Self Ownership

I alone am responsible for my life.

In many cases, people would automatically think that this means that they are responsible for their actions, and while that is true, it does not end there.

We live in a litigious society in the U.S. where people make millions by pushing the blame, or the responsibility for their actions onto another individual or corporation. It is a joke, but a serious and expensive one. Everyone knows the story of the lady that made millions by spilling coffee on herself, but that is just a small part of it. Kids who get in trouble are not at fault, it is society's fault. Parents are not at fault for having misbehaved kids, it's the schools that failed them. A young girl is mad that people treat her like a piece of meat, yet she dresses like a Brat doll. My butt is huge, I should sue McDonalds! People fail to accept responsibility for their actions at every level.

In truth though, it goes beyond these simple things. Reasonable people can easily see the above things and know that these are perfect examples of common denial of responsibility. Of course these are also things that other people do, not "us". However, many people do not understand the full sense of self ownership.

Self ownership is simply true and natural freedom of your self, not yourself, but your own personal "self". Freedom of religion, ecomomic freedom, political freedom, freedom to assemble, freedom of movement (as in to and from places, not as in I can wave my arms around), freedom of speech, freedom of thought and such.

I believe that the founding fathers of the U.S. believed in self ownership, but with self ownership comes the right to give up any of these things in exchange for something else. As an example, we as a country have give up tons of freedoms and liberties in the form of The Patriot Act in exchange for "safety". We have given up economic freedom in exchange for taxes to fund… things. (People generally have no idea what their taxes actually pay for, just generally and only the things that we are told about. Also, I would say that if people did not have income tax taken from each check and had to write a check to the government every month for their tax bill, people would be a LOT more interested in what is going on.)

Throughout history, people have always had to fight for any type of freedom that they desired. There has always been "The Man", or someone in charge making the rules that everyone else will live by. The Man has typically been strong, either by individual physical strength in the distant past or in small groups, or military strength in larger groups. The Man is typically greedy also and usually has a smaller group or their own interests at heart when making decisions. People generally accept The Man as he usually provides such things as protection, food, and shelter. (Sometimes that protection is mafia style though… hehehe) Many wars result as a struggle between some group of people and The Man.

I am not interested in freeing a people though. I am interested in freeing myself from The Man.

I was at lunch the other day with a friend of mine. This guy works for a major corporation and recently faced a potential lay off. He elected to move 250 miles away instead and will need to look for a house. He was telling me that he was going to look for a cheaper house because he did not want to end up like another friend of ours that did get caught up in this lay off. This struck me and I realized that he had put his faith in The Man (in this case the corporation) to take care of him. Without The Man, he could not pay for his house, he could not afford health care, he could not pay his bills and he had no way to retire. He was faced with a situation where The Man could choose to leave him exposed to the elements and hung out to dry. This however was his fear and belief, not necessarily the truth of the matter.

I have learned a lot over the past ten years. One of the most important things I have learned is that I have to treat ANY job I have as a temporary contract position. There are too many things out of my control that could happen that may make that paycheck just simply not be there next week. I have also learned that healthcare is not as expensive as we are led to believe. Major things are, but simple doctor visits are not. Consider, $700 a month for COBRA, or insurance continuation after losing your job covering everything, to $120 a month for major medical covering only a major accident or surgery. What is funny is that with my current insurance, if I go to the doctor for a cold or whatever, it will cost me only a $30 co-pay. If I go to the doctor and pay cash, it will cost me $45 for the exact same treatment. I hardly ever go to the doctor. Anyway, that is beside the point.

The point is, you need to be able to count on yourself. Most people feel that they cannot count on themselves, but this is usually just due to ignorance. The simply do not know how. People tend to just take life as it comes and to generally believe in denial that everything will be ok in the end. If they do not know about it, they are not responsible for it.

If you want freedom in your life, you have to take it. No one is just going to give it to you. The Man has set it up so that it is just comfortable enough to make you not ask too many questions (why do we pay so much for text messaging?). Will The Man let you just not pay taxes? Will The Man (in China) just let you practice any religion you want? Will The Man let you come and go as you please? (You think so? Why do you have a passport?) The Man may "protect" you from Al Qaida, but will he protect you from a burglar?

If you want economic freedom you have to take it. Tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is not. If you don't want to have credit card bills, don't use credit cards. If you want a lower house note, buy a cheaper house. Duh.

If you want good health, take care of yourself. Exercise, eat right. Duh.

Generally, however, we are completely free, as long as we are willing to accept the consequences for our actions.

Anyway, I could say more, but I am done.