Essential Diary writing

Writing a diary is my thing. When something 'big' happens in my life I recourse to my diary to write it all down in an ordered and sometimes even clinical, way.

This isn't just a fad. I was looking through some of my diaries last night, trying to find some book review I'd done. I couldn't find the review, but it was fascinating to read what I'd written about my life and the world when I was 12 - 16 years old.

There are these philosophical and political ideas that are just creeping into my writing - at one stage, in my youthful 16 years I wrote:

"It scares me to think that I will become a mindless bolt in the machinery of the state if I don't literally take a stand against my society. We are not animals but they are indoctrinating our new generation that we are a higher level of apes. What frightens me is that by telling our children that they are animals, they are creating animals. Human beings who were never told that they are made in God's image, that were never taught morals...

Their evil plan is working. Already we live our little autonomous lives in our ignorance and stupidity. Someone irritating person said "Ignorance is bliss". The thing is, bliss doesn't matter if there's no grounding of truth behind it. We need to be real men and women and discover the truth, however painful it is."

Somewhere else, on the subject of mind slavery and conspiracy theories I was cooking up about the government's evil plans:

"Another way to get rid of thinkers or at least cut their numbers is to teach the new generation not to think. Because thinking is dangerous. Keep everyone simple, unified, ignorant, and the result will be Government slaves. Just like 100% tax would be slavery, so a deliberately uninformed mind is slavery. It is a pawn in the Government's game of chess." - 30 September 08'

Do you write a diary? Do you find it helps to organise your thoughts and help you to see events and ideas clearly? Do you write to your diary like Anne Frank, or are your posts to yourself?

- Lydie