The Non-Binary Approach to Revolutions

Most people think of revolutions as binary events where people have to go all in, either with one team or another. However, this requires so much passion and self sacrifice that it's hard to imagine more than a handful of people doing this today. Many are therefore left with a sense that revolution is impossible in modern times, and that tyranny is a foregone conclusion. But this ignores the fact that most sustainable revolutions are non-binary events. They require no banding together. They just happen, and there's nothing the political elite can do to stop them.

As an example, consider Twitter and its decision to ban Trump from their platform. Binary reactions to this would be to protest this with a rally outside Twitter's headquarter, and to encourage people to delete their Twitter accounts. The non-binary reaction would be to use Twitter less.

The same goes for Facebook. Why not reduce our time on Facebook? Why spend so much time and energy on something as silly as a social network app? Reduce it to a simple messaging platform with short announcements as a feature. The time saved can be used to nurture a simpler, more harmonic lifestyle.

Used correctly, social media is a great way to maintain a network, even when the platform owners work actively to promote their own agenda. It's silly to give up this tool just because we disagree with its owners. I for one, have reduced my Facebook time to just a few minutes a day. That's enough to check for messages and look at a few announcements. I've lost nothing in doing this. However, if I decided to close my Facebook account, I'd severely reduce my ability to stay in touch with family and friends.

The non-binary approach to social media has the advantage of reducing revenues to those that we disagree with, while doing nothing in way of harm or sacrifice to ourselves. The same can be said about banks and banking. These are institutions with great power over us. But if we reduce our use of their services to a minimum, we reduce this power while profiting from it ourselves. My wife and I share a single bank account. We have no loan, and we keep most of our savings in gold. As a result, we're better off. Our private finances have improved greatly. However, had we fully disconnected from the banking system by closing all accounts, we would have severely damage ourselves.

Finally, there's taxation. This too can be reduced greatly through non-binary measures. We don't have to go full blown parallel economy. Even a small step in that direction will help in our fight against the state. There's no need to disconnect completely. There are all sorts of options. Many small steps can be made. Nothing very dramatic needs to happen.

Done correctly, revolutions are made through a change in lifestyle that benefits ourselves at the expense of the state. The only sacrifice is the loss of a lifestyle that might not have been all that healthy in the first place. What's gained is a sense of control and awareness, as well as affluence. We see the economy of the world for what it is. We see how we are constantly tempted into debt and wasteful use of time. We also see how we can avoid these traps, and how to navigate in order to prosper.

Hardly ever, is the answer a binary one. The answer lies almost always in finding the right balance, and to avoid temptations laid out by those who seek to control us. Once this is understood and internalized, we profit from this ourselves. The network around us picks up on this fact. Friends and relatives learn from our example, and the revolution evolves naturally without any other driver than our individual success stories. There's no sacrifice. Liberty grows not out of strife, but out of successful and peaceful living, semi-detached from the controlling structures of the state.

Liberty as affluence and simplicity