I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don't like laws

Hear the voice of Charles Bukowski, raw and unvarnished, when he declares: “I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don’t like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don’t like to be shaped by society.” These words are not the polished declarations of a statesman, but the howl of a man who has tasted the bitterness of conformity and spat it out. They remind us that within the heart of humankind there is always the tension between freedom and order, between the individual spirit and the shaping hand of society.

When Bukowski speaks of bums, he speaks of those who dwell outside the rigid structures of respectability—outcasts, drifters, drinkers, men and women who have abandoned the pretense of polished living. To him, they are kin, for they make no false masks, no hollow bows to rules they do not believe in. In their company he finds a strange honesty: stripped of ambition and artifice, they are simply themselves. Bukowski’s rebellion is against the chains of society, which seeks always to press men into molds—obedient worker, dutiful believer, respectable citizen. He rejects these molds, and in rejecting them, embraces the rough and the real.

This spirit is not new. Consider the figure of Diogenes the Cynic, who in ancient Greece lived in a barrel, scorned wealth, mocked the powerful, and walked through Athens with a lantern in search of an honest man. He rejected the laws and morals of his age, calling them hypocrisy. He chose instead the life of the beggar, the wanderer, the “bum” of antiquity. Yet his defiance exposed the corruption and pretenses of those around him. Like Bukowski, Diogenes found truth in the margins, refusing to be shaped by the expectations of society.

Yet Bukowski’s rejection is not only a philosophy, but a confession. He acknowledges himself as a bum, and in doing so, claims kinship with those cast aside. Where others might hide from shame, he embraces it, turning weakness into freedom. By rejecting religions, rules, and imposed morals, he proclaims that no man should be forced to live according to standards not born of his own heart. It is an anarchic cry, one that unsettles, but one that also demands we ask: how much of what we are is truly ourselves, and how much has been pressed upon us by society?

History shows that many who have transformed the world were those unwilling to be shaped by it. Think of Walt Whitman, who defied poetic rules to write in sprawling, unmeasured verse, celebrating the rawness of life. Think of Vincent van Gogh, who lived in poverty and torment, scorning the conventions of his time, yet painted visions that still ignite souls today. Both men, like Bukowski, were called outsiders, even “bums” by their contemporaries. Yet in their refusal to be molded, they revealed new forms of beauty, new ways of seeing the human spirit.

The wisdom of Bukowski’s words lies in their brutal honesty: society can be a cage as much as a community. Laws, morals, and religions may protect, but they may also suffocate. To follow them blindly is to lose oneself; to reject them wholly is to risk chaos. The balance, perhaps, is to learn when to obey and when to rebel, when to accept shaping and when to break free. Bukowski himself chose the path of rebellion, even if it left him wandering with the outcasts.

The lesson for us is this: do not let your soul be smothered by the molds of society. Question the laws, examine the morals, challenge the rules. Live not as a hollow statue carved by others, but as a living flame that shapes itself. At the same time, recognize that even in rebellion there must be truth, not merely rejection for its own sake. The goal is not to destroy society, but to keep your soul alive within it.

Therefore, O listener, let your actions be these: seek honesty in yourself, and do not fear the company of those on the margins, for often they see more clearly than those at the center. Respect laws when they preserve dignity, but resist them when they serve only oppression. Honor morals when they uplift, but defy them when they enslave. Above all, refuse to let your being be shaped by falsehood. For whether you walk among kings or among bums, the greatest treasure is to remain true to your own unyielding spirit.