Eco, shouldn't we just vote for better people?

Every day is a day to get better, best in the morning in a routine manner. We will turn our suffering into a super power and achieve our carefully-selected visions. This will make your life better, and will make life better for everyone around you.

But of course, there are many global problems facing humanity. You might even think they are so big, they have nothing to do with you. Surely only an elite global government body could have the reach and scope to solve problems of these enormous magnitudes?

Surely, we should just vote for better people.

It it tempting to think this way, I think it might even be a carefully crafted message designed to be hard to refute. But refute it I will, because it is totally and completely false, aside from being a convenient mental trap for our lazy, loser temptations.

Years ago, on Steem, I made a post with some selfies of when I went to vote. Its not something I am always in the country to do, but I was, and so I did. One of the commenters, with a name like @hippywithagun - responded to me that he would unfollow me, that voting for leaders was immoral.

This was my first encounter with a philosophy I have since named, 'practical anarchy', and really can only be found online. I'm not here today to talk about theoretically forms of governance. On a practical level, if we can vote for so-called 'better people', we should do it. But I hope to show you today why our energy should not be focused there.

Why you must start with "YOU".

I know it's easy to think that this time is special - and it is, because its the time you live in NOW. But What's happening has been happening - always and forever there is change, and Everyday is the end of the World. Those two posts I linked have lots of music as cultural proof of what I am saying, but the most classically pertinent is obviously - Billy Joel, We Didn't Start the Fire.

The reason we can't manage to elect better people is multi-pronged. But it absolutely begins and ends with the realization that there is no path forward without improving ourselves. We have to BECOME better people to be led by better people - its a social relationship that is absolutely our physcial and biogical reality as human organisms.

We have to BECOME better people for a lot of things to happen. Think of the classic Jordan Peterson quote, "First clean your room". Would someone who can't keep their personal life organized be very useful keeping public funds organized? Unlikely, no matter how technocratic a society becomes.

When we become better people, it doesn't only affect us. When we are more physically healthy, the better able we are to help others who may be weak. When we are financially healthy we can care for those who are poor. Giving coin on the street is one thing, but giving a college friend a business loan - this has value more than strictly financial. This is providing value in the world.

Sustainable Development starts with Personal Development

I am totally going to switch gears here, into the realm of Ecological Restoration. I have seen the realities of 'reforestation programs' which are literally worthless, numbers of trees planted as a number in a database, with no follow-up monitoring absolutely. If they ever would look, they would see that 99%+ of their efforts were wiped clean from existence by cows or people within 6 months of their back-patting and payday.

Its easy to criticize, that's just step one. When you have a problem, you must imagine and visualize the solution, and work to implement it - or your criticism is worthless. Together with my wife, I started with the 'man in the mirror', and studied natural restoration on our own farm Buena Vista and developed several specific strategies to assist it - that is make it go faster.

These specific strategies can be presented before a obviously inferior prevailing culture of "Tumbar monte para plantar arboles", which by my rough translation is: "Chop down the forest to plant trees".

My recommendation? Plant one tree and care for it, see how it goes. Sounds a lot like "first clean your room". I've done it with my wife on our farm, thousands of times. Now I am qualified to make some suggestions.

Personal Development is Political (development)

BECOMING a better, more capable, independent person who has the power of creating a better world starting with oneself - this is a political act. It is certainly against a politic that supports group-think, falling in line, and obedience. The scary thing about independence is that we are all different, but that difference, that diversity, is our strength as a species, not our weakness.

Certain principles remain, non-aggression for example, but that doesn't mean you should be less prepared for violence. This world is tough, we will suffer and struggle as if our lives depended on it - because they do.

In Colombia there is a saying, "Corruption is the System", that is often used as a response to 'we have to fix the system'. This is why elected 'better people' into corruption jobs has never worked before. We have to become better people, become better family members, become better community members, all before there will even be better people possibly available to elect into a better system.

Don't reject the small in favor of the overwhelming. Don't fall for the trap. Do your pushups.

Freedom and Friendship