Words help me. They unlock clues of the infinite puzzle of our experience.

Ιδεοληψία (ee-the-o-lee-psee-a, Ideolepsis). In English it translates to obsession or compulsion. Its etymology though, makes my torch light a bit brighter: to be possesed by an idea. Ideology is pretty near: “the science of ideas” and “a system of ideas”. Being possesed by an idea can easily describe what we call “fundamentalism” and “dogmatism”. But is there an idea that we are NOT possesed by? Is it even possible to be free from being possesed by any idea?The first and strongest idea that possesses us is the self. The I. The me. An idea that we are never, ever, able to be free of. We are slaves to ideas, to the point that we are ideas. We don’t exist outside our idea, without ideas we might as well be a plant or a rock. Provided, those dont have ideas about themselves.

And here comes the next bump on the puzzle: is killing in the name of an idea equal to not? Putting human life above everything is an idea. The value of a single life – the core of humanism – is an idea. Killing for God’s love is an idea. Is there a better idea than another?