Focus on Life™

Everybody talks about it and still we don’t seem to get our house in order. How can we make our planet a better place for all of us? Talk is cheap and so far we have been too ignorant to get rid of the whole issue in large scale enough.

How do you deal with a harassing and aggressive person in your neighbourhood? You let the person know that his or her behaviour is not accepted or supported by others. All of us together define the rules and the accepted behaviour in our societies. By our very actions or non-actions we create our surroundings every day. Our ignorance and tolerance for aggressive and hostile intentions enable them to exist and flourish.

There is a very easy way to stop wars. Just follow the money. Who finance the wars? Who makes the final decisions to declare them? A war does not happen if people are not supporting nor allowing it to happen. Passive and ignorant attitude towards aggressive intentions in massive scale make us sheep that are lead to things that individuals in a personal level would not allow to happen. Our political systems are not stable–they are tilted towards reckless and irresponsible behaviour. All this is possible because of so called collective responsibility and financing—very few decide and gain but everybody pays the consequences, and nobody is personally liable. Things just happen—almost automatically. We cannot control them. Or this is how we are made to believe. The truth is that we just hand over our personal power to other people who are willing to use it, even against us. Organisations, political systems, or ideologies do not fight—only people do. Just think about it.

If you study the history you will find that most of the wars are declared by some sort of concepts or entities called nations, governments, or rulers. But only a handful of people cannot make entire societies into brainless killing machines that just destroy themselves beyond belief and any sense. How do you call a leader without followers? A person taking a walk. There are no wars if there are no people who are willing to fight. There are no wars if there are no enabling financing or weapons. Who makes the weapons? We do. Who finance the wars? We do. Who fights the wars? We do.

As long as we believe in some great archetypes of visionary and omnipotent leaders, rulers or administrative bodies that know what is good for us and tell us what to do there will always be people taking the lead and readily telling others what to do. Responsibility seems to be a very difficult lesson to learn. Similarly using one’s own common sense and reasoning are also rare skills. Why it is so hard to see that there is no such a thing as something for nothing or free lunches without paybacks?

Peace is possible only when we appreciate our own personal power and freedom so greatly that we are not willing to give it away or tolerate violent and aggressive behaviour from anyone. How do you declare wars if there are only people? And more importantly who would declare wars if there are only people minding their own business and protecting their personal freedom against any aggressor. Peace is a sign of ultimate strength—not weakness. So far we have only managed to destroy and create havoc. We have not deserved peace yet—we have not appreciated it enough to make it a reality for us. We have been driven by our personal greed, jealousy, and hate. Peace cannot be imposed—you have to live it.

Equality means that both parties are in the same level, respected and treated according to the same standards. This is the theory, but in practise we seldom face it in reality. Unfortunately we have created this system ourselves and thus are responsible of the results as well. We are living among double standards.

Some rules and principals are necessary to coordinate and enable voluntary cooperation between people. Predefined terms direct what is tolerated and what is not. If everyone is aware of the rules later no one can get excused of ignorance. But this is only half of the issue. The rest is based on the fact that everybody is treated in a similar manner and according to those predetermined terms. Today our societies are not working this way.

We have created an artificial system that is above the level of individuals. In practise we have made people a sub-class to a system that everybody is forced to subdue. Sadly enough this system is run and abused by the very same people. There is no one to blame but us. Still we feel helpless and little against this monstrous structure. It is inhuman, not responsible to any single individual, and disregards any personal circumstances. We call it the common or public good. It goes over any person or group of people. Public good is more important than the individual members of the society that are supposed to be part of and create this concept called ‘greater good’.

When faced with this ‘public good’ an individual can be considered sacrificial or ‘a liability’ that can be destroyed mentally, financially, or even physically. Collateral damage is a term used in other ‘public good’ missions. Nevertheless they are similar situations were individuals are insignificant in respect to some greater thought-forms or concepts facilitated by some others members of the human family. In our age ideas and ideologies are used as vehicles to rule and manipulate other members of the society.

This conceptual structure we have created is above any individual. In practise it means that an individual is alienated from her rights to self-defence, freedom, and equality among other members of the society. How can you make sure that you are treated fairly if you don’t have any practical means to make sure and follow-up your case as well? A very simple example is taxation laws. Tax authorities are not accountable to people or any individual. They are part of the structure that is above the people. They get their power and force from the very persons that tolerate and maintain the organisation in existence. Still these authorities are not responsible of their actions. There is no objective third party that can assess and mediate the disputes or matters at hand. International and domestic voluntary cooperation sectors have found ways to handle and resolute dispute and argument situations in a fair and objective manner. Chambers of Commerce offer business mediation (arbitration) services that are swift, final, and respected by both parties. And most of all they are selected by the parties themselves and thus trusted as well. None of this is available for individual members of the society. We are forced to subdue to the rules and laws of the stronger party that is not accountable to any single individual or party.

To make matters even worse it is worthwhile to consider the amount of members of our societies that are directly dependent of these arbitrary structures in form of a salary or employment. How objective do you regard the people that are paid by the public sector? Do you think that they are making decisions that are against their own or the organisation’s survival instinct? Seldom you see public organisations admitting their wrongdoings or making exceptions for any individual. They are not countable for their ‘customers’—they do not need to be—they are getting paid by taxes that are collected by force. Only voluntary cooperation is dependent on the other party, otherwise there would be no cooperation. Coercion is one-way communication that is based on violence or a threat of violence. Just think about it—how objective is any party that is using force as the final (or even as the first) argument? And on top of this you don’t have any choice.

You are surrounded by your past. All the tangible items and assets represent the earlier achievements. The same applies to your monetary wealth as well—it is only storage of your previous efforts and endeavours. The past is not the future; you need to create something new in between.

Basically everything goes through a cycle of creation, sustenance, and decay. It does not really matter whether we talk about knowledge, skills, physical goods, or even our thoughts. The only constant is change. It stays and forces everything else into movement. Effort is required to keep up with the changes in the world around us.

Tangible things are relatively easy to produce—if you only know how. And this is exactly the point. We need ideas, innovations, experience, knowledge, and the right skills to get something done. A beautiful house/car or any other physical good or product does not last forever. They need either be replaced or maintained. This information is always within people. Persons make everything happen.

Diversity and specialisation are the means that enable our society to have a wide variety of different tangible items and products available to us. There needs to be people who have the required skill set and the production tools to create the items. They do not come out of nowhere—they represent the existing expertise and knowledge.

We often take services and products as granted, and can only start to appreciate them when they have first demonstrated their non-functional nature. If your bathroom pipe is leaking then suddenly a plumber is a very valuable person for you. Actually your life becomes pretty unbearable without the necessary reparation skills!

The richness is not in the goods and things around you. They are only the presentation of the wealth in the society. The future success needs to be earned every day. No money can buy you food if you are in an isolated island. Similarly the wealth of any society can be measured only by the richness and the variety of experience, knowledge, and interaction among its members. Specialisation is only available when there are enough goods and services available to take care of the more general needs of the members of the society. If you need to grow your own food and prepare it as well there is less time available for other activities. In a similar manner any specialist is dependent on the work and expertise of the other people in the production chain. We all need each other. If you are not contributing or loving what you’re doing everybody is worst off. Do you see how personal freedom is very closely linked to the well-being and the wealth of the society?

Expecting to gain more than one is willing to put on the table is foolhardy. Forcing others to comply with it is stealing. The motives vary from jealousy, low self-esteem, laziness to greediness and everything between. In any case the idea is to get away with the scheme without being exposed. Current politics is based on this principal.

Voluntary cooperation between people does not need regulations and control. They are required to force something in place and to keep something out. Special privileges are based on structures where the gains are separated from the liabilities and the responsibilities—a free ride. The formula often works so that everybody pays (in form of coerced payments) and some selected few reap the benefits. There are also fancier names for all this: tariffs, tolls, trade restrictions, subsidies, protective laws and directives, sales and energy taxes, and so on. They are all too important to be left for the grown-up adults to decide upon themselves and be responsible of their actions and choices.

Our monetary system is based on the same principal. The current legal tender is nothing but a dictum that is backed by the government’s threat of using violence against its citizens. The only difference between you printing your own notes and the government is the amount of force you’re lacking. Currently the money system is based solely on the amount of money in circulation. Its value is dependent on its volume. Otherwise the paper (or digital) nominations are entirely useless. And the best part is that the government having the monopoly decides when and how much more money it will issue. This is stealing as well. Another name for it is inflation. And don’t get fooled by the consumer indexes or any other official measures of inflation. The sole source of inflation is the increase in the monetary base. Period. The rest is only a matter of time for the ripple effect to penetrate the entire economy and to adjust the prices for the new volume of money in form of price changes.

Government does not produce anything. It needs the politicians to steal from you. They can do it either by collecting more taxes or inflating the currency. The latter is easier and less disruptive for the public to accept. The end result is the same. Everybody pays and only a few gains. In the case of inflation those closest to the new money in circulation benefit the most in form of getting services and goods still with old (low) prices and in the reverse those are hurt the most that need to buy things with the new (high) prices but are not able to raise their own prices accordingly. The economy does not need controls and politicians, but your government and the beneficiaries of its special privileges need. Just follow the money.

Free competition is very disturbing for some. It’s ruthless for those that do not serve the society. And how do we know this? The law of the market is very simple. You vote by your free choice—those that serve you the best you favour and support, and the rest need to cope without you. This continuous change forces everyone to serve the interest of their customers with the utmost care. Unfortunately the political control over the markets is so dominating nowadays that basically everything is controlled and regulated by the government.

In addition, ‘public’ services do not need to listen to the customer. They get their money by stealing from you so they could not care less. The prime motive of any organisation is its self-survival no matter whether it is a ‘public’ or private entity. The only difference is that only the free market based organisation needs to be humble in front of the customer. It relies on the voluntary cooperation and interaction among its customers. It cannot survive without the customer in the long run. Organisations (even private) that rely on coercion are in a different position. They get something for nothing. Actually they are the healthier the more they gain stolen goods. No wonder lobbying and politics is the biggest business in town. That’s where the money is made in our ‘modern’ society. Everybody pays, only a few gains, and the overall society goes down the drain. Looting is never a long-term plan—someone needs to produce before it can be stolen. Currently it is more lucrative to steal than to create. How do you see the odds?

This is a very compact but complete system of ethics. It is very simple, brief, and yet powerful based on the following:

The Guiding Principal

All (human) beings are born equal and remain equal every day of their lives.

The below Principals are only sub-principals for the first one

2) Person is the measure of all accounts.

3) Everyone is free to pursue their own happiness and the results of their pursuit and obliged to respect everyone else’s equal freedom without limiting anyone else’s freedom.

You can find the rest of it here.

This is a very compact but complete system of ethics. It is very simple, brief, and yet powerful based on the following:

The Guiding Principal

All (human) beings are born equal and remain equal every day of their lives.

The below Principals are only sub-principals for the first one

2) Person is the measure of all accounts.

3) Everyone is free to pursue their own happiness and the results of their pursuit and obliged to respect everyone else’s equal freedom without limiting anyone else’s freedom.

Freedom

Freedom is the most powerful concept there is. Unfortunately it has not been properly understood and applied to this day.

Everything starts with a personal freedom and also ends to it. This is clearly stated in the first Guiding Principal: ”All (human) beings are born equal and remain equal every day of their lives.”

When we are born we are all purely naked and have nothing except our being (existence). All the rest is either learned, assumed, assimilated, or gained by some means (voluntary or involuntary). And this latter process can happen only together with other people.

It is not possible to alienate a person from his/her freedom. There are only ways to suppress or give up degrees of personal freedom voluntarily either consciously or by ignorance.

The level of power other people can have for a person is in direct proportion to the level the person has surrendered his/her freedom in any given moment. Like suppression the voluntary surrender needs to be exercised continuously over time. In the first case the person can once again exercise freely his/her freedom when the suppression stops and in the latter case one can do it immediately upon personal decision or when becoming aware of it.

Responsibility

Responsibility is the other side of the coin with freedom. All the actions (including non-actions) and their consequences are born by the person carrying them out. The object(s) of the actions are not relevant in respect to the responsibility.

Full responsibility (and full freedom) means that the person does not even have to be aware of all the implications of his/her actions. Ignorance is merely poor perception and lack of understanding from the actor’s perspective (e.g. bad choice).

The Second Principal states that all the responsibilities can be originated to persons. Like freedom the responsibility cannot be alienated from a person. The person can make voluntary agreements but these agreements cannot remove the final responsibility.

The Third Principal underlines a person’s responsibility first of all towards his/herself but more importantly towards everything else.

Cooperation

Interaction between people can happen either voluntarily or involuntarily. Forms of suppression and acts of violence or threats of actions of violence are not discussed here at all. Humanity has enough evidence of its use already available.

Voluntary cooperation is based on the free will of people to interact with each other. This can happen between two or more people for any period of time. The cooperation is based on trust, and the level of trust defines the ways of cooperation and the means to accomplish the desired actions. A low level of trust between individuals focuses a great amount of effort to secure the parties in the cooperation and thus making the interaction less efficient. This consumes time, effort and energy with increasing complexity the longer the time span of the intended cooperation extends to the future.

High level of trust makes the interaction more organised, forward-orientated, and allows more complex relationship and cooperation forms to emerge. High level of specialisation can only happen when people are trustful among each other and can focus on their specific areas of interest and needs. A highly sophisticated society is dependent on trust among its members.

Agreements

Voluntary cooperation is based on trust, which can be reflected either in tacit or tangible forms of agreements. Agreements can incorporate two or more parties for any period of time. Agreements are ways to stipulate the desired actions (and non-actions) among the voluntary parties of the agreements and also a way to record the stated matters.

Agreements are only the means for carrying out the will of the people incorporated for the action. Therefore the agreements are expressions of freedom between the participants, and full responsibilities of the actions (and non-actions) lay among the parties of the agreements as indicated in the third Guiding Principal.

Society Is Persons

The second Guiding Principal states that “Person is the measure of all accounts.” No person, structure or concept can be above any person living. Human based actions and their consequences are always borne by the persons involved, and these responsibilities cannot be alienated. The Guiding Principals clearly describe the nature of voluntary action of any individual in respect to every other being.

A society or any collective entity or cooperation between persons is always only a mutual expression of each and every individual incorporated for the action(s). No collective or structure can be compared to a living person. They can only act on behalf of the people incorporated with the entity, and thus representing expressions of these people.

Self-Defence

Freedom consists of two things: positive and negative freedom. The positive stipulates that the person can engage to something, and the negative that the person can restrain of engaging to something.

The latter case states that the person cannot be involved in something against his/her permission and thus restrain the person’s freedom (under the third Guiding Principal). Shall this be the case the person needs to have a right to protect his/her freedom in order to be capable of exercising his/her expressions freely.

The self-defence does not remove the responsibility of the actions (and non-actions) carried out. Therefore any action in excess of protecting one’s freedom is a direct breach of the (third) Guiding Principal(s).

This site focuses on life. You will find inspirational, thoughtful, mind-provoking, insightful and sometimes artful writings, ideas, visions, and practical knowledge covering various aspects of life based on freedom and pursuit of happiness.

Where to Start?

• Read the Blog for the latest items
• Check some of the popular articles:
  • Happiness
    
  • Time Management
    
  • Responsibility
  • Peace
  • Money is not the wealth
  • Having vs. Being
• See also Fragments of Reality
• Find out Petri’s recommendations for books, music, and movies.

Gary has very clear advice: nada de nada.

A recent interview of Lew Rockwell.

Go and check this out The U.S. vs. John Lennon. A well-made documentary that shows the other side of John Lennon that focused on social and political issues. The official web-site.