Ifblog

 
Many trees have lifespans longer than a human life span. 
 
With a lifespan of more than 1000 years, the yew is one of the longest lived trees.
 
After more than sixty years living on earth, I am starting to identify with the yew tree. Like the yew, I have had time to observe that the more things change, the more they stay the same and that experience can be a valuable teacher.
 
The yew symbolizes endurance and cycles with relatively long periods that correspond more closely to human civilizations than to individual human lifetimes. The yew is indigenous to the regions where I have lived. However, it has become rare due to overexploitation and perceived negative economic value. Having been born into, grown up in, and now trying to live a satisfying life in a civilization that continues to focus on the current situation and the short-term gain while convinced that it is eternal, I have become fascinated by the yew and have come to believe that focusing my attention on it positively influences my life. Developing a personal vision that extends to the lifespan of the yew leads to constructive actions and to serenity.
 

What do you think about personal sovereignty?

 

The purpose of these paragraphs is to present the point of view of a single human – me. You might also have a single point of view.

Personal sovereignty is the power to initiate and to regulate one’s actions. Just as a seed initiates growth into a self-regulating plant, a human baby strives to fully express the potential encoded in its DNA and stimulated by its environment.

Live and let live. Actions that restrain the expression of one’s potential are violations of personal sovereignty. We generally accept laws that limit the violation of personal sovereignty by another person or by a group.

During my entire life I have felt that the number and the intensity of global threats to my personal sovereignty has relentlessly increased. Over population, environmental degradation, annihilation by nuclear weapons, climate change, religious and ideological wars, and now a pandemic all threaten my personal sovereignty.

Parallel to the appearance of these global problems, a relentlessly increasing number of global problem-solving experts has appeared. How are they doing? Have the global experts made any progress towards solving the major problems listed above? I don’t see any evidence that the global experts are helpful. On the contrary, I see an increase in the number of ordinary humans feeling that life is stressful, and longing for real and lasting peace and freedom.

Government by experts is totalitarianism. Totalitarianism is state violation of personal autonomy. State violation of personal autonomy is parasitic extraction from healthy individuals. The delegation to experts of our individual capacity to grow and to self-regulate leads to personal and societal degradation. The experts always finish by setting up an extractive system that benefits the well-connected elite. Entire countries are run like industrial poultry farms where the main product is debt slaves. Physically and psychologically healthy individuals are reduced to fearful herds of exhausted and psychotic clones riddled by diabetes, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, and anxiety. The framework conditions are set to guide us through a planned way of living. Unconsciously, out fear, or under the influence of mind numbing psychoactive legal or illegal drugs, we willfully abandon our personal sovereignty in exchange for the illusion of a brighter tomorrow. The promised land never comes, and we remain living in a collective hallucination that is manipulated by experts.

On a scale ranging from wild nature to the cotton plantations of Xinjiang, I prefer to keep the needle closer to the natural order. In contrast to the dystopia created by self-congratulating experts, a spontaneous, self-organizing robust social system that is in harmony and equilibrium with its surroundings is possible.

Good ideas are willfully adopted by personally sovereign people and bad ideas are rejected. Think of the number zero, urban sanitation, microprocessors, and the mobile phone. There is no need to impose good ideas by force or by deception. I believe that consciousness of our personal sovereignty is the key to creating a better world. Throughout history minimal state oppression, pluralism, and respect of every individual’s right to personal sovereignty are the hallmarks of a just and progressive social order. When a critical number of humans realize that globalizing experts are the main obstacle to living in a thriving society, we will all have true freedom and prosperity.

 

 

All questions, comments and text for blog posts should be sent to yew@markmccormick.ch.

 

I believe that free speech and open discussion lead to optimal living conditions. Nevertheless, I will select posts based on my personal preferences for optimal living

 

By the way, «l’If» is «Yew» in French. Since I have been living in «Romandie» for twenty five years and since the Yew was a common tree in the region five hundred years ago, I decided to call this the «If-blog». Of course «If» and "Yew" make an interesting play on words between English and French. More information about the Yew can be found here https://www.waldwissen.net/fr/habitat-forestier/arbres-et-arbustes/resineux/lif-en-suisse.

 

Although rare, I have found some wild Yew trees and even groves like the one in the photo.

 

Citations

 

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." - Edward Abbey

 

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.”  - Philip K. Dick

 

"When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer.

Superstition ain't the way." - Stevie Wonder