Going Beyond "immaturity"

I have been using Linux (EndeavorOS) for a couple of months now. I’ve had a lot of issues running it smoothly: things don’t work out-of-the-box, and you have to put in a lot of time, effort and brain-cells to make things work. And so, by no means it is a perfect OS, but will I ever go back to using Windows? NEVER.

Why? Because, Linux is the superior OS in many ways. It has better memory management, is legally free (the kernel is open-source), has a lot of customisation option (you can do anything), is extremely versatile, has great community support, and so on. If you are a power-user, Linux is for you.

But just a year ago, I believed that switching to Linux would give me all kinds of problems- because I knew that it would be tough- and I ended up sticking to Windows. But now I have gone beyond my fears. I chose to have total control of my PC, instead of being dictated and limited by Microsoft.

This reminds me of what Immanuel Kant said, “It is so easy to be immature.”^[1] What he meant was, it is so easy to be a subordinate and let others take decisions for you. It is so easy to remain in your own bubble. It is so easy to be guided.

Kant’s solution to this problem is “Enlightenment”, which he describes as:

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. <...> Sapere Aude! [dare to know] ‘Have courage to use your own understanding!’—that is the motto of enlightenment.”

Dare to know, and to be wise. Dare to get out of your cage and learn to struggle. People, like me from 2 years before, lack the courage Kant is talking about. This is why using Linux is an act of going beyond immaturity for me.

Of course, using Linux is arduous; I won’t deny that. I have borked my PC 2-3 times in the past 4 months, had so much trouble working with applications, and it is just not that stable.

And you might question: “Why are you using something that creates more problems than solve?”

This is where Albert Camus and Byung-Chul Han come in to a rescue. “The struggle is enough to fill a man’s heart,” says Camus^[2]. Fixing bugs, making things work makes me happy. And I learn a lot in the process; you learn from your mistakes, and that is why it is so powerful.

You don’t get that opportunity on Windows; everything is too smooth. Everything is the same; there is no mention of negativity, or the Other. According to Han, this lack of negativity and otherness is the crux of the busy, unappealing, monotonous life.^[3]

I’ve used this Linux-Windows example to show that we are not bound; we are free to take a step towards Enlightenment and do what we are meant to do. This “self-imposed immaturity” has introduced a deformity in our lives, sucking our happiness and satisfaction like tenants who haven’t paid rent, and so we must evict it out. The rent was due long ago.

^
An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? (1784), Immanuel Kant
^
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), Albert Camus
^
The Agony of Eros (2017), Byung-Chul Han; my review

Going Beyond “immaturity”