What is "On Self-Sovereignty"?
Self-sovereignty is not selfishness. You can be selfless. Self-sovereignty is ensuring that your selflessness isn’t actually ignorance.
Let’s take the current (mid-May 2020) discussion over coronavirus lockdowns. Some say that we must lockdown to save society from the coronavirus. Others say that a lockdown will destroy the economy and cause even more harm. You probably have some opinions about this.
But this is a discussion about the herd. We are asking what the herd should do—lock down or open up.
But you are a sheep. And so am I.
As sheep, we need to take a sheep perspective. Taking a rational sheep perspective is being Self-sovereign. A rational self-sovereign perspective does not mean a selfish perspective. But it can.
Let’s consider a perfectly Selfish Sheep. This sheep is 55 years old and is personally worried about the short and possible long-term risks of catching coronavirus. But they also want to maintain their livelihood. Our sheep works from home and is perfectly capable of staying in and avoiding coronavirus risk as long as it takes. But our sheep also needs their job and thus needs other sheep to behave somewhat normally to maintain adequate consumer demand in the economy.
What does our sheep want the flock to do? Our sheep wants the flock to go out and participate in the economy. What does our sheep personally want to do? Stay in and not participate.
Let’s make this sheep a noble sheep. Same situation as before. But the Noble Sheep believes it would be wrong to stay indoors while relying on everyone else going outside and taking risks. The noble sheep is being selfless here but they’re only selfless because they understand the situation and behave in a selfless way regardless. Don’t confuse them with the Stupid Sheep.
The Stupid Sheep believes that, because we need other sheep to behave somewhat normally to maintain adequate consumer demand in the economy, they too should behave somewhat normally. The Selfish Sheep is rational. The Noble Sheep is rational. The Stupid Sheep is irrational.
To make matters worse, there are shepherds who are trying to influence these sheep. Almost all of these shepherds are well-intentioned. Some shepherds think that sheep need a strong shepherd and so having sheep stay inside for awhile gives them a chance to build a bigger, better fence. These are authoritarian shepherds.
Other shepherds think that the sheep need to get out there into the fields because it’s good for the flock even if some of the sheep will die. These are laissez-faire shepherds.
If you have an opinion on whether the sheep should stay in their pens or go out into the field you might favor one of these shepherds over the other. That’s fine. That’s the herd conversation. But you’re a sheep.
Do not let sheep thinking get polluted by shepherd thinking.
It is completely rational for a Selfish Sheep to prefer that every other sheep but them go out into the fields. That is, a Selfish Sheep who wants to stay inside can prefer a Laissez-faire shepherd for everyone else. Sheep thinking=stay inside. Shepherd thinking=go outside. You are a sheep.
Shepherds are social engineers. We are all shepherds to some degree. We won’t yell fire in a crowded theatre because it’s bad for the herd. But we may whisper “fire” to a friend and attempt to leave.
If you are an influential person you have this social engineering effect multiplied. You will probably begin to feel responsible for the actions of the people who listen to you. It’s natural to judge actions by their consequences, and as your audience becomes larger the things you say have more impact. You begin to think of your audience, to some degree, as a herd. You become their shepherd.
But you— you— are a sheep.
Shepherds are often very smart and we must listen to what they say. But we must never forget that they’re speaking to herds whereas we are sheep.
This is a newsletter about Self-Sovereignty. An important part of Self-Sovereignty is recognizing when your information is polluted by Shepherd Thinking. We will review the latest in (mostly) good-natured social engineering and attempt to filter out the good information from the Shepherd thinking. The Shepherds are usually the smartest people and the ones most worth listening to, so long as you can apply the right filter.
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