Existential Independence
fullcircle process
We are caught in a trap between a short sighted political system and a self-serving economic system. This trap acts like the the magic mirror in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, "The Snow Queen" as it amplifies the dark side of human nature.
While there are two keys to easily unlock the trap, the keys unfortunately are locked inside:
We could replace GDP by HPI and change the course of all economic activity towards well-being of the planet and the people, practically overnight. And we could measure political decisions against the well-being of future generations, which would lead to wiser long-term decision making. But none of this is very likely to happen as the systemic interlocking forces of the existing configuration resisting any change are unfathomably strong.
But are they really? Don't they depend on each of us participating in keeping the lock in place? What if we simply started playing a different game? What if we found the freedom within ourselves, among our peers, in our societies to simply log out of the old game and start a new one?
If freedom is the absence of fear, then emancipation from anything and anyone creating fear seems to be a good step towards allowing ourselves to log out of the system. This kind of existential independence is built on economic , emotional and intellectual independence.
This kind of existential independence is not built in a day, nor in a straight line. It is a slow and deliberate bootstrapping process, a pulling oneself out of the mire by ones own hair as Baron Münchausen did.
To get out of the mire into freedom we have to move slowly, maybe make some movements that feel odd and weird, hold on to things, we don't know to trust - but we do - because they are the only things to hold on to. And then, in doing so, we discover that we gain freedom, gradually almost unnoticeable at first, but as our degrees of freedom grow, with growing energy and effect.
The next three mulitlogues will be based on the elements, we need to hold on to and nurture in order to achieve the freedom to log out of the game through existential independence:
Economic Independence
Emotional Independence
Intellectual Independence