Most people want to be free to do as they wish. Yet, they don’t want the responsibility of being free. They are afraid that if they are 100% free and responsible for their actions, they might fail.

And that failure would become a reflection of who they are. Failure would, naturally, in their minds, expose them as failures and frauds.

It’s the fear of our own inadequacies, Milton William Cooper says in Behold a Pale Horse, which cause us delegate the bulk of our lives to complete strangers. It’s the fear that, at our core, we aren’t good enough, strong enough, brave enough, or smart enough for this world and all of its problems.

Which is why, boiled down to its essence, politicking is the art of delegating personal Responsibility away to the highest bidder. It has “evolved” in such a way that citizens can now enjoy the false security of safe spaces, social security checks, gun-free zones, regulations for pointy things and the incessant push for laws against things that go boom.

“The people,” Cooper points out, “hire the politicians so that the people can:

• “obtain security without managing it.
• “obtain action without thinking about it.
• “inflict theft, injury, and death upon others without having to contemplate either life or death.
• “avoid responsibility for their own intentions.
• “obtain the benefits of reality and science without exerting themselves in the discipline of facing or learning either of these things.

“They want authority (root word — ‘author’), but they will not accept responsibility or liability. So they hire politicians to face reality for them.”

Alas, we have been fooled. We fell for the Biggest Con of them all. We were told that we cannot trust our individual powers to solve life’s complex problems, and we believed it. We were taught to give our power away at the first sight of risk — real or perceived. And we acquiesced.

“We’re taught at an early age,” James Altucher writes in Choosing Yourself, “that we’re not good enough. That someone else has to choose us in order for us to be… what? Blessed? Rich? Certified? Legitimized? Educated? Partnership material?”

Truth is, voting for some stranger on a hill every four years isn’t going to fix anyone’s life. The solution is actually much simpler: Vote for yourself. Every damn day.

Voting for yourself means taking direct responsibility for your life and your actions. Whatever’s happening (or has happened) might not be your fault, but it’s your responsibility to own it and direct it toward the flow of life. Nobody owes you anything. It is your duty, if you want to live an abundant life, to create the prosperity you wish to see around you.

As Professor Per Bylund put it in his Economics in One Tweet:

Voting for yourself means seeking out alternatives to the machine rather than blindly accepting what is dolefully provided. It means building your own life “off-the-grid” of the conventional Nanny State.

“What you need to do,” Altucher says, “is build the house you will live in. You build that house by laying a solid foundation: by building physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.”

Choose yourself. Vote for yourself. Live as if there’s no institution of violence to catch you if you fall. Because, truth is, when it comes down to it, there isn’t.

With that said, check out what blogger and educator T.K. Coleman has to say about who he’ll be voting for this year, and for the rest of his life.

Read on…

Who I’m Voting For

T.K. Coleman

It never fails. Every four years, I hear tons of people telling the masses to get out there and Vote.

“If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” we say. “This is your big chance to make a difference,” we say. “Let’s band together and stop {insert the name of your Favorite Political Villain here} from taking over the country,” we say.

I get it.

If you’re one of those people, there’s no need to defend yourself. I understand the passion, the concern, and the fears that accompany presidential elections. I’m not here to mock you. I’m not here to make you feel guilty. I’m simply here to invite and challenge my fellow human beings to entertain a broader conception of power.

Here are the questions I’d like to add to the discussion:

What if we encouraged people in daily life to make sure they show up and vote for their own potential with the same sense of urgency we exercise towards begging them to vote on election day?

What if we constantly pleaded with people to embrace their own power, their own beauty, and their own creativity as if the fate of our world depended on it?

What if we challenged people to stop being so apathetic, passive, and neutral on things like living a purposeful and passionate life? What if we reacted to people’s lack of self-love, self-respect, and self-knowledge as if it were just as horrific as {insert the name of your favorite political villain here}?

What if we responded to the hateful and unhealthy things people said about themselves with the same disgust we have towards some of the words uttered during the presidential debates?

Day after day, I hear people say things like “I don’t want to preach to people” or “I don’t like forcing my views on others” or “I don’t want to be that one annoying person who’s always trying to tell people how they can improve their lives.”

Fair enough. I get it.

When election season rolls around, however, our qualms about being preachy or annoying seem to miraculously disappear. The world is suddenly filled with prophets who warn us that our failure to vote will send the country to hell. The world is suddenly filled with preachers who proclaim the goodness of candidate X and the badness of candidate Y.

I love the passion. I love the fervor. When it comes to politics, we are not ashamed of the gospels we profess to believe.

If we can somehow find a way to apply that same passion and fervor to things outside of politics, we can make ourselves great again.

There are lots of people who don’t show up to the voting booths. This troubles us deeply. There are far more people, however, who don’t show up for the everyday opportunity to live up to their potential.

There are far more people who don’t show up for their families or their faith on an average non-super Tuesday. I hope we can become the kind of nation, the kind of world who will be equally troubled by our tragic contentment with mediocrity.

I hope we can become the kind of world who will be equally troubled by the self-defeating philosophies that have duped many of our brothers and sisters into thinking they are worthless and powerless.

We respect the power of politicians very deeply. If we’re not praising them for their capacity to do good, we’re losing sleep over their capacity to ruin us all. The power of the individual? We respect it. Kinda. Sorta.

We definitely respect the power of the individual when it’s measured in terms of who we vote for.

Anything beyond that? Sure. Individuals have some power. In theory. Kinda. Sorta. BUT…”Let’s get back to all this personal development stuff later on. Let’s get back to all this lofty talk of self-actualization down the road. Let’s discuss this whole bit about non-political theories of social change in the near future.

We gotta stump Trump. We gotta halt Hilary. We gotta do something about those liberals. We gotta do something about those conservatives. This is important stuff you’re talking about, but let’s revisit all this after the election, okay?”

Very well.

Let us please revisit this topic after election day. Some of you are going to be very happy on election day. Some of you are going to be utterly heartbroken.

Either way, let’s be sure to revisit this topic when the dust settles.

Regardless of who wins, I hope you don’t stop encouraging people to make a difference after that.

I hope you don’t make the mistake of believing that your political vote was your one big chance to make a difference in the world.

[Ed. note: This article originally appeared on FEE.org here.]

Regards,

T.K. Coleman
Contributor, Fee.org

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