Hello,
Welcome to another post from Serfdom Road.
A New Chapter
Before we begin, I’d like to issue a personal update.
Despite the turmoil, distress, and uncertainty since March 2020, somehow I have been offered an opportunity to work in the Middle East!
While it was an offer I would be foolish to decline, unfortunately, it could mean I can no longer continue writing articles for this site - we’ll have to see!
For now, I wish to leave you with some guidance, based on my own life experience, on how you too can gain more freedom, wealth, and happiness.
Enjoy reading, and I hope to return here again soon!
P.S. I am finishing this article while preparing to leave for the Middle East, so apologies if it is not on par with previous articles!
Freedom for Dummies
When confronted with the tyrannical face of the State, and all it’s media outlets, intellectual minions, and military might, it can appear daunting, even impossible, to dismantle such a monster.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you will realise there is still much you can do.
In fact, many of the following actions will enable internal change, as opposed to external change.
To dismantle the State, one must also dismantle the dark recesses of the mind, as much as anything.
Immense power is within you, even if it is only a faint ember, it is easier than you think, to turn it into a burning fire.
1. Know Thyself
Before embarking on any journey of learning, growth, and development, it is important to first know yourself deeply.
You need to get to know your parts.
First, is your true self.
You act in your true self when you are living fully with the following traits:
Then there are your inner child parts, or exiles - they hold pain, fear, or shame from past experiences.
These parts are hidden away by your managers - they don’t like to let the exiles become too dominant.
Managers aim to control your surroundings and manage emotions.
If child parts are locked-away for too long, it can become difficult to be playful, inquisitive, or even to cry.
Eventually, a child part breaks free, only to cause upset, distress and helplessness - think about when you observe yourself acting more like a child than an adult.
Then one of your firefighters arrives to resolve this mess.
However, a firefighter part can arrive in the form of alcohol or drug abuse, eating disorders, OCD, or even a suicide attempt.
This can all seem too overwhelming, because it is, and it often leads to thoughts of “I hate myself”, “I don’t know who I am”, and “I don’t know what makes me happy”.
You can never eradicate parts from yourself, because they are the greater you.
All you can do is take the time for introspection, through meditation.
Once all your parts sense they are being listened to, they will quieten down and let you, the adult, take control.
For more information about Internal Family Systems:
2. Find a Therapist
A therapist can be an incredibly helpful guide in helping you discover who you really are, and what you want to do to become the living man or woman you wish to be.
It is often difficult to take an outsider’s perspective of our own life, and it is also difficult to find a truly unbiased perspective too.
A highly-trained and competent therapist will be able to that just that for you.
We can often be plagued with thoughts of, “I don’t need help”, “I don’t need a quack”, or “It’s a waste of money” - this is just your ego, let it go.
You have already been helped plenty in life: you were born (many babies die before birth), you were (likely) born into a developed country, your parents (despite their own problems) likely helped you in some way, and you likely were given a western education (arguably not helpful at all today).
With that in mind, what harm can it do to see if one more person can help you too?
3. Health Matters More than Wealth
Before charting a course for immense wealth, you must have an able mind and body.
While it is true that an able body is subjective - not everyone needs to be able to sprint 100m in less than 10 seconds! You certainly need a body that can enable you to achieve your goals in life.
The same is true of the mind.
One suggestion can be to organise a basic foundation for yourself, that you can complete (easily) every day.
For example, ensure that you always take a 10 minute walk everyday, or eat one carrot everyday, or meditate for 10 mins everyday, or have your own (homemade) fruit smoothie each morning.
It’s your choice, but start small, and build on your routine slowly as you go.
4. Buy Local, Buy Fresh, and Buy Organic
“Every coercive monopoly was created by government intervention into the economy: by special privileges, such as franchises or subsidies, which closed the entry of competitors into a given field, by legislative action.” Ayn Rand
British economist, David Ricardo (b. 1772, d. 1823), developed the concept of a nation’s comparative advantage - the idea that a nation is more prosperous if it concentrates all efforts on producing the goods and services it can most efficiently, and then importing the rest.
However, a nation (China) that tries to produce everything it needs, may not be able to produce everything to the highest quality, and at the cheapest price.
Alternatively, a nation (USA) that tries to import everything it needs, will fall victim to a global supply chain crisis, or global recession.
Today, you can import goods from all over the world, however, this is not always the consequence of nations leveraging their comparative advantage.
Legislation to raise the minimum wage, to increase the barriers of entry into a market, to increase the cost of hiring, and to increase all forms of taxation, have distorted the free market, such that, nearly manufacturing the West has disappeared, only to have been shipped to the East.
This trend towards globalisation, only benefits the State (particularly in the West) because it can send freshly-printed currency units abroad, in exchange for cheap goods, thereby reducing the effects of inflation of prices.
These freshly-printed currency units, now in the hands of China or India, can then be used to purchase sovereign bonds, or other assets - until they realise US dollars are worthless and ship them back, thus creating an inflationary storm.
Another consequence of these distortions is that companies like Amazon, and Walmart, are able to lobby the State to increase the minimum wage, in an effort to eliminate any remaining competition.
Just think about how the COVID mania has destroyed small businesses since March 2020 - all supported by the mega-corps, with plenty of capital to survive a lockdown.
In an effort to reverse globalisation, start buying locally-produced goods.
With regards to food, this is even more important.
As food prices are increasing ever more, it will become more difficult to source food from abroad, and it may even be necessary to get food as locally as your own garden!
5. Read
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.”
Jim Rohn (b. 1930, d. 2009)
The truth, as best as it can be known, will never seek you out, you have to seek it out yourself.
Only by knowing as much truth as you can, are you then able to place yourself in relation to everyone else, the past, the present, and the future.
Like the coordinates on a map, once you know your own at a high resolution, can you then chart a course to follow.
Passive learning is extremely limited - your school, your TV, your politicians, and your family and friends, are unlikely to teach you enough consequential knowledge to be truly free.
Reading, and writing, have been the prime sources of transferring knowledge for millennia - now, of course, you can add audio books, podcasts and documentaries.
Where to start?
Well, if you want to be free, wealthy, and healthy, then put A-list celebrities to the side for a moment - many eventually end-up depressed, broke, or dead.
Without wanting to push you in a particular direction, it may be better to list a few sources for you to connect with at your own pace, and go where your intuition and curiosity guide you:
Novels
Animal Farm, George Orwell
1984, George Orwell
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
The Space Trilogy, C.S. Lewis
Movies
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
They Live (1988)
The Matrix (1999)
Fight Club (1999)
Economics
Finance
Psychology
Alan Watts
Jordan B. Peterson
MUST READ!
180 Degrees: Unlearn The Lies You've Been Taught To Believe
by Feargus O'Connor Greenwood
6. One Foot in the Known, One Foot in the Unknown
In many ancient myths, there is the common theme of the hero that bravely embarks on a perilous journey to discover a new world, or new knowledge, for the benefit of their homeland.
Jason and The Argonauts is a myth about a man seeking revenge for the murder of his father, by first finding the fabled Golden Fleece, and returning it to his kingdom.
There have been many interpretations of the Golden Fleece, including: a technique for extracting gold from river beds, new wealth and technology from the East (modern day Georgia), or even the knowledge to raise sheep for meat and wool.
Whichever interpretation seems more likely, the hero of the myth, nevertheless, returns triumphant with a new found mystical object, and a new found sense of self.
The perfect state for learning, growth and development, is not homeostasis, or the polar opposite, instability.
The best state to be in is one that reminds you of your origins but also allows you the freedom to explore past the horizon in the distance.
To be more specific, you can be in this state without taking a perilous voyage of adventure, you can be in this state simply by changing careers, moving home, or voicing an opinion.
As a guide, notice any feeling of anxiety when the thought arrives of what you would like to do.
Unless you are about to poke a lion on it’s nose, anxiety is usually a sign that you must press forward, because the anxiety is telling you this is important.
On the contrary, anything that doesn’t generate a feeling of anxiety is usually something you have done a million times before.
Don’t run away from anxiety, run towards it, or risk being imprisoned in your safe space.
7. Save (and Invest)
Unfortunately, our glorious leaders take economic advice from “Keynesian” economists.
Broadly-speaking, Keynesian economists subscribe to the school of demand-side economics - the progress of an economy rests on higher demand.
The inherent flaw in this school of economics is that is not demand that drives an economy, but supply.
There is no demand if there is no supply - nobody demanded a vehicle powered by an internal combustible engine, until one was invented by Carl Benz in 1888.
However, in order to supply, you must invest, and in order invest, you must save.
Savings are what drive an economy - not quantitative easing!
Once there is an abundance of saving, capital can be lent out by those with capital, and no ideas (investors), to those without capital, and ideas (entrepreneurs).
At the lowest level in a society, the individual, this is also true.
For you to prosper, you must be able to save.
To get you started, remember this quote:
“Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.”
Warren Buffet (b. 1930)
An unfortunate truth, is that the best way to be free is to be rich - mega-rich!
Therefore, you can think about the currency units in your bank account, or the currency value of your shares and gold bullion as freedom points - the more freedom points you have, the more freedom you can redeem with your points!
8. Buy Gold (and Silver)
“We have gold because we cannot trust governments.” - Herbert Hoover (b. 1874, d. 1964)
The power of the State rests on it’s own fiat currency - it has value because the State says so, not because it is backed by real money.
The value of the currency rests on the State’s ability to enforce it’s value, through taxation and threat of violence - ultimately you can be sent to prison for tax evasion.
Without the ability to print infinite currency units, the State cannot sustain it’s own power.
To take this power away, you need to reject their fiat currency.
Start buying gold, and silver… real money.
This act will have another consequence: end the fractional reserve banking system.
With fewer and fewer deposits, as more gold bullion is purchased, banks will not be able to conjure more currency “out of thin air” and loan it out, at interest, to the public.
Buying precious metals is for your benefit, as much as it would harm the State, because you would be preserving your purchasing power.
9. Start a Tax Rebellion
“The tax man's taken all my dough, and left me in my stately home, lazing on a sunny afternoon.” Sunny Afternoon, The Kinks, 1966
Arguably…
What lead to the signing of the Magna Carta? A tax rebellion.
What caused the English Civil War? A tax rebellion.
What started the American Revolution? A tax rebellion.
Which tactic helped India gain independence from the British Empire? A tax rebellion.
What were the Poll Tax riots in the UK, in the late 1980s? A tax rebellion.
The State is nothing without a tax revenue, because it produces nothing.
So start small, and work your way up.
In the UK, it was often seen as illegal, or even unthinkable, to not pay your TV licence. However, it is now almost commonplace for people to refuse to pay this licence fee. For 2020, there were 200,000 cancellations - a major funding crisis for the BBC. More recently, it has been announced the BBC licence fee will be abolished in 2027 and it’s funding frozen until 2024.
Today, there is now a growing movement, in the UK, to educate citizens on how to withhold paying council tax, and even mortgages.
If you need any further motivation to begin this journey, just think about who you are funding by paying your taxes?
The very people that want you dead.
This may sound extreme but just think about how the State has behaved since March 2020.
If they wanted you to be well, then coercing you to stay in your home, only to go outside once a day, never to see your loved ones, pushing some to suicide, closing small businesses, all while keeping McDonald’s open sounds like a very bad attempt at keeping you in good health.
In fact, the whole idea of “funding”, or “paying your taxes”, is a corruption of our language - you can only fund, or pay for something if it is voluntary.
If it isn’t voluntary, then what is it? Either extortion or theft.
For those of you thinking, “Well, what about the roads?”, or “Who will collect my rubbish?”… do you really believe there isn’t free market solution to these problems?
If you don’t, then what do you think about a State monopoly on supermarkets, cars, shoes, toothpaste, gyms, restaurants?
The State relies on the myth that if they disappeared from one aspect of your life, it would fail - this is a lie.
This is so that they can then launch an assault on yet more aspects of your life.
Disclaimer: Do not withhold taxes unless you are aware of the consequences and know how to deal with the consequences.
10. Start a Community Project
With the passing of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee having taken place earlier, many gathered to celebrate by having their own local street party.
What is most saddening about this, is that, it proves we are all capable of collaborating with neighbours to enjoy good food and drink in a pleasant setting.
Yet, it is only done to celebrate a criminal empire (apologies royalists!).
Why does nobody gather their neighbours to celebrate a new-born baby, or a christening, or a wedding, or even someone passing their school exams?
We all look for any excuse to celebrate, but only with those closest to us, and yet never with our local community.
Yes, everyone is entitled to congregate with whoever they wish, and some are unlucky enough to have horrible neighbours, yet, in a time where we are drawn ever more to a digital life, a lonely life, and a meaningless life, it is more important than ever to engage with other human beings.
Street parties are great, but what about starting a local allotment, a local school, a local housing project, a local water source, a local energy source?
And yes… without any interference from the State!
11. Don’t Vote
“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”
att. Joseph Stalin (b. 1878, d. 1953)
When you cast a vote, you are not just voting for your preferred candidate, you are providing justification for the State to exist.
Between Labour and the Conservatives, in the UK, and the Democrats and the Republicans, in the US, the real political difference is negligible.
Sure, one party may be pro-immigration, while the other is anti-immigration, but if they are both pro-government, then there really is no difference between them.
If they both act to grow government, and hence inflate the currency supply, thereby diminishing your purchasing power, then voting is nothing more than a form of “bread and circuses” for the populous.
Voting only exists to give you the illusion that you have some control over the course taken by your country.
Read: Democracy Debunked
12. One Good Deed a Day
In the film Batman Begins (2005), the villain is Dr. Johnathan Crane, a.k.a Scarecrow, who sets about releasing an airbourne hallucinogen throughout Gotham City. The result of which causes people to hallucinate that their worst fears are real.
It seems that major cities are not quite as bad but do resemble Gotham City, as depicted in Batman Begins.
Everyone has their gaze at the floor, or their smartphone, unwilling, or fearful, of any connection with another human being.
You could be crying in the middle of a train platform, and it’s likely nobody will notice you, or if they do, it’s only to judge you as weird, or strange (especially in London!).
So a test for you - can you be brave enough to start a conversation with a passer-by in the street, or buy someone in the café a coffee, or just put a smile on someone’s face once-a-day?
Referring back to the idea that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience, it is just as important to live more bountiful spiritual life, as a more bountiful material life.
So while you’re in the café ordering your next 1oz silver coin online, buy a coffee for someone you believe deserves one - the fate of western civilisation depends on your kindness.
13. Be Honest
The only pandemic today is that of lies, deceit and corruption.
A prosperous, healthy and free society can only exist, or grow, if it is based on the truth.
Truth being a statement that is true for all.
We know something to be true, or a lie, because of how we feel when we lie, or when we tell the truth, or even when we discover we have been lied to.
Specifically, when we lie, we lie to hide a truth about ourselves that we may find shameful, embarrassing, or hurtful.
This is our body rebelling against the lying part, that tries to hide the truth, because by lying we will never change.
Lying about why you are always late for work will never enact the change required to be punctual, or lying about why you forgot your loved one’s birthday will never enact the change needed to be more thoughtful.
As Jordan B. Peterson mentions in this YouTube clip below, sometimes it is not always evident why we value a truth over a lie, but we do at least act as if the truth is far more important.
14. Be Kind to Yourself
There are a million-and-one ways you can die every single day.
On the road, in your home, at the office, in your gym, or even just in bed.
Then there are over 8 billion people on this planet that could easily all find a way to hate you, dislike you, or even judge you.
Then there is the greatest tragedy of all - you are born into a universe without any idea of how you got here, most of all why, and what you are supposed to do while you’re here.
So there is no need to pile more misery onto your short existence by allowing a part (see point 1) to bully you every chance it gets.
There are no mistakes in life, only lessons.
15. Get Vaccinated
Only joking!
Instead, stop being a wimp and start taking cold showers!
I hope you have found this article insightful and helpful!
Please feel free to comment below.
Kind regards,
Le Libérateur
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