Carrots and Sticks
Sovereignty. It is more valuable than anything on Earth aside from life itself. It is more elusive than trying to catch the wind and its absence in one’s life carries the weight of a thousand bricks.
We live in a time where societies all over the world are weighed down, yet many if not most people believe they have in fact obtained sovereignty. This is precisely what the system expects from everyone…their belief. Said another way, faith in the system itself. In this reality one’s belief becomes faith in the system and then faith in the system turns into hope delivered by the system. However, deep inside the system, hope is merely misguided faith, predicated on illusions of opportunity that rarely if ever come to fruition.
What does such a life look like? It follows a model that’s existed for quite some time. A model that aims to extract as much energy as possible from the members of a society. The active labor is nothing more than a transference of energy that makes its way into the system for the purposes of creating vast amounts of wealth to further grow the system. The people within the system —much like serfs of the medieval age— are inconsequential. The only thing that is important is the need for more energy expenditure. The system doesn’t care where the energy comes from. It can come from natural resources, human labor, or as many are now learning, artificial intelligence.
Civilizations move through time and space that are bookended by eras. In one of the most recent eras the trades were highly valorized when industrialization needed energy in the form of physical labor. Later, college became valorized when the knowledge economy was in need of credentialed workers. Now, with the rise of A.I., trades are being re-valorized because capital has found a way to automate credentialed knowledge work. For those who’ve lived long enough to see all or much of this unfold, the whiplash received solely due to the needs of the system are unbearable.
I’ve talked to high school students who are terrified and deeply concerned about their future. They’ve realized our era is changing and there are no safety nets, guard rails, or simple answers to their plight. What is even more concerning are the parents who lack good counsel to offer as they have finally realized they as well have been nothing more than a cog in the wheel of a much larger machine. The direction that society has always advised was never about any one individual’s ability to flourish. It was about optimizing the needs of the system while dressing up the idea of optimization in the language of opportunity. Everyone is told that if you simply follow the advice of the system you’ll have an opportunity to obtain wealth and prosperity. As people line up to offer their energy in hopes of wealth and prosperity they’re disillusioned into thinking they’re operating out of true sovereignty —that they are the captains of their own ship. But serfs never truly posses sovereignty.
The system we live in simply dangles carrots on sticks as motivators for the members of the society. Hope in the brighter future encourages everyone to participate in a dependency system that largely benefits the small class responsible for ensuring the system stays in tact. Every day members of societies all over the world awaken to the alarm of the factory horn. Each person offering up their labor in exchange for the ability to participate in a global system that discourages ownership, wealth, and true sovereignty. For instance, the very money that is used today by the modern day serfs as a medium of exchange loses value every year. On April 5, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102 which forced holders of gold to surrender their gold to the government. Many gold bugs learned the hard way that ultimately they need permission to possess sovereign wealth. Another example concerns homeowners who all over the United States know the reality of what it means to not truly own your home. They’re faced with this reality every single year as they pay property taxes in perpetuity, regardless of deed or land “ownership”. Ownership within the system is nothing more than the right to rent. Much like serfs who never owned the land they worked.
Ultimately what the system provides is a modicum of stability. In order to obtain that stability you must move in the direction that the system demands for the present era. This enables the capturing of value upstream by the few while the rest of society receive subsistence. In this era of artificial intelligence many people feel lost and are completely unsure of what the future will hold. This is for good reason. The current era is nothing like the previous eras as virtually every field will be impacted at some level with many people facing unemployment with no obvious alternatives. This has left some like Elon Musk to demand universal basic income, leaving the serfs forever dependent on a system controlled by its medieval rulers. Billionaires like Elon Musk can flippantly make such demands as they themselves will never have to live under the kingdom as a serf, chasing carrots on sticks for the opportunity to participate in a system that strips away individual sovereignty.
The carrot and the stick lifestyle that we’ve all grown accustomed to is not incidental. It is baked into the very structure of our society. Contrary to the belief of many, it is not the result of capitalism or corporate greed. Corporations don’t make people give up their sovereignty or discourage the building of sovereign wealth. In fact, the more wealth distributed across a society the more goods and services can be purchased by those who are wealthy, increasing the wealth of corporations. The system’s structure that serves as the underpinning for modern societies is antithetical to capitalism. Once again, this is why billionaires in their ivory towers can suggest the government deploy universal income schemes to put money into the pockets of its citizens. Because citizens without money to spend on goods and services means corporations will cease to exist. The only alternative is for corporations to be owned and or propped up by the government, placing corporations in the same state of dependency as the commoners.
No matter how you slice it, the system we live in owns everyone and everything. Sovereignty is an illusion. The closest anyone can get to breaking out of the system is to reject the idea of being a serf —one who owns nothing despite the energy expenditure derived from their labor— to one who begins to own things of value that can not be taken away. However, the things of value don’t fall into the familiar category of assets —stocks, bonds, real estate, gold etc… While liquid assets aren’t necessarily bad, they exist within a system that can be and are often manipulated. Real estate is an area where many are finding themselves priced out due to institutional buying and also exists within a system that can be and often is manipulated. In order to move from operating as a serf within such a highly dependent system, the common perspective on ownership needs to change.
What should true ownership look like? For starters, it shouldn’t require one’s full time presence in order to generate value. It should provide value that compounds and it shouldn’t be easily replicated or scaled out to eventually become tethered to the system. This includes more abstract ideas such as growing trust across a society. In our modern world we’ve all had to contend with the attention economy. While largely vapid, there’s an element that is valuable and that’s the trust aspect that influencers capitalize on. It’s one thing to have an audience of 10,000 people. It’s another to have an audience of 10,000 people that trust you and your opinions. This type of trust provides a platform where more value can be distributed to those looking for what you are willing to offer —for a price.
Another ownership idea concerns proprietary knowledge that can be structured as a system. Proprietary knowledge is only valuable if it can be packaged in such a way that it can be easily accessed and utilized by others. Over the last decade we’ve seen this idea exploited by scammers and swindlers packaging knowledge that is freely accessible to trick people into buying their “wealth building” course. I’m not advocating for that type of deceit. However, the point remains that packaging proprietary knowledge —something you’ve developed yourself— that others can benefit from moves you into the category of owner. No one can take this from you or keep you from profiting from what is yours.
One last idea I’ll cover concerns creating a business that is more relationship-dependent than transactional-dependent. Small businesses are much better at this than large corporate organizations due to their ability to be more responsive and agile. There’s also the benefit of being able to better manage a smaller scale of customers where relationships can thrive. However, the key is to structure the business in such a way that it doesn’t rely on your full-time presence in order for it to be successful. Nor does it rely on an injection of venture capital money.
There are other ideas that can enable one to move from chasing the carrot on the stick towards true sovereignty —escaping the system that demands dependency. It is important to capitalize on them while we all still have the chance. When society becomes completely dependent on a system for direction and guidance that is a sign that greater society has not actually obtained true sovereignty. The consequences of such a reality are disastrous. Entire nations filled with aimless, highly system-dependent, and distraught individuals only leads to chaos. Chaos that will need to be controlled through force and power by the system, as it will demand order and a servant attitude in order for you to continue participating. I do not desire to live this way inside such a system.
You shouldn’t either.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed it, please restack and share it! Feel free to leave comments as I’d love to hear your thoughts. - Gideon
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