Wild Horse

"The Sovereign Individual Paradigm

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves that we are underlings."
- William Shakespeare

A paradigm is a system of belief or a way of viewing the world. The feudal paradigm is that there is a King who essentially owns and controls everything and everybody. People are the subjects of the King. The King may delegate some of his powers to a Lord. Peasants, landholders, and merchants have to pay tribute to the Lord and/or the King.

The American Declaration of Independence of 1776 essentially broke the ties to the King of England. Individuals in North America became free sovereigns in their own right. Individuals became their own masters. We could call this the sovereign individual paradigm.

During the past 200 years there has been a gradual regression in America back to the feudal paradigm. Today most Americans believe that they are owned by the government. The government can draft them (or at least force them to register for the draft) and send them off to a foreign war. Workers and companies pay taxes to the government that are far higher than those just before the Declaration of Independence. The government makes the laws and the people must obey. The government owns children and can therefore force parents to send their children to school. The government owns people's bodies, therefore suicide is a crime. The government owns people's bodies, therefore tells people what they may or may not put into their bodies.

So what we have in America today is essentially a feudal system. Individuals stand in relation to the government as peasants stood in relation to the King in the Middle Ages. Today most individuals are as much "underlings" as the peasants were at the time of Shakespeare.

The sovereign individual paradigm states:
(a) I am the master of my life.
(b) I own my life, mind, and body - and the fruit of my labor.
(c) I am free to do anything provided I do not violate the rights of others or harm them.

To get a better understanding of the sovereign individual paradigm, compare the free-wild horse to the broken-domesticated horse. A horse is born free and wild. Try and ride a free-wild horse and it will do its utmost to throw you off. A free-wild horse doesn't like to be broken - enslaved - ridden by a master.

Once the cowboy has broken the free-wild horse, it becomes a broken-domesticated-obedient horse. Now the cowboy is the master of the horse. The horse is the slave of the cowboy. The cowboy rides the horse. The horse works for the cowboy. The cowboy owns the horse. The horse obeys the cowboy.

Horses are born free and wild. Horses are inherently free. They are naturally free. But they can be broken, domesticated, enslaved.

We humans are also born free. We are inherently and naturally free. But most parents break their children at an early age - turn them into broken-domesticated-obedient little slaves. "Teachers" continue the process in compulsory "schools."


- Part of an essay by a brilliant writer (not me) read the full article here:

http://www.buildfreedom.com/tl/tl04

(you'll have to copy/paste, blogspot linking isn't working.)



I went to a film that I wanted to see Twilight: Eclipse.

I'll have to agree with Entertainment Weekly that it's the best thus far.



The key point of the whole movie can be summed up in the ending phrase:



"The struggle/choice has been between Who I Am, and Who I Should Be."



I will quote another film here that I liked, Never Been Kissed,

"Find out who you are. And try not to be afraid of it."