We are all born into a world that operates on very old software. Software that was designed centuries ago and operates on principles and parameters that would be laughable if not for the human suffering and impediment to the advancement of the species it ensures.
Citizenship
Some people never really become aware of this, but one of the most important measurements of who you are as a person and whether or not you can be trusted, or have any value to a community, is determined by where your mother went into labor with you.
We used the term “where you were born” almost as if the individual in question had some say in the location. But none of us does. Where we are born is a matter of the latitude and longitude of our mother on a particular day in her life, and nothing more.
Let’s take two examples:
Norman Smith was born in San Diego, California. He works in Oregon as a truck driver. Sometimes. Most of the time he exploits various government welfare programs and insurance fraud schemes so he has enough money to drink and stay high. Norm is also an overt White Supremacist. He hates Black people, Jews, Muslims, and Hispanics. Norm is full of hate. He writes on social media about a coming Race War. He says he’s willing to fight. He’ll be a trigger puller. He’ll work the valves on a gas chamber. He can’t wait to start killing minorities when the big day comes.
Khalila Yasin was born in Kabul, Afghanistan. She’s a widow whose husband was killed when he drove his taxi past a hospital that was hit by a missile from a drone strike. He was ‘acceptable collateral damage’ and nothing more than a bystander. Khalila has two young children and works at home raising her family by running a small sewing business. She’s fairly religious but she sees every person’s beliefs as their own private business, and she deeply believes all people are equal and deserve respect and dignity. She’s known in her neighborhood as the person who can calm any baby and comfort any child. Her home is always open to anyone in trouble or in need of help. She speaks five languages. Khalila is known to hundreds of people in her community as a warm, decent, trustworthy person who loves people and does good wherever she is able.
Again, dozens or even hundreds of people can corroborate the facts relating to both Norman and Khalila. They have each left a lifetime of evidence regarding how they live, what they say they believe, and the nature of their character.
Yet, because our global social system operates on obsolete software, the sole measure of whether these two people can freely travel the world and remain in other countries for months or even years — is where their mothers went into labor. Nothing matters more.
Norm the Neo-Nazi, with his United States passport, is welcome all over the world. He can stay in Canada, Mexico, or the UK for six months at a time. He can tour Europe for six months out of twelve. He has travel and foreign residency rights that are about as good any anyone in the world. Yet he’s a Neo-Nazi, itching for a Race War, who has never supported himself financially for more than a few months at a time.
Khalila isn’t welcome in any Western country. She can’t visit a single country in the developed world without going through a long, expensive visa application process, and even then she’ll very likely be denied. She can only visit a relative handful of poor, developing countries, many of which are currently at war, and even then she can only stay for a few weeks. Yet she’s a wonderful person who works hard to independently support her family and contribute to the goodness of humankind.
So,
Shiftless, hate-filled Neo-Nazi: welcome almost everywhere.
Productive, respected Afghan: unwelcome almost everywhere.
All of us, including Khalila, live in a technological world bristling with the ability to profile every individual with broad and deep data concerning their lifetime activities, beliefs, attitudes, and character. In any country, in any community, there are people who range from being peaceful, productive credits to humanity, to people who are a demonstrated liability and overt menace to society.
Yet we cling to an antiquated, ossified system of determining the value and desirability of people based upon where their mother went into labor many years ago, and therefore what their official citizenship is.
The reason we do this is because we also operate on an obsolete idea built upon medieval Feudalism wherein the self-proclaimed nobility made reciprocal arrangements between themselves that protected their financial and political interests and automatically bound the peasantry to their unilateral rules. This basic, low technology principle continues as the foundation of national sovereignty.
National Sovereignty
Frequent travelers and expats are keenly aware of the fact they are not only judged by where they were born, but that the documents, experience, abilities, and credentials they hold are often deemed meaningless as soon as they cross imaginary lines on a map.
For example, with my current foreign drivers license I am eligible to drive in my temporary home of Ireland for 365 days. If I want to continue a single day beyond that I need to take driving lessons as if I am 16 years old, rather than a person with 40 years and over a million miles of driving experience. And, presumably, have an entire year of experience driving in Ireland.
The empirical facts of the matter, in terms of demonstrated ability and common sense, have no gravity. All that matters is the Feudal agreement between two sovereign nations concerning all who were born in a certain place.
Again, at this time in our technological history, this one-rule-applied-to-everyone is a ridiculous throwback to an obsolete system. And imaginary lines on a map is another absurdity when it comes to evaluating the credentials of individuals.
By way of analogy, take the case of the United States and the fact it is made up of 3,144 counties and county equivalents in the form of parishes and boroughs. Each of these 3,144 counties has its own government.
Imagine for a moment that each county jealously guarded its own fiefdom the way nations do.
Here’s what might happen to a family from Buffalo, New York wanting to relocate to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The wife of the family can only visit Fort Lauderdale for 30 days because she was born in Erie County, New York. Broward County, Florida wants to keep those people from staying too long.
To remain over 30 days she’ll need an immigration attorney to file an application and that takes 18 months to process. And, in any event, she will need a living blood relative who is a current resident of Broward County or a parent or grandparent who was.
The husband was born 50 years ago in Los Angeles County and must apply for a visa to enter Broward for even one day. Broward hates people coming from California and “stealing” Broward jobs and “destroying the Broward way of life.” They don’t like lazy Californians coming into their county and going on welfare. Everyone knows people from California are lazy and can’t be trusted to work hard for very long.
Moreover, foreigners from Buffalo must pay quadruple for their kids to attend school in Fort Lauderdale, even after they begin living there and paying local taxes. After three years of probation, they might be considered legal local residents.
The husband is an experienced x-ray technician, however his education and certification from Dallas County, Texas is not recognized in Broward so he has to find work on the custodial staff of the hospital until he can be retrained to Broward standards. Even though his employer would happily accept his Dallas credentials.
Also, the husband and wife can only drive in Broward using their Erie County drivers licenses for 30 days, then they must take drivers education classes and be insured as new, inexperienced drivers.
Does all that sound absurd?
Because it’s no less absurd for Broward County to claim dominion over all of its inhabitants and all people from outside Broward than it is for the United States to claim the same thing.
And in China today, this is almost exactly what the rules are. A family from the city of Guangzhou, China does not have the equal right to move to the city of Beijing, China. If they have a ton of money they might be able to afford it, but there are legal and financial impediments at every turn.
Why should the residents of Beijing or Fort Lauderdale allow outsiders from 20 miles away? To paraphrase the genius social philosopher and champion of human freedom, Donald J. Trump, “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. Somebody's doing the raping. I mean somebody's doing it! Who's doing the raping?” It must be the scum from Guangzhou and Erie County!
You Are Not Chattel
The government of the United States has no more moral right than the government of Broward County or Beijing to decree the nature of every resident’s character, credentials, and social desirability, let alone that of the remaining seven billion people on this earth.
This ridiculous, outdated system of sovereignty is a cause of needless hardship, lost opportunity, malinvestment, and conflict all over the world. In a hundred places like Northern Ireland, Basque Spain, Flemish Belgium, Muslim Thailand, Kurdish Iraq, and many more, people are keenly aware that an individual’s preferences as to where he lives and what work he does can and should be recognized and respected.
We can know the detailed specifics of individuals; there is no moral reason to operate on averages and generalities.
Why should any peaceful, reasonable person care what self-serving rules the feudal lords of Broward County want to impose on all the people of the world? Blanket sovereignty over the masses is a low technology, illegitimate, and coercive way to control good people who could easily reach voluntary agreement among all the parties concerned in their transactions.
It’s time for humanity to upgrade its operating software. It’s time to migrate to a system based on voluntary interaction between known individuals who agree on the terms and conditions concerning their life and property. It’s time to supplant the old feudal system of arbitrary and generalized control over billions of individuals by force and fiat.
Every individual owns her life completely. Nobody else owns her. Let’s start acting like it.
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Pete Sisco is a digital nomad, author, lifetime entrepreneur and an expat with a passion for individual freedom. He and his wife have lived in a dozen countries. For Pete’s advice on building durable online income as a path to independence and freedom, visit his site: http://www.resilientpersonalfreedom.me/about-us/
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Hey Pete, great to see you here!
I'm a bit late. I waited a long time to be added from the waiting list.
Welcome to bitnation !
https://bitnation.co/main/
Yes, Bitnation looks brilliant. I really should establish an ID over there.
A good read with some excellent points made...thanks for posting.
I guess I'll try and point out what I thought and felt while reading it.
Using extreme examples on opposite ends of the spectrum didn't settle well with me, especially when trying to tie it to Trump and by extension the people who support him.
It tends to suggest that the argument in favor of what is proposed with respect to doing away with citizenship type laws boils down to America as a white supremacist nation against the people of other nations who are no less than "Mother Theresa" types and to me that turned me off to the whole argument. While there is an argument to be made for much less government control or involvement in other peoples lives, using extremist arguments in favor of less extremism doesn't do it for me. imo
I'm sure the author wouldn't appreciate having the story below be the standard thought process about people who come here from certain other lands....no?
http://dennismichaellynch.com/baltimorestorepratorsbusted-for-16-million-in-food-stamp-fraud/
I don't even think those programs should exist. I don't think the State should exist. I don't endorse coercion as a way to achieve any goal.
I agree those programs shouldn't exist because it depends on taking by way of coercion and extortion (Income Taxes under threat of incarceration, etc. ) from some to give to others.
As for the "State", I happen to disagree. I tend to believe people should have the right to exercise the option to form a "State" for their mutual benefit and protection with some reservations (i.e. the right of expatriation) which is an option a good number of people have the option to exercise in the current state of affairs with "States".
Unfortunately, depending on the good will of people to act in their own 'rational' self interest when left unchecked is a recipe for trouble. What is 'rational' self interest for some may not be considered 'rational' self interest for others and when it comes time to determine who is 'right' when there is a disagreement and the issue is to be resolved, who will be ultimate arbitrator of who is correct in situations where life and death is on the line...the person with the most assets at their disposal to pay for the 'justice' being sought? It's taken quite a long time for "civilization" to get to where we are today and to be sure it's been a rough and rocky road getting here but leaving it up to the whim of people individually to make up the rules as they choose doesn't sound too promising. If you are a straight up anarcho-capitalist, I'd be interested in posing some scenarios about how you'd propose they be addressed if interested?
I suppose I could have used less obvious examples. But those (fictitious) cases I used are nevertheless valid. Any parasite who hates other people as a serious hobby can travel with limited restriction as long as his mother was Canadian, British, American, German, etc. And any productive, respected person from 50 other countries can not.
Trump is just a visible example of a Statist who perpetuates the old model of "others" being a threat, in a technical age when we are easily capable of dealing in specifics rather than vague generalities about where people's mothers come from.
Birthplace as a metric of character is absurd.
Happy to see you 'now' describe your writing of the racist American male and angelic sounding Female foreigner as fictitious. When you wrote "Again, dozens or even hundreds of people can corroborate the facts relating to both Norman and Khalila." I thought you were telling the truth about actual people. Thanks for the clarification.
While I don't disagree there is much wrong with the world and how it operates, it seems to me that spinning someones ideas about how to deal with what is truly crisis problems with immigration, etc. doesn't come across as too convincing. Given the world as it is, do you think anyone would get very far politically with your line of thinking to address the problems that are happening NOW?
I can only painfully imagine the state of affairs if all government were to shut down and people were "free" to do whatever they please. Do you really think there would be anything close to the property rights, individual rights, etc. that we have today? Do you not think there would be a mad rush for tyrants to build up large armies to rape and pillage whenever and wherever? I'll grant you that some of that already happens now with many governments, but I'm fairly confident it would be significantly worse without the rule of law in its current state. The model you speak of isn't some new age philosophy but rather knowledge gained and acted upon as a result of hard learned lessons over time that has demonstrated how bad things can get when left unchecked aka history. As for your obvious bias against what Trump is saying and your lack of criticism of Clinton, I'm guessing your thoughts are more aligned with the Clinton mindset (if you HAD to choose)....no?
As for the assertion of birthplace being a metric of ones 'character', I had no idea that is how any country or STATE ascribes 'character' and doubt it is the case in actuality or reality if what you mean by 'character' is "the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual".
Good article. A friend linked to it on Facebook, so I'm sharing it on Facebook too. I look forward to seeing what else you have to say in future posts.
Thanks for the share.
Thanks @hilarski for pointing me in your direction. One of the issue with most people living in Western countries is that they do not understand the restrictions placed on people on other countries. Sure there are crazy discriminatory and protectionist rules but the fact is in the USA, Canada or Australia any citizen can get in their car and drive from one side of the country to the other and north to south without passing a border check and they can pretty much decide to make a home in any town or location. Although our freedoms are limited in other ways freedom of movement and residence are assured. In many countries this is not the case.
People are so much more mobile than they used to be. Also, people marry outside of their own culture in massive numbers. There are millions of couples with different passports and it's ridiculously frustrating just trying to find places where they can both live in peace.
A great article! Being an anarcho-capitalist expat myself, it is rather frustrating and ridiculous at how many rules one has to satisfy to exist because of arbitrary and ever changing agreements between coercive states. Not to mention the absurd taxation situation one finds oneself in worldwide because of where your mother went into labor by perhaps the most coercive state in world history.
There are two ways things can go in the coming financial crisis. Life could become exceedingly more restrictive, or exceedingly more free. And I, quite frankly, can't decide which way I think it will go. I would prefer the latter, of course; but, from observation of human nature during my lifetime, I expect the former. Believe me, I pray that I have completely misjudged human nature.
As a mutual acquaintance says, "I'd love to see a world with 7+ billion independent nations." That would be the dream. I doubt I'll see it in my lifetime. However, as your article suggests, we ought to be working toward it. Modern technology certainly has the potential to make it possible. Will people make that choice? That is the real question.
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