The Tradeoff of the Decade

Your Ancestors Made A Choice, Now You Have To Do The Same:The Trade-off of the Decade

One of our Canadian writers felt the need to write this after we had this discussion. Enjoy!

I left Canada when Trudeau felt the need to coerce citizens into taking experimental drugs (ones that he directly profited I should say) before being allowed any freedom of movement of anyone holding a Canadian passport. That was my line in the sand or my threshold (click here to find out why YOU need a threshold of your own).

So where did I go? To be honest, at that time, most of the countries had a bogus “test” in place where they extorted something like 50USD out of you in order to enter their country, so I was reluctant to be in a behavioural experiment too. I initially chose Romania for a variety of reasons but the airlines were in such disarray my flight was immediately cancelled upon purchasing it. The airlines simply couldn’t keep track of updating their servers of cancelled routes since the whole industry is reliant on others showing up on time, etc. so they were still selling tickets that were unavailable. I was able to get a refund (Merci, Air France), but time was ticking–I had to go somewhere, soon. Mexico during the whole last few years hadn’t locked down so I thought–no restrictions, warm weather, already “Americanized”, I may get some English there, not too too far away from Canada–I have to jump somewhere! Now!

I spent 4 months there and it all worked out for the best. But, why did I make this decision? I went to a country where 32,000 people are killed a year, not knowing the language, alone, with no income, with no long-term idea of how long I was to be away, not knowing anyone in Mexico (even expat travellers)–I hadn’t even used AirBNB before this!

I’ve thought for a long time why I did do this and I think the answer is clear–because for me:

It’s better to be free in a chaotic or novel situation than it is to be a slave in a familiar, cozy situation.

Without having the autonomy to make your own decisions, speak freely, move freely and especially decide what goes into your body on your own volition you aren’t left with any purposeful control over your life. You’re a effectively a puppet without strings. It doesn’t matter how much your salary is, how big your home is, how many friends you have, how nice your car, how how likes you receive on social media– if you are not in charge of the show, what’s it worth?

All this sounds pretty reasonable and I’m sure you may agree with the previous statements, but if the last few years have demonstrated anything, it was that this line of thinking is held amongst the small minority of the population (some countries more than others). Most do not make adjustments to maintain their independence when it’s unpopular. Few people take a stand for their beliefs, their philosophy, their opinions and the end result is they conform to the lie, even if they know otherwise.

It became a sort of meme that in 2019 it was puzzling how the German Workers Party (Nazis) could have conjured up the compliance amongst the population in the 30s & 40s, and yet in 2020 everyone willing wore a cloth over their mouth, caged themselves and rescheduled their total mode of movement. A healthy percentage even took it upon their own to police the government policies with respect to social distancing or being outside. I’ve witnessed photos of people getting married and kissing each other while wearing a mask. Folks in mental institutions wouldn’t even do such a thing.

I strongly recommend the movie called the Experimenter which is a semi-documentary about the research findings of psychologist Stanley Milgram. He has a number of famous studies all surrounding compliance, conformity, obedience and authority; in fact these studies drastically changed my world view. A similar researcher shows an interesting study whereby a classroom of students are asked to identify the longest (or shortest) line amongst the bunch. The subject is unknowingly surrounded by actors who are all trained to deliberately provide the wrong answer. After some trials, the subject changes his answer to comply with the room’s answer even though he as an individual (he with his own eyes) disagrees. I will link it at the end of the page–definitely worth a watch!

Back to the article

The good thing is all this commotion is over for now and we can walk away with some lessons about human behaviour and ourselves. I’ve further reflected about some friends who have made the decision to leave their countries to beat lockdowns, and others who jailed themselves willingly. Some even entered into a divorce as they came to realize the true type of person for whom they were married. This is fundamentally a polarized type of response, but it was not a foreign one in history. Ask German, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Russian grandparents–there have always been moments like this. Be it famine, disease, tyrannical kings, no economic opportunity, war–our ancestors before us and their ancestors before them all were left with a decision

Do we stay or do we go?

Before I say these options, I should state the assumptions. I’ll assume that you belong to a country that is considered developed, that you are wealthier than the average global citizen & have the means to set up abroad. Furthermore, I’ll assume your current country will continue to descend in terms of quality of life. Lastly, I’ll assume that you will be aware of this decline.

Want help? Two things. Read this article by clicking here AND contact us asking for ‘Open Door’ for consulting help! Your family will thank you

Going:

You elect to find freedom. Your tax bill savings will literally save you millions across a couple decade or less. You provide you and your family the opportunity to greatly expand potential with respect to finances, business opportunity, security, fame, recognition, connections/resources. You will become adaptable to world events. It will extremely exciting, stimulative and eye-opening to human nature & culture.

///but this comes tremendous personal responsibility and danger. I heard someone joke about this saying “Yea! But the bad guys are free too remember!” You are responsible for your retirement savings, your health(care), your dietary habits, perhaps growing your own food, your own investments or business ideas becoming successful and your ability to afford real estate as most places out of the “West” are cash-markets with minimal credit. You will also be exposed to some uncomfortable novelty initially. Most of the world is backward in their beliefs & traditions, their food may seem strange, their language may be new and they may or may not be welcoming of you and your family.

Staying:

Perceived security with a simple, predictable life. You carry on with a job, full-time pay of a currency. You have your usual tasks, enjoyments, traditions and friend/family group as always. Expectations are high, novelty is low and you become dependent (or at least trusting) that others will carry out work for you as you & your family require. Your work for others. Little risk is involved and generally, things are easier.

///but you sacrifice autonomy and are relying on others [for finance, security, healthcare, information, shelter, etc]. You will psychologically stagnate and begin to view the world as a ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. Radical upside in anything is virtually non-existent, namely financially. You willingly trusting in the government to support you and your family, indefinitely. To receive this help, you will have to comply to the demands of others which involves all of your movements, transactions, earnings, messages, medical records, thoughts and desires tracked accordingly. Stalin said, “One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic” in some sense you are electing to be just a statistic, another SSN/SIN code in the system, slowly losing relevance amongst your peers–and you know it.

Opinion

I could write for hours about this, but I do believe it is superior to choose the Freedom option. It will give your life purpose, you will respect yourself a great deal and force yourself to grow in many areas of your life. You will represent the fore-sightedness that your ancestors had in order to venture into a high risk situation– but for high rewards. You can greatly reduce the risks associated with going to a new country; but you cannot reduce the risks that comes with having no purpose or soul in life as a result of continual obedience.

Our ancestors were in the same situation to make a choice; the stakes may have been higher back then, but the problems were the same.

Are we becoming soft?

Our ancestors had to get on a boat (that very may well sink in extremely cold shark-infested waters), populated with criminals, drunks, lice, rats, crying children, not knowing if they’ll live another day. They were essentially equipped with the clothes on their back, a bag & a few gold coins if they’re lucky to remain a week at sea before landing to a strange land. Perhaps they weren’t knowing of the language and became adopted into becoming a working slave (indentured servant) in exchange for shelter or bread, regardless of their age. Immediately upon landing, they had no private property and no government hand out, welfare, support program or anything of that sort (no cell phones & free hotel stays like now!). They did all this while likely juggling between 3-8 children & the threat of being deported.

You: Right now you have to use the affordable internet to book tickets to travel by air that takes about 2-7 hours and you can bring as many clothes in your multiple bags. You can watch a movie and wear slippers on the plane. When you arrive, international payment problems are solved by Visa & Mastercard. You can ship yourself things to decorate your new room and while you wait you can take online language lessons. You have Amazon or Mercado Libre with same-day delivery and can apply for employment via numerous websites. You can instantaneously write or video call the people in the country you just left from hours ago & google search the safest areas in the new location. You hadn’t had a threat of disease and perhaps when you arrive, you receive free money, shelter, cell phone, clothes, bank accounts and education from the government.

Your bloodline did THAT.

Although, it’s very difficult to make the decision to stay in a country or leave it, there’s a lot to consider. At the end of the day, I believe if you use your philosophical beliefs as guidance and really look yourself in the mirror to question who you want to become in life– you will find out which of these options are more important for you and your family.

For you movie fans (check out my comment on movies here & here), this quite literally is the Matrix scene where Neo is offered a choice between the red pill (Freedom/Danger) and the blue pill (Stability/Slavery). So, what do you do, Neo?

*Remember, On The Ball is launching a subsidiary called Open Door Consultancy to help you make your decision and internationalize–while its yet to be filed we are still open to assisting you here with us below*

Whatever you do, remember to #StayOnTheBall