We Live In A World Of Coercion

Hello Beautiful Friend 🙂

I don’t know about you, but I feel like in the society we all live in, we’re being forced into most of the choices we make on a daily basis. 

I know we’re all processing the trauma of having had certain bodily and societal freedoms revoked and re-arranged, and I get this - but could this be a huge distraction from all the other ways in which we are being forced to participate in a system that is literally destroying us every minute of every day?

From a system we are not free within, that we have been believing we are free within?

The System We Live In Runs On Force And Lack Of True Choice:

The reality is, in order to make choices that are DIFFERENT from what the SYSTEM is doing, you have to have already played by the rules of capitalism so well, or you have to have been born into a lineage of people who played by the rules of capitalism so well, that you have access to enough funds to be able to MAKE different choices than the ones being handed to you by society.

In order to make choices that would significantly alter your life experience and the trajectory of human kind in general, one must already be in a position of power - and in order to GET into that position of power, one must have already played the game.

For the most part, the autonomy we’re being told we have, the freedom of choice that’s being ‘sold’ to us, isn’t really freedom of choice. It feels to me like most of the choices that I would want to make that would have a significant impact aren't actually available - and the choices I can make, while important, won’t ever have as big of an impact on my life or the lives of others as I would want it to.

For instance - I certainly wouldn’t choose to have everything I buy be wrapped in plastic. But essentially that is my only option unless I want to a) stop buying things altogether or b) want to limit what I purchase to the very few things that don’t come wrapped in plastic. In order to stop living a plastic life I’d have to literally go off grid and grow all my own food, need no supplements, no spices, nothing shipped in any form of packaging, no clothes - you see where I’m going with this.

In order to shift away from the choice being dictated to me on a day to day basis, I have to have the funds to choose alternative products, and I have to have access to these different options. Even that isn’t a total fix - because MOST THINGS still come in plastic. There simply AREN’T alternatives available at all times. I contributed to the massive problem of plastic every day - but to opt out would be a monumental effort - and in the grand scheme of things ME doing it doesn’t change the fact that I live on a planet where most people are going to stay opted in because large corporations have decided this is the way and this is what’s going to be made available.

The earth I live on is going to continually be polluted and I can’t stop that. It affects my body, and I have no say in the matter, on a large scale.

I wouldn’t choose to live dependent upon fossil fuels. But so long as I want to/need to go anywhere that’s farther than I can walk, I need some form of transportation. So long as I want to eat or wear or use anything that was produced outside of walking distance from me, or was produced using goods outside of walking distance from me, I need fossil fuels. I can ride a bike, but that requires lots of plastic! I can get an electric vehicle, but that’s still fossil fuels. I can do as much locally as possible, but that requires that I live somewhere abundant in resources with weather that permits being outside. These choices aren’t actually available to most people. And fossil fuels are a HUGE problem with HUGE health implications.

Even if I reduce as much as humanly possible, I’m still being polluted by the choices of everyone else - large corporations and what they have decided is the status quo.

I wouldn’t choose to pay taxes to a government that then turns around and uses that money not for social systems, infrastructure and actual services that help the population, but instead uses it for war, policing that is set up to protect the wealthy from everyone else and for subsidizing corporations that are destroying the planet and exploiting human beings for profit. Yet my bodily autonomy is hanging in the balance if I were to choose NOT to.

I wouldn’t choose to wear clothes that are manufactured by people who are not being paid fairly for their time and labor. Who are using materials that aren’t sustainable. I wouldn’t choose to have a fashion industry that continually shifts trends and styles so that we feel like we have to be perpetually consuming in order to fit in. I wouldn’t choose to live in a world where you can literally be denied access to certain parts of society based purely on what you’re wearing and what those clothes ‘say’ about you. And again, I have *some* choice to opt out of this - and in doing so I also have to opt out of a LOT of other things that come with fitting in. Because there is BENEFIT to fitting in - fitting in DOES mean access to certain things that not fitting in won’t provide. Again, I can choose to opt out, but I have to have another option, and I have to have the CAPACITY to choose that other option. Many people DON’T. Many people can’t afford to fit in. This has consequences. Many people can’t afford NOT to fit in. I wouldn’t choose this system and again, choosing to opt in AND choosing to opt out comes with their costs. I have to choose between the lesser of two evils, not a system that actually works.

I wouldn’t choose to live in a system where most of what is produced is produced using means of production that leads to environmental destruction. I wouldn’t choose to have excesses of things that serve no purpose other than entertainment and distraction. I wouldn’t choose to live in a world where celebrities are paid millions of dollars and teachers have to work second jobs. I can again opt out of a lot of it - but not all of it. And to choose more sustainable things requires capital - and in order to acquire said capital I have to play the game or have someone who played the game invest in me. There are some ways of earning money that aren’t as destructive as others, and I can do those things, but again, not all have access to these alternatives. The alternatives, opting out, doing something different - they're not choices MOST people can make. This is the main issue here. Also keeping in mind that so much of what is produced unsustainably and for no real purpose other than distraction and entertainment is consumed because in order to survive in the systems you HAVE to be distracted, entertained and numbed. We need these coping mechanisms to survive the system we depend on to survive. That we have to be rich enough to opt out of.

I wouldn’t choose a system where workers are exploited because they don’t have access to the means of production. 

I wouldn’t choose a system where animals and land are treated as commodities not part of an ecosystem we literally rely on.

I wouldn’t choose a system where people don’t have access to basic necessities or safety from harm due to the color of their skin. 

I wouldn’t choose SO much of what I am essentially forced to participate in on a daily basis.

My bodily autonomy has never been real. 

How Much Freedom Of Choice Do We REALLY Have?

My freedom of choice, in many ways, is an illusion.

Not in all ways - I do have some choice, and the reality is choosing something different isn’t ‘a choice’ so much as it's a series of risk/reward steps that I’ve been lucky enough to have access to because of the conditions of my birth.

Yes, I could have chosen to stay a lot LESS free than I am, and yes I did work hard to shift things for myself. This is true. I'm liberated in ways that a lot aren't and that was through my actions - and I acknowledge that not everyone is me.

Not everyone has the access I had. Not everyone CAN make the choices I made. It’s never as simple as just ‘choose something else.’ If it were I think a LOT more of us would be choosing things that make an actual difference to the system.

Some people literally don’t have the means to choose a different way. They are dependent upon a system that is destroying them. I feel we would all do well to have some compassion for those who aren’t in the positions we are in. We simply aren’t as free as we want to believe we are. This is especially true in nations where people live under literal dictatorships. Literal government structures that are founded on warfare. This world still contains such a VAST array of circumstances and I think again, sometimes we lose sight of the difference between our reality and the reality others are facing.

Structures need to change if we have any hope of actual freedom, any hope of a planet that can sustain what we’re doing. Those who dictate the structures are, for the most part, out of our individual reach. This is a predicament most of us never fully see, because we are being so deeply convinced that our lives are all our personal choice - and thus the identification of our actual issues becomes obfuscated.

We’re being shown something here.

The powers of corporations and the systems that run our world that were FOUNDED on exploitation in order to generate wealth - aren’t sustainable.

Individual choices are important, and it’s going to take all of us making those small changes and demanding that our leaders change in the process if we want ACTUAL change. But to believe that ONLY individual choice is the answer is to buy into a system that's lying to us to keep us stuck. When we don't acknowledge the need for systemic change we miss the forest for the trees. 

BOTH have to happen.

Looking for ‘which one? The people or the leaders?’ Will always lead us astray because one without the other is going to be incomplete.

We can’t throw up our hands and just wait for those with power to change.

Nor can we take on the idea that it’s ALL on our shoulders ignoring the massive impact that our leaders have. 

This is the paradox.

None of us can give up - because without each of our voices, we can’t yell loud enough. It’s so important that we each do what we can, that we demand the changes where we can, because it’s going to be ALL of us doing this that will eventually force the systems to change. We have to take the small amount of power we DO have and work with it. If we surrender, we guarantee nothing changes. Because what is, is ‘working’ so well for those who don’t see long term consequences and who are blinded by profit and power in this moment.

We aren’t totally free right now - in many ways we are MORE free than we’ve ever been - and I don’t want to pretend that NO progress has been made.

I don’t want to make this sound as though we are in the worst place ever - because we aren’t.

Much progress HAS been made.

We are arguably MORE free than most people are on the planet.

Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater and say that everything has to be torn down. Rather we have to look at what's working about what we have - innovation, technology, the ideas of democracy, closer to more people having more rights and freedoms, upward mobility being made available to larger groups of people, awareness of how much better cooperation with one another and the earth works - and we must USE that to keep improving upon those things that AREN’T working. It’s not about going to dooms-day thinking. It’s not about ignoring the progress we’ve made. It’s about expansion. We have to keep looking forward, to greater, to what’s possible from here - we have to build on the foundations laid by those who came before us, who did amazing work to push us to where we ARE - and we have to honor them by taking the baton and running our leg of the race. 

We have to become complex enough to demand the system change where it needs changing, and to call ourselves to change where we can change. It's about recognizing that we are a global community - and we are impacted by the choices of others. Our lives are not as simple as just what we're doing. What everyone else is choosing DOES have an effect on EVERYONE. We must learn to take as much responsibility for ourselves as is POSSIBLE without tipping over into believing it's ALL on us.

Progress Is The Key:

We’ve done good things.

We’ve created some systems that DO work.

We have some foundations to work with - and part of building the new world is seeing what is working and taking that.

Building on it. Letting it show us what we want to work towards and working towards those things.

We can’t fool ourselves into thinking this IS freedom, but with the freedom we DO have, we can’t get in our own way by saying what we do as individuals doesn’t matter.

We can’t get in our own way by only focusing on what ISN’T working, and not allowing ourselves to actively participate in the new things we want to see - knowing that our individual action isn’t going to change EVERYTHING - but if ALL of us did our individual part, we WOULD have the power to change a LOT.

We can’t forfeit our small roll saying it doesn’t matter, we can’t not work to build the new things we want, because If we all believed that, none of us would do it and then nothing would change. If we all do our small part to contribute to what we want to see and to pull out of what we can pull out of from our individual vantage point, that collective force shifts things. You doing your part IS the key. 

We can’t look around to what others are doing and judge those who aren’t doing what WE are capable of doing. We have to remember that we don’t all have equal power in this system. Equal ACCESS to different choices. If we have the power to enact a LOT of change in our lives, and we see someone who is doing very little to fight the systems or who is actively participating in the corruption - we can’t automatically assume they are weak, lazy or intentionally making things worse.

We have to understand that each of us has a different capacity.

Focus on what YOU can do.

Support others in what is actually available for them practically, have compassion and empathy.

This is huge.

Otherwise we build resentments and judgements that aren’t true to reality. Do the same for yourself. Honestly assess your situation, and do what you CAN do, and don’t blame yourself for anything that isn’t possible for you right now. Do what you can. Support others in doing what THEY can. Again, let’s work together, rather than making enemies out of one another where enemies don’t really exist.

The point is, the outcomes of my life are neither all within my control, nor are they totally out of my control. To believe that I’m free and sovereign is an illusion. That everything I’m experiencing is a result of my choices or something I could actually change if I tried hard enough. Not so. On the flip side, to believe I have no power is also illusory. To say my individual choices don’t matter, my voice doesn’t matter, my desire for change and my ability to change and challenge what I CAN has no impact is to create that reality. 

This isn’t how I would choose to run the world.

Many of the things I do on a daily basis and the systems I participate in in order to survive suck.

I have compassion for those who are so drowned by the system and in the system that they can’t make different choices.

I feel compassion for those indoctrinated so hard that they continue the exploitation believing it benefits them.

I feel compassion for those being exploited and those who live in realities where provision isn’t there.

Our world is sad sometimes, and this is a sad thing.

I don’t believe I am sovereign or that everyone else is just making poor choices. I believe it’s complex and we each must do what WE can (which is different for all of us) to demand something different. To not blame ourselves for what isn’t ours, but also to take responsibility for what we can.

It’s complex.

Let’s not try to simplify to the point of deluding ourselves.

We’re not victims, but we’re not sovereign either.

We can change things, and we can’t blame ourselves for the stuff we have no power over.

There’s no black and white here, only progress within reality.

<3

 

I’ve got exciting news 🙂

The Aliyah Mystery School now has a fourth curriculum!

 

The school is all about RADICAL self love.

 

It’s about giving you all the tools that I’ve gathered to help you tap into who you really are - who you’ve always been and who you’ve grown into as you’ve walked your path - so that you can finally rid yourself of all the shame, blame, guilt and hopelessness stories that tell you that you’re broken.

 

This school is all about showing you how deeply perfect you are inherently, and it’s about giving you the tools you need to simply SUPPORT yourself in creating a life that works for you.

 

It’s all about getting off the self help rollercoaster that goes up and down and all around - but leads to the same place over and over again.

 

The first three programs are your deep foundations for WHY we think we need to ‘fix’ ourselves, and how we can start to break out of this mindset so that we can actually figure out what we want, and how to get what we want.

 

The fourth curriculum is about taking all these self love tools and expanding on them. It’s about connecting to unconditional love in a way that sets you free from the constant feeling of inadequacy that our society dumps on you, and it’s about giving you the tools you need to create a life that works for YOU.

 

Check it out here for more information