison system (in effect, I prefer
rehabilitation-type centres than negative, autocratic prisons), that I
support pro-choice abortions, freedom of speech and media, sex
education and even prostitution. (I do not advocate prostitution, but I
know of the disgusting abuse that befalls these unfortunate women
and men, and know that legalisation will only increase the number by
a very small amount, but serve the purpose of giving these people a
support structure from which to oppose the near-slavery that they
undergo).

I shall devote an entire paragraph to my views on drugs. Where I

come from, the legal age to smoke tobacco is 16, and to drink alcohol
is 18. I personally dislike tobacco smoke and understand that it
damages the health of non-users present, and that is why I would rule
that even outdoors, there be a smoking area for smokers. As for
drinking, I am a drinker who greatly enjoys doing so in moderation. I
believe laws on public sales should be lifted, and people allowed to
trade alcohol 24/7 should they so choose. The legal age should be
changed to 17, as I know that people drink at that age anyway. I
believe the alcohol-driving limit should be 0.06% BAC, and anyone
who drives over this limit should be sent to jail for 3 months and have
their drivers’ licence permanently removed.

As we are on the subject of drivers’ licensing, the current state of

bureaucracy over this is UNACCEPTABLE. The K53 test needs to be
TOTALLY rethought. It is far more important that a driver
demonstrates proper knowledge of how to drive, than spends 8
minutes doing various parking tests and then fails due to not looking
over one’s shoulder about 8 times per individual parking test (you
have to do 6 tests, and then fail due to rolling forward 1.5cm in 1st
gear on a decline) and then having to wait about 8 months to do
another test? WHAT THE FUCK? The learners’ licence age should be
lowered to 16, and the age to get a proper drivers’ licence 16 ½.
Learners licences should be valid for 5 years, up from 18 months.
Another important subject is human sexuality and love. A new-age
person understands and respects all the following, and may practice
as few as none and as many as all but one of the below..

• Polyamory (the act of taking multiple lovers, all partners being

aware and complicit, do not confuse POLYGAMY please, which
is the act of marrying more than one person)
• Miscegeny (The act of taking a lover with a different racial
background/ethnicity to oneself)
• Homosexuality
• Bisexuality
• BDSM (This is a very broad category, but mostly relates to
Bondage, Discipline, Domination, Submission, Sadism and
Masochism). These are sexual practices that (with the full
consent of all involved people) involve pain, humiliation,
restraint or many self-explanatory terms).

Personally, I am a heterosexual (straight) person who also aspires to

be a polyamorist (and miscegenist if necessary). As for the last item
on the list, I cannot answer for this as I have no experience in the
matter, only information.

A new-age person will tend towards polyamory, but at the very least
never fail to open up sexually when necessary (meaning no excuses,
religious or otherwise, should be invoked). I am not by any means
suggesting that consent be overruled, but rather that sex is a very
positive, mutual act with very many reasons for existence. (With
proper condom use and prudence with regard to selecting partners,
issues of STDs and pregnancy can be avoided, and as such I shall
not discuss them. They are tired and overused arguments to support
celibacy).

Commitment and monogamy are then optional, rather than

necessary, for sex and relationships. The very meaning of a
relationship needs a serious review, and there is no reason for new-
age people to subscribe to the Western media’s ideals. We
understand that jealousy in a relationship is a path to destruction and
know the futility of “trying to stop (my) partner cheating on (me)”.
Controlling a person or clinging to them is the fastest way to make
them dislike you.

Moving back to drugs and drug use, most new-age people regard
drugs as bad. Many of us try smoking marijuana or perhaps using
LSD, and some may use them intermittently. We want information,
and will not just take someone’s word for it when they offer us a one-
sided view. The enlightened new-age person does not accept any
information that is not presented in a discursive fashion or at the very
least accepted that there is another side to the matter. (This is a
further reason for atheism. The vast majority of atheists are aware of
arguments against their atheism, but have made an informed choice
due to the information available).

Naturally, I am against any form of censorship (yes, this includes

pornography and teenagers. I believe that a child of any age can
watch pornography as long as he/she has someone he/she can trust
to explain the concept to him/her, and explain its possible
misrepresentation in the media. Since we know this isn’t always the
case, I would advise people under the age of 14 not to watch porn or
excessive violence) and I support whistle-blowing on corruption and
inadequacy. I respect the courageous people who stand up and say
when something is amiss.

New-age people understand the difference between respect and

adoration. Many of us may have struggled when (for example) in high
school, a teacher said “You must respect me!” and the honest thought
from the student was “But I don’t*”. Respect must be earned, and we
know that age and authority alone are not qualifiers of respect*. What
these teachers and other authoritarian figures wanted was adoration.
Since it was always possible to give false adoration to them (and they
would lap it up, the insincere, egomaniacal losers) we stayed out of
trouble.

*I am not suggesting that no such people are worthy of true respect.

We are not racist people, and we feel a certain amount of disgust for
those who are. However, we usually keep this disgust to ourselves.
The same applies to sexism and homophobia. We see no place in the
world for a “closet” for homosexual people.

New-age people as a whole resent the utilitarian approach. The major

trouble with such an approach is that people and ideas invariably
need to be sacrificed. We have no right to subvert these people or
ideas to further our own ends, and neither does anyone else.

Many of us simply seek to better the world we live in, without

prejudice and simply would like everyone to be happier, overall.
Some of us may be anarchists to a certain extent, because we feel
immensely disappointed with the failings of our government. We
know this though: we care a great deal for the world. We do not have
the apathy that many of our contemporaries do. We want to make a
difference.