I want to build amazing things. I want to help replace outdated, ineffective, harmful institutions and practices with new, freedom-based and beneficial ones.
Millions of people in the world are governed by people and institutions they have almost no connection to. I would love to see more direct democracy, a drastic increase in competition between a rising number of social and governmental units and where we now see a few hundreds states, I would be thrilled to see thousands.
I would love to see phyles and voluntary association between people, transcending geography and nationality. I want to see private organizations replace and eliminate coercive governments, private arbitration displace and destroy the monstrous judicial systems we are currently saddled with.
I want to experience a flourishing of creativity and see learning become as ubiquitous as eating and sleeping and working. I want to see what human beings are truly capable of when they are not herded into indoctrination centers that prepare them for little else than being obedient and mediocre.
I want to see sovereignty and the right to secede considered as basic human rights. I want to see people respectful of each of our rights to discriminate and associate with others based on personal preferences, and not on laws, regulations and forced mandates.
I want all of these things, but I can live in any version of the world that life sees fit to give me.
Some of these things are on the cusp of happening. Others, the world doesn't seem ready for. As Steven Pressfield says, "those who will not govern themselves are condemned to find masters to govern over them". And so it goes.
The World Within Waiting To Unfold
But, the world builds itself from all that hides in secret in the hearts and minds of people that live in it. What does that mean for anarchists, ancaps and libertarians?
“The outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state...Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”
― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
It means we need to stop trying to destroy this dying system and envision a freer, more just and more joyous one to replace it with. This requires vision.
It seems hard (and dare I say delusional) to ignore what's happening and focus on a fluffy vision of the future, expecting it to magically manifest.
First, I want to make a distinction between wanting something and being (and feeling like) a person who has it. If you're paying attention to how you feel, you'll spot the difference.
Second, can you think of an instance where fighting against the system and status quo actually produced a positive result? Snowden's revelations didn't stop the machine. They made surveillance normal and almost unconsciously accepted as the norm.
I want to see a libertarian future, a future of decentralization and personal sovereignty, of privacy and respect for person and property. For us to have this future, we need to employ our vision.
We need to dream, and plan, and actually experience (inside our hearts and minds) what it feels like to have a libertarian present.
Your Dream Could Build A New World
I enjoy meditation every day, and visualizing libertarian republics, free markets and my role in such a free world. It does look freaky when someone barges into my room and sees a wide smile on my face, and no one else in the room with me.
But they are wrong. There's a whole world of freedom in there with me. And they might experience it sooner than they think, because of my dream.
“Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts. For out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.”
― James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
The fight for freedom is an inner one. If our minds our calibrated for freedom, our world will experience that freedom. Bucky Fuller and Nikola Tesla had it right - to bring in something new, we need to THINK in new ways. Will you join me?