Unwritten Laws: The Systems We Mistake for Truth

For as long as I can remember, I've questioned or outright disagreed with many of life's so-called rules and perceived norms. More often than not, I've found myself pushing against what I was told to accept, not just in the obvious areas like obeying authority figures, following rules, laws, or religious instructions, but also the invisible restriction’s that quietly shape our everyday reality.

The ones we don’t even realise we’re following.

That latest example, started, as it often does, with mathematics.

Mathematics: A Man-Made System Disguised as Universal Truth

At school, they teach us that math is absolute. Fixed. Get it right and I can’t be questioned.

But is that true?

For me I often followed the steps. I arrived at the “correct” answers. And yet, something always felt… off.

Take this equation:

1 × 1 = 1

It’s a rule, drilled into us from childhood. But why? Why must multiplying something by itself always result in the same thing? Why isn’t it possible for 1 × 1 to generate something new—a duplication, an expansion, a second version of itself?

The Hollywood actor, Terrence Howard once proposed that 1 × 1 could equal 2. He was ridiculed, laughed out of the room. But why the outrage? Why the immediate need to shut the idea down?

Because questioning something so fundamental means questioning everything built upon it. And that, it seems, is unacceptable.

Leap Years, Time, and the Illusion of Order

It doesn’t stop at mathematics.

Even time—the thing we structure our entire lives around—is a construct. A convenient fiction.

Take leap years. A fix, a patch, an admission that our calendar—the thing we treat as the rhythm of reality—is actually misaligned with the way the Earth moves through space in orbiting the Sun.

And instead of stepping back and questioning why we need such an artificial system in the first place, we simply correct it. Adjust. Carry on as if the structure itself isn’t broken.

But why do we force time into such rigid constraints?

• Why do we assign ourselves an age as if life is a straight line from beginning to end?

• Why do we measure time at all, instead of simply experiencing it?

We created these systems not because they were natural, but because they made things manageable. Predictable.

But what if time isn’t linear?

What if it folds back on itself, loops, stretches, contracts?

What if the way we experience time is nothing more than a trick of perception?

Control Disguised as Freedom

And this is where the realisation hits.

Every system we were taught to accept—math, time, age, history, identity—isn’t just about understanding the world. It’s about controlling it.

Controlling us.

• We assign ourselves an age so society can define our worth.

• We structure time so we remain bound to cycles of work, productivity, obligation.

• We force mathematics into rigid laws so that everything appears measurable, explainable, contained.

We are given freedom—but only within predefined limits.

And if you step outside those limits? You’re dismissed. Branded irrational. A conspiracy theorist. A heretic.

These constructs aren’t inherently evil. But they’ve been weaponised—to keep us in place, to keep us from asking the questions that might unravel the whole illusion.

The Awakening: A New Way of Thinking

But something is shifting.

There’s a rising current, an undercurrent of people who refuse to just accept. People who see the cracks in the system and are done pretending they aren’t there.

This isn’t about rebellion. It’s about truth.

• What happens if we stop treating math as law and see it as a language—fluid, adaptable, evolving?

• What happens if we stop measuring time and start living it?

• What happens if we let go of the illusion of control and step into the unknown?

The answer is simple.

We become free.

A New Generation Must Rise

The old ways have held power long enough.

It’s time for something new. A way of thinking that doesn’t just accept hand-me-down truths but interrogates them. Rewrites them.

The old guard—our parents, our grandparents—shaped the world in their image. Now it’s our turn.

We are not seeking permission. We are not waiting for approval.

The shift is already happening.

A growing number of us are ready.