escape to where?

in escaping babylon, i don't think it's a great idea to have some idealistic utopian destination in mind: like a new jerulsalem, some city of peace, descending out of the heavens... i think this is the temptation of all escapees, and i know from experience, how easily we can be led astray by what basically amount to a "rebellion" against the establishment, cleverly disguised as attempted revolution...

all too easily do we think that we can "change" the system... that laws can be tweaked and institutions restructured, and society will be the better for it... but we should know better, because it isn't the laws and institutions, per se, that are bad... it is our complete and utter reliance and dependence on them... a law can't make people more socially responsible, only the individual can do that for themselves.

so escape it must be! and a blind escape, in the night... not knowing where you're going, but feeling your way along, ever so slowly, until your eyes become accustomed to the darkness, and you begin to pick out markers along the way... the road beneath your feet is old and overgrown, and it's easy to lose your way - especially when you cross over that great highway that leads back to babylon... oh, how tempting it is to turn back on to that smooth wide road, and follow the way you've known all you life... but no... that way only leads to destruction... the mountain path requires that you entrust your present and future to the fates just a little bit...

as you travel along, you begin to learn new things - a new skill, an alternative method... and each new thing you learn gives you a greater understanding into the world we live in... who would have thought learning how to brew beer, could help give you insight into how to bake a better loaf of bread; and who could have conceived that the simple act of making yoghurt, could give you a wealth of understanding into the potential for life to flourish given the right conditions... and would anyone believe that losing the one thing a person could depend on, could help them comprehend such a mysterious concept as love?

it is only by escaping babylon that you realise that to make mistakes is not to fail... by trial and error, you gradually learn to disregard the less effective practices, and home in on the better ways... soon (though not soon enough), you begin to develop a "sense" for the best ways of doing something... this is encouraging, because it means you've found a safe path - it means you're beginning to understand how the "real" world (that wild, beautiful, dangerous creature) functions, rather than the systemic facade placed over the world like a tablecloth...

of course, you still interract with people caught in the system, but those interractions seem less real - as though these people speak a different language, or breath a different kind of air... never mind, you'll meet people along the way who you can understand, and who understand you... people who are also somewhere along that same path toward truth... and while you may not meet too many of these people, when you do meet them it will be as though meeting a long-lost sibling...

...ok, so i've probably scared you with this somewhat esoteric allegory... but then, it is to overcome your fears that you start out on this epic adventure in the first place...