Let Me Leave and Give Me Freedom 让我离开，给我自由

Note: This is the 200^th original work in "Jack的理想国"

“Let me leave and give me freedom.” This quote essentially summarizes my feelings toward writing. Since this essay is a landmark in my journey to become a person who explores the history and the world through words, it will explain the power of writing from a personal pair of lenses.

Leaving Loneliness

Loneliness is, at times, not a lack of friends or companions. Rather, it is simply feeling left out and isolated from the environment. Loneliness is cold, hollow, and powerful. It strips us of our desire to connect with others and forces us into isolated cells of depression, hence taking away freedom.

Writing allows one to leave loneliness behind. We leave these isolated cells and look to the breadth of human nature when we write, connecting with real and imaginary elements. Writing about humankind's past, present, and future moments allows people to link their consciousness, empathy, and wisdom to a collective level. For example, when I wrote about the Vikings, I connected with their epic world of war, exploration, and cultural mingling. I was not lonely anymore with the accompaniment of these elements: the determination of Ivar the Boneless when he first set foot on England, the pure excitement of Leif Eriksson when he spotted land west of Greenland, the faith in the eyes of Harald “Bluetooth” when he converted to Christianity.

Writing fiction, too, helps the individual escape the pull of loneliness. As fantasy writer George R. Martin famously exclaimed, “There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us….” People can evoke an intrinsic association with the spirit to create in human nature and a profound connection with their creativity through written words. This process drives away loneliness from reality and restores freedom.

It is almost as if writing gives access to a collective database of real memories and imaginary flickers of thought. It is imbuing our lives with meaning and iridescence, constituting freedom.

Leaving the Surface

Writing lets me escape the surface, generally defined as the most obvious layer of an event, a thought, or an action. The surface is a restriction. It is full of delusion and emotion, guiding our exploration in the wrong direction and trapping any further dive. To leave the surface and gain freedom again, writing is sometimes necessary.

Take the example of a recent article I wrote about warfare. On this topic, it is easy to be imprisoned on the surface, being influenced by diverse opinions posted on news outlets and other forms of social media. This imprisonment further disables people from conducting more thorough research and analysis of such an important issue. However, writing relieves the individual from captivity and gives them a perfect opportunity to delve deep. One of the prerequisites of effective writing on warfare is to search for underlying historical patterns and read different perspectives from experts. Once in the world of history and perspectives, I have the freedom to navigate and formulate a personal opinion, not to be restrained by the voices on the surface. This freedom is truly enriching.

Leaving Time and Space

Finally, writing allows me to leave the boundaries of time and space, which often block our sight and imagination. If we are trapped in a certain time frame, we do not have the freedom to look to a broader scope of history and the future. Similarly, if we are trapped in a certain space frame, then we do not have the freedom to marvel at different dimensions or viewpoints across the vast world. The lack of freedom further incapacitates one’s ability to become a thinker and a creator that can draw from the past, present, or future and from across the globe.

Writing restores these kinds of freedom to our minds. Whatever we write, we will inevitably break the pull of a tiny fragment of time or space. Throughout my years of writing, I have been visiting many periods and areas of space, from prehistoric times to future decades, from China to the entire planet. These visits have expanded my horizons, forming an increasingly complex web of knowledge and understanding I can freely navigate. Without immense amounts of writing, it is easy to be short-sighted and overly influenced by the hindsight fallacy. This cognitive bias occurs when someone relies too much on past knowledge. This fallacy, in particular, is the natural product of being trapped in space and time.

Conclusion

One of the most famous quotes of American writer Jack Kerouac goes, “Avoid the world, it’s just a lot of dust and drag and means nothing in the end.” This sentence is not encouraging people to pull away from the real environment but rather to use writing as a tool to avoid the delusion and chaos of the world that blur our sight.

Writing is, in essence, a powerful way to express oneself. The process of self-expression itself requires a free mind that can connect with elements in various latitudes. In this regard, writing empowers me to escape the restrictions, letting me leave and giving me freedom.

Picture From: https://www.zcool.com.cn/work/ZMjI0OTkzOTI=.html

注：“Jack的理想国”第200篇原创留念

"让我离开，给我自由"，这句话概括了我对写作的感受。本文是我通过文字探索历史和世界旅程中的里程碑，它将有望从个人的角度解释写作的力量。

脱离孤独

孤独有时并不是缺少朋友或伴侣，相反，它只是一种被遗弃和与环境隔绝的感觉。孤独是冷酷、空虚和强大的。它剥夺了我们与他人连接的愿望，迫使我们陷入孤立的抑郁牢笼，从而被剥夺了自由。

写作可以让人把孤独抛在脑后。当我们写作时，我们离开这些孤立的牢笼，展望人性的深度，与现实和想象的元素联系起来。写下人类的过去、现在和未来的时刻，让人们把自己的意识、同情心和智慧关联到一个群体的层面。例如，当我写维京人时，我与他们的战争、探索和文化交融的史诗般的世界联系在一起。在这些元素，包括“无骨者”伊瓦尔第一次踏上英格兰征途时的决心、莱夫-埃里克森发现格陵兰岛以西的土地时的纯粹兴奋、哈拉尔德"蓝牙 "皈依基督教时眼中的信仰的伴随下，我不再孤独。

写作虚构也有助于个人摆脱孤独的牵引。正如奇幻作家乔治·马丁（George R. Martin）的感叹："奇幻中有一些古老而真实的东西，它与我们内心深处的东西相通..." 通过书面文字，人们可以唤起与人性中创造精神的内在联想，并与人们的创作产生深刻的联系。这个过程驱走了现实中的孤独感，重新赋予了我们自由。

写作就像进入一个真实的记忆和想象的思想闪烁的集体数据库，为我们的生活注入意义和五彩斑斓，构成了精神自由。

脱离表层

写作让我摆脱了表层，表层一般可以被定义为一个事件、一个思想或一个行动的最明显层次。表层是一种限制，它充满了幻觉和情绪，把我们的探索引向一个错误的方向，并困住任何进一步的深入挖掘。为了离开表层，重新获得自由，写作有时是必要的。

以我最近写的一篇关于战争的文章为例。在这个话题上，我们很容易被禁锢在表面，被新闻机构和其他形式的社交媒体上发布的无数意见所影响。这种禁锢进一步使人们无法对这样一个重要问题进行更彻底的研究和分析。然而，写作将个人从囚禁中解脱出来，给我们一个深入研究的绝佳机会。对我来说，就战争主题进行有效写作的先决条件之一是寻找潜在的历史规律，阅读专家的不同观点。一旦我置身于历史和观点的世界中，我就可以自由地浏览，形成个人观点，而不是被表面的声音所束缚。这种自由让人感到无比充实。

脱离时空

最后，写作使我能够离开时间和空间本身的界限，这些界限常常阻挡我们的视线和想象力。如果我们被困在一个特定的时间框架内，那么我们就不具备展望更广泛的历史和未来的自由。同样，如果我们被困在某一空间框架内，那么我们就没有自由去惊叹于广阔世界的不同维度或观点。自由的缺乏进一步削弱了人成为可以从过去、现在或未来，以及从全球各地汲取灵感的思想家和创造者的能力。

写作将这些自由授予我们的头脑。无论我们写什么，都不可避免地会打破时间或空间中微小碎片的牵引。在我多年的写作过程中，我一直在访问如此多的时间段和空间区域，从史前时代到迷一般的未来，从中国到整个世界。这些访问扩大了我的视野，形成了一个越来越复杂的知识和理解网络，在那里我可以自由地浏览。如果没有大量的写作，就很容易目光短浅，被事后偏见过度影响。事后偏见是一种认知上的偏差，当某人过于依赖过去的知识时，就会出现这种偏差。这样的偏见尤其是被困在空间和时间中的自然产物。

结论

美国作家杰克-凯鲁亚克最著名的一句话是："避开这个世界，它只是很多灰尘和拖累，最终毫无意义"。这句话并不是鼓励人们远离现实环境，而是鼓励人把写作作为一种工具，巧妙避开模糊我们视线的妄想和混乱的世界。

写作，从本质上讲，是一种表达自己的强大方式。自我表达的过程本身需要一个自由的头脑，能够与各种纬度的元素联系起来。在这方面，写作使我摆脱限制，让我离开，给我自由！