I was born in Sweden, in the year of 1982.

When I was but a small child, life and universe were not only limitless, but equally interwoven. And I was yet to learn the difference between content and satisfied. But as I during the process of upbringing was fed with an endless stream of expectations, both on life itself and my own part in it, strategies to handle the inexplicable incongruence between “being” and “to become”. The both were now paired in a way that it had become impossible to have the one without the other. “Being” was simply not enough, as it had been before. It now seemed a very remote possibility indeed.

The strategy most easily at hand, was fantasising, and with that, facilitated by language, came lying. Needless to point out, both of these were innately impossible before the emergence of an internal language based upon symbols, and eventually the discovery that my internal dictionary had to be reasonable congruent with the corresponding dictionaries of that of others, although not too congruent to escape the misunderstanding and subtleties necessary for lying in a not to obvious manner.

So with the stage set with language as a precondition and the perceived incongruence between being and what to become, great fantasies were spun, and with them sometimes, lies.

When I became slightly older, and subsequently wiser according to own perception, I thought I found a good survival strategy to help me alleviate the experienced inner incongruence between what I was and what the expectations on me led me to think I was becoming. It involved, far from surprising, exquisite elements of both lies and fantasy.

Being of a rather lazy nature, it soon became obvious to me, that in order to become all that I and my surroundings expected of me, I had to divert my attention from the merry and easy pleasures in life, like for example watching a stream float my, throwing and occasional pebble as well as lying in the sun, eating raspberries and watching the clouds roll by, to more sternous, goal-oriented tasks.

Thus, the lies started out in a very neat and inconspicuous manner. If somebody asked me if I had done my homework, I instantly assured them that I had, even though empirical evidence would have gotten the better of me, should there have been any. Pretty much like any other child. But homework soon turned into assignments, assignments escalated to deadlines. That way, I always seemed to end up doing all these things that I lied about that I've already done, in the eleventh hour. Pretty much like any other high-school student.

Fortunately, unlike most high-school students, fate had granted me with a reasonable sharp mind and a knack of finding out exactly what was expected from me at any given moment, enabling me to get away with a minimum of effort. This made the situation altogether bearable, for some time.

However, as demands teamed up with expectation, these grew at an alarming rate, until not even the most elaborate lie would suffice. Heavy artillery was now called for, and thus, the good old cavemanesque pattern of fight vs. flight began to assert itself. I went for the latter. When the situation became to unbearable, and the incongruence to great to handle, I simply left the stage and walked away.

Jobs, education, love-affairs, all became subject to the same unrelenting principle of flight. Of course, to make myself some justice, even fight was occasionally called for, but just when it seemed inevitable, or the prospects of success overwhelmingly reassuring. Anyway, it was just as an exception to the overarching principle of flight.

Although this may seem to you as a rather cowardly behaviour, I did not at all look upon myself as a coward. To myself, I just felt as if I was doing the right thing, avoiding trouble in favour for the easy and pleasurable things in life. Pretty much as I thought most other people did. Not to say that this behaviour necessarily was a bad thing, jumping from one tuft of grass to another, was a sure way of always ending up in novel and interesting situations – for every door shut, every ship sunk, three more appeared at the horizon. It seldom left me with a sense of accomplishment however, nor content. Not to say that I was looking for any of that at the time, so I didn't feel I was missing out on anything. From time to time however, I was imbued with a strong sense of satisfaction, but without any sense of closure. I was satisfied, but not content.

Now, normally, this is the point where you are expected by society to make a deep dip into habit, aligning with the basic premises as outlined by the society that you happened to be born into, buying into at least some of the preconceptions and prejudices that all to often come with forcing to adapt to simplified versions of reality. You are most likely to encounter with people urging you, or at least humbly inclining, that you should leave these thoughts behind, and aim for being able to function within society, on societies terms. To find the golden middle way, that's the chant.

Fortunately, for me, there were also people who didn't seem to buy in to all the preconceptions and align themselves with habitual patterns of living, and they still seemed to get along pretty well. In fact, they did seem a lot happier less grudging and less bitter than the ones who advocated assimilation.

At this point, I started to become aware of the power of Habit and Novelty, on a personal level, without having any theory or dualistic concept in this form as I now present it. I realised that I could put my restlessness to use, in sense that it always seemed to propel me into new and challenging directions, not always easy, but always rewarding. I learnt the futility of seeking enduring satisfaction in any kind of habitual environment, and if I at some point did, I always tried to keep the door of reassessment of the situation open, in order to make a leap for novelty if needed.

Ever since, through success and defeat, the only enduring force, always readily there to take your life into new progressive realms, has been Novelty. Analysing the world with the concepts of Habit and Novelty, proved to be an invaluable tool in pinpointing dysfunctional patterns, on both individuality and societal levels. Not to say that this by any means is a complete dualistic concept that will successfully address every particular issue, quite the opposite – Novelty teaches us to always be open to reassessment of whatever tools we use, activities we engage, theories that we adhere to, even if this would be Novelty/Habit as a tool of analysis itself. The true strength and credibility in this, is that the tool itself states that the tool at some point, might turn out as dysfunctional, and be in need of either a slight re-engineering, a complete revolution or adaptation of a whole different strategy.

Today, I believe that that adapting this dualistic concept is of great use for me in exposing dysfunctionality in my own life, in the lives of those who I care about, and in the society as well as in its sub-structures as such. However, should the circumstances in my life change in such a way that this will no longer be of any use, the theory itself simply abolishes itself, or adapts in any way deemed necessary.

Even overarching Novelty itself, is the basic human precondition of temporariness - nothing lasts forever, or remains the same, for that sake. Every solution put forth, is but a temporary respond to temporary circumstances, and should not hold any ambitions beyond that, in order not to degrade into dogma.

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