May 29, 2012
Denver, Colorado, USA
There’s a rather peculiar tribe of people in northern Uganda known as the Ik that has completely mystified anthropologists for decades. You see, the Ik are unlike just about any other people on the planet in that they shun cooperation, community, and even family.
Due to the constant disruption of national boundaries in Africa coupled with terminal drought and famine conditions, the Ik have a very limited means of survival. As such, their culture epitomizes the ‘every man for himself’ mentality.
Family means nothing. One brother could be starving to death, and the other brother with a belly full of food, and neither would have the slightest thought of sharing. It simply does not register with them.
Each member of the tribe typically spends long periods in isolation searching for food and water. Their only reason for marriage is simply that it’s more convenient to build homes in pairs. Nothing else is shared… and most of the time, an Ik husband and wife will seldom be home at the same time.
Children are occasionally produced from conjugal relationships, generally because they scare off birds and pests from the agricultural fields. By the age of 3, Ik children are kicked out of the home and left to fend for themselves. And they’re not weaned off, either, it’s sink or swim.
All of this sounds shocking to westerners.
Of course, the west exudes a mentality that is at the opposite end of the spectrum: ‘shared sacrifice’ simply by accident of birth.
Westerners are brainwashed into believing that they have an obligation to someone who shares the same color passport… someone who happened to be born within the set of invisible lines that comprise our arbitrary political boundaries.
We’re told that we have a civic responsibility to finance spiraling government deficits, buy more bombs, and pay off other people’s mortgages… regardless of whether or not we share a common ideology, philosophy, or moral code.
This is completely absurd. Human beings are born free. No one comes into this world with an obligation to serve some arbitrary political construct.
Yet on the other hand, the Ik worldview of going at it alone in life also seems absurd.
The truth is that each of us has the capacity to build a strong network of like-minded individuals. We can choose who to let in to our inner circles, to lend support and to be supported. And we can make these choices based on shared values and a common ideology… not some antiquated notion of nationality.
Last night in downtown Denver I was privileged to host one such network of like-minded individuals.
Over 100 Denver-area Sovereign Man: Confidential members gathered at the Jet Hotel where we talked for hours about everything from second passports to the state of the economy to resilient communities.
It was a real pleasure to see so many philosophically aligned people build relationships with one another. As one person told me, “You know, it’s really great to know that I’m not alone in the world. It’s not like I can talk to my neighbor about this stuff…”
As the effects of our fraudulent monetary system and sovereign debt bubbles begin to be felt acutely, having a strong network will become incredibly important.
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