Writing the Anti-law of Jante

Today, I came across this little piece about something I haven't heard of, but makes an incredible amount of sense, and feels so familiar:

The Law of Jante :

“You aren’t worth a thing, nobody is interested in what you think, mediocrity and anonymity are your best bet. If you act this way, you will never have any big problems in life.”

The Law of Jante focuses on the feeling of jealousy and envy that sometimes causes so much trouble to people like Ari Behn, the husband of Princess Martha-Louise. This is one of its negative aspects, but there is something far more dangerous.
And this law is accountable for the world being manipulated in all possible manners by people who have no fear of what the others say and end up practicing the evil they desire. We have just witnessed a useless war in Iraq, which is still costing many lives; we see a huge abyss between the rich and the poor countries of the world, social injustice on all sides, unbridled violence, people being forced to give up their dreams because of unfair and cowardly attacks. Before starting the second world war, Hitler sent out several signals as to his intentions, and what encouraged him to go ahead was the knowledge that nobody would dare to defy him because of the Law of Jante.

Mediocrity may be comfortable, up to the day that tragedy knocks at the door and people start to wonder: “but why did nobody say anything, if everybody could see that this was going to happen?”
Simple: nobody said anything because the others did not say anything either.

So in order to prevent things from growing any worse, maybe this is the right moment to write the anti-Law of Jante:
“You are worth far more than you think. Your work and presence on this Earth are important, even though you may not think so. Of course, thinking in this way, you might have many problems because you are breaking the Law of Jante – but don’t feel intimidated by them, go on living without fear and in the end you will win.”

by Coelho's 'Like a flowing river'

Genius. And this is why I've decided to restart this blog.

As you may have noticed, I haven't published anything since my last entry which was somewhere around february 2009. Ever since then, I have gained some respect for travelwriters/bloggers who actually manage to update their blogs once in a while. Who have the mental discipline of writing at regular intervals. Who constantly redefine their writing style and are constantly on the lookout for interesting material.

Here's what happened to me: while travelling,I couldn't force myself to sit at a computer for hours on end typing my 'adventures', while the adventure was going on out there! Ofcourse, there were many times where I should've done an update instead of a quick e-mail check, but meh. Judge me, oh ye who feel you should.

Either way, I did take notes however, so I'll try to reconstruct some of my experiences. Also, I will kick myself in the ass whenever I'm slacking in the future. Resolutions, resolutions eh?