THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS NOT ABOUT GUNS: IT'S ABOUT TECHNOLOGY

Consider this, the Second Amendment is not really about guns. Sure, it mentions the right to bear arms, but It is actually about access to Technology, not just guns. I will repeat this over and over because it is essential to see. Guns were a critical piece of Technology at the time 2a was written. This Technology helped balance out power between citizens and the government. Keep reading; I promise you'll see how vital this lens is to your safety and personal empowerment. 

I am suggesting that we all entertain the idea of adding the concept of technology control to the 2a conversation because the Technology and algorithms that feed and dictate your worldview are HUGE proponents of creating a reactionary, violent society with poor impulse control. Plus, Technology is making your worldview smaller than you think. Unlike guns, though, you don't have access to it; you are being manipulated by it; it's making people weird and isolated in their newsfeeds, and your gun has as much effect over it as throwing a plate of scrambled eggs at a cinder block.

There's a simple formula I follow for creating your own personal "Heaven" or "Hell" on Earth. 

HEAVEN = RESPONSIBILITY  HELL = BLAME

That's the simple formula, and the more we outsource responsibility and place blame, the more we are creating hell on Earth. So, although it may seem that I am blaming, that is not the case. I am simply saying that the essence of America has shifted to outsourcing responsibility to things like lawyers and painkillers. We love to find ways to keep living life on our terms without changing our habits. This simple phrase can often sum up today's America. 

"Hey bro, it's a free country... Don't hit me, I'll sue." 

Before I get to "highbrow" and broad, here is the basic outline of this post so you can see that I am not some silly dumb dumb who sits ignorantly on only one side of the fence on this issue. 2a is as essential to our way of life as wisdom, adaptation, and free speech. So, get wise and adaptable, and start talking to all sides. That's how we learn and grow. Here's the gist. 

The basic summary of this article is simple.

The true essence of 2a is not really about guns. Think deeper about the time when that amendment was written. It's about access to Technology to balance out power between citizens and governments to:

• Protect resources
• Be able to self-regulate
• Have safe communities
• Step up and be free of oppression

Imagine if an iPhone could turn into an Ironman suit. Yeah, that's how mind-blowing a gun was back when 2a was written. However, you know, and I know, times have changed almost as drastically as weapons technology.

So now I ask you to take a moment to honestly and openly contemplate:

• Where do your resources come from? I have been on farms for the past couple of years. However, I prefer the store. I'm a fancy boy. So my answer is: My food comes from farms that ship to stores or farmers markets. I buy my other "stuff" at the store or online, and it takes a lot of fuel to get them to me. Then I use fuel to get in my car and shop from the place that fuel delivered stuff to, unless a van uses fuel to deliver them to my house. [That's my answer, what's yours?]
• What weapons will your gun be defending against? My answer is: Probably hackers shutting down infrastructure, cutting off my bank accounts, and then there's, you know, bombs and planes, and drones, and stuff. So I pay a guy that does web security, and my guns are now for showing pieces of paper, clay, and metal targets who's boss! I have a great community; we look out for each other, and I don't owe gangs money. No one is trying to take my land because I don't own land [shame!], I don't produce anything other than Rad training videos [sign up for premium here], blogs, and folk songs, and now that I'm older, I feel I've missed the boat on being a part of any "Red Dawn" type of scenario. So...  🤷‍♂️
• How organized are you? Because I have never heard anyone discuss the "organized militia" part of 2a. I know a lot of gun owners, and the most significant expression of 2a, in my opinion, was the Black Panthers. My answer is that I would never want to be a part of an organized militia. I do have a martial arts school and would rather have a community garden than a militia. Plus, I have grown up with special forces operators; they are way better at strategy and militia-type activities than I will ever be. Seriously, have you ever done any training with legitimate operators? You would have better luck beating Steph Curry in a game of HORSE. However, I can cook better and teach them how to sleep better at night and communicate with their loved ones. So, my contribution is valuable, and I am ok with not being a tough guy. Because when the only thing louder than guns are the voices in your head when you lie in bed at night. I GOT YOU!
• What resources are you trying to protect? Family, home, land, liberty, etc., are you, like many people I know, in a cold home full of canned goods, protecting a whole lot of guns and ammo? If your most valuable assets are your guns, then you might be missing the point of guns. Go live on a farm for a bit. Your rifle is your best friend, and it actually has a purpose. The results can be pretty delicious, too. My answer is that I want to protect my money and my intellectual property. My land doesn't exist, and if you're trying to invade my space, you will be met with a whimpering basket case of fear: me. However, I will diarrhea either in the upper tank of the toilet or in a particular place I like to call "Everywhere" and flee. While you are grossed out cleaning it because I'm gone now and not around to tidy up. I will bravely pay homeless people to walk back in and steal your tactical backpacks because they love to steal backpacks, so they might have already; who knows? If you break into my house, don't leave anything in your vehicle, FYI. Then you will be miserable watching them throw meth parties and wave your EDC around every night right outside your window while loudly bragging about how expensive their new custom pocket knife is. Trust me, you won't come out ahead, and occupying my space will not be tactically advantageous unless you need a kombucha or green powder for your smoothies.
• What voice do you use to defend your guns? For example: Us vs Them? Fear? Anger? Nationalism? Are they an everyday tool?   My answer is that I don't defend them because it's a distraction and creates divides; there are more productive ways to mediate. Guns are rarely needed, and we should focus the argument on the actual pieces of Technology that are making citizens oppress each other.  I ain't no sucker MC! The best example I can use is self-defense. I have studied self-defense for over 40 years. The most valuable and most used techniques are posture, communication, diet, falling, mobility, emotional intelligence, and situational awareness. These skills are used most of your life; if you get good at them, physical violence is very unlikely. So, if you train Krav Maga or fear-based tactics all day, you might end up with bad knees and an ulcer before you ever need to take matters into your own hands. However, you should definitely know how to fight. The best pacifists are often quite dangerous.
• What type of media do you consume? Is it one sided? Are you aware that it automates a feed based on your reactions and engagement with that narrative? My answer is that I like music and comedy, I am not interested in world events or things that I can't control. Plus, I have never not been  informed, because so many people talk about politics and world events, you have to try harder to find good news and positive productive conversations. How many people  do you know that say that they don't know any new music or have no idea that Detroit has so many urban gardens? There's a lot of cool sh!t going on in the world, but you have to work find it. Fear is weak and needy, relying on spectacles and cheap tricks. Big repsect to anyone who seeks deeper and knows how to express and communicate. 

Gun Control is on YOU

Tech Control is on "THEM" 

I'm going to keep suggesting that you "Think." Sorry about that. 

Gun control is something that will be imposed on citizens. With technology  control, well, that would mean that large companies, social media, and the government would have to change, and limits would be placed on their methods of spying, collecting data, and being "creepy." COVID proved that imposed change can happen fast to the entire world. Citizens give up power fast to return to life as they know it and return to normalcy. Once power is given away to a higher authority, it's never returned, though. I ask gun owners. How much power are we giving to Technology thus rendering guns useless to defending a free state? 

Plus, in self-defense, the rule on boundaries is that if I can find one of your small boundaries to cross, I can get through the next three. Predators and sales swear by this unspoken rule. 

A simple concept is: How do you give the fight back to the attacker?

When someone attacks you, it's not just about fighting back; it's about targeting the places that put the fight back into the attacker. Fighting often becomes a win-lose cycle that never ends. It takes wisdom not to play into that low-level tactic. So when they try and control a valuable piece of Technology, in this case guns. Are you too busy protecting it, or can you find other places that need to be addressed? Like if someone grabs your wrist, kick their balls  or if a dog tries to bite your hand, shove it down their throat. Give it to them and let them choke.

The hard sell is

Technology control" would be placed and enforced on larger organizations, corporations, and the government because you or I don't really have access to the Tech that Social media companies are free to use. Remember that social media is free, but worth a lot of money because they sell your info to other companies that can now control the information that is fed to you. News "feed." What would you even do with that if you had access to it?

You do have access to the algorithm technology in small ways if you're a marketer and want to buy a service, but not really. It's not at all like guns. You have access to the 2a that was written before tanks, fighter jets, IFF tech, the 5 Eyes Alliance, and missiles. You only have access to algorithm technology after the spying and data collection take place for a price. Sign up for Salesforce or create a "look-a-like" audience on Facebook. That's your level of access.

Gun control is an easy way to gaslight citizens.

Technology and tools are there to compound the results of our decisions. Thus, Technology doesn't kill people, and neither do guns, cigarettes, or fast food. It's all a matter of choices and decisions. Your news feed is just like a trigger; it reacts to your choices when you simply point and click. 

So, both are tools that require conscious decision-making skills, but there's a major difference between guns and Tech.

Tech is automated and learning while we sleep. Tech also puts the human nervous system on high alert and in reactionary states because emotional people buy more stuff. It's on purpose, I promise you. Furthermore, a gun is more dangerous in a house with a lot of Technology, just by default of how Technology is designed to affect your nervous system. It is no accident that the blue light on your phone puts you in fight or flight. 

There needs to be a way to regulate and define:

• What is responsible usage?
• Who is it available to?
• How will it be used lawfully?
• Is it good for society?

The problem is that self-regulation is not always the way of the individual. Many of us are addicted to our Technology or unaware of how the algorithm works. People with addiction usually don't seek recovery until they hit bottom. Tech addiction is much like food addiction. We actually need it now to live, but we also can become addicted to it. I benefit when I take time to define boundaries and ways to be disciplined with Tech. 

• How often will you watch the news?
• When do you put your phone down? 
• Did you know that you can use the algorithm as a metric for determining what you are focusing on, not how life is? That's some next-level stuff right there!)

You're seeing it now, aren't you? Let's say it again.

When 2a was written, gunpowder, guns, and projectile weapons were the height of Technology. Repetition and contemplation are essential, like shooting a target. Ahah!

Of course, there were the cotton gin and steam engines as well. However, Guns were also a piece of Technology that could allow for a balance of power between landowners and civilians to protect against oppressive powers that may one day try to exert control over them, take their resources and freedom, or impose their will. I think we can all agree on that. So why are we looking at just guns and not adding Technology to the equation? Seriously, why?

I am a responsible gun owner and a lover of personal responsibility and self-reliance.  I've studied martial arts and many forms of combative and tactical training for over 40 years. I care deeply about citizens having the tools and skills to be in thriving communities, free of oppression, and able to create their resources if that's their thing. I'm also ok with people sitting around like baby birds with their mouths wide open, listening to autotuned pop music and waiting for some authority figure to regurgitate something down their throats so that they can stay in their nest safe and frail. Freedom is a very vast term.

At a certain age, these are choices. Great warriors are often the most effective pacifists, so train both sides. You are helpless, easily manipulated, and trapped if you aren't in choice. Only having one default way to solve problems might put you in more danger of your own problem-solving ability, and I promise you that you will make your loved ones more on edge around you than feel safe and at ease. Yin and Yang are everywhere, no matter how you try and deny it. 

I have grown up around people who let violence and volatility lead their conversation style. It's not a sign of power. Power is the ability to make change. Sickness is when you react out of balance to the thing you're trying to change, like needing to open a window, so you blow out the wall with some dynamite. That imbalance is a liability for you and your loved ones.  Keep telling your children that if anyone tries to harm them, you'll shoot them. Your children will often stop telling you things because they want to protect you from going to jail. You become lower status from Alpha, protector, and provider to the reactionary hair-trigger emotional wild card. They're spending their energy trying to protect you from you. I promise. I have seen three-year-olds trying to protect Daddy from himself more times than I ever thought I would. 

Now that I'm a decent shot who knows the basics of growing food and has lived off the grid for a while, I love having access to the outlet mall and food truck scene. I get why we would choose most ways of life, minus vaping, going to brunch, doing drugs, EDM festivals, Jam bands, or video games. Most things I can empathize with. I also empathize very deeply with the idea of 2a being threatened. The culprit behind the uncertainty and misinformation, though, is Technology. Whether planned or not, the tech industry, marketing, and AI have become a slow evolution of automated psychological warfare.

The best remedy is knowing that manipulation happens because you only get hit by what you don't see. When a child is trying to manipulate you, you know. When a dude at a bar is showing interest in a woman and saying, "Wow," when she tells the story of choosing her new hair color, she knows, and when a salesperson is a little too enthusiastic about the fact you just bought an above-ground pool, you know. It's evident in person, but Technology is automated and works constantly in the background, learning every second. It's like some weird creep who's interested in every move you make. Ick.  

So, take a pause and imagine.

You might not be a landowner, but you are a gun owner and use Technology. Like many people in America who live in a three-bedroom,  two-bath home in a suburb, you use Technology via Alexa, YouTube, social media, and your phone, as your kids are on tablets scrolling and teaching Tech with every word and gesture. Imagine if someone were up in your business on the level of our Technology. They could listen, watch, and record information about you and your family— your children, your partner, travel and spending habits, etc. What is the more powerful tool in the equation? For most of us, Shooting our phones or closing our social accounts is out of the question.  

Long ago,  I would have asked you to compare your axe, knife, or boxing ability against a gun. Now, guns aren't "needed" to feed you; they still can, though. Money and fuel do most of the heavy lifting; a high-tech distribution system gets goods and services to stores or your front door. Technology also carefully curates a newsfeed to each individual device, with everyone holding a phone or with a computer, TV, or internet, to paint your worldview and put you in a state of making emotional reactions because emotional people buy more stuff. If you're like me, my newsfeed is just a bunch of videos of unlikely animal friendships and new bands. The newsfeed can also make you very stressed out, make you and your children fearful and depressed, and even destabilize your mental health. Keep in mind that your children are a barometer of what is going on in the home, so even though you may have children who don't use tablets or stay offline. If you are becoming reactionary, single-minded, or stressed, they most likely are being influenced by your energy. 

Are you subconsciously joining the mass of confused people who don't know what is true or false or who to trust? You may start thinking that a gun might be able to change that. Is your default communication style tactical or tantrum-based? Do you consider guns as a social or status symbol? Tools to get attention or resources?  That external validation can backfire. Using guns in such a way more often ends up just going in someone you love's mouth or, worse, public.

Without this awareness and without acknowledging the relationships of Technology in our lives, 2a is more of a liability. Again, an organized group with access to Technology is way safer than a loner with a gun who is unaware of the Technology that is learning and feeding them things that keep them reactionary and buying. Even gun companies want you to make emotional impulse buys. The waiting list was an excellent start to remedying that. The fear made you invest in the AR; the emotional reaction is why you have 10000 rounds pre-loaded in clips you got on sale.  

Be mindful of subconscious drives for status, attention, or resources because these drives are significant threats to 2a. They negate and vilify the reasons in 2a for bearing arms, and for good reason. 

Status—Are you aware of when or if you feel bullied or disrespected by a group, neighbor, or someone close to you? Then, you may turn towards the gun to reestablish status and respect. Respect is a major reason that many people are in prison for violent crimes. There are also dangers to high status. Sometimes, we get put in too high of a status, imposter syndrome shows up, or we use tyranny or brutality to remain in power. North Korea much? 

Attention - Be mindful of when you feel invisible,  unheard, or put under a spotlight. If you happen to start writing some manifesto, please call a friend. The algorithm is probably feeding you too many things you can't control, so now you feel invisible or righteous and need to be heard. You've tried to use your words, and no one paid attention. We all could tell better stories and learn to communicate better, for real. Try easing people into your manifestos and rants. When some angry, stressed-out person starts rambling on passionately about things outside their control, people either tune them out, join in because they finally feel validated, or argue as if that will help. All I hear is a person slowly going crazy.

Your algorithm is within your control, so click on things that are part of the world you can influence. I promise you that all the problems that keep you entertained will be there in a month. Circle back later. The Middle East and politics will still be there, and old and young people will still be at odds.

You may have gotten too much attention and feel like you're under a spotlight. Being publicly on trial is not a good feeling. Failure and harmful behavior are often a final attempt at control. You can always control how you fail, lose, or turn people against you. If you feel like you're on trial, find a place where you can be transparent under your terms. Train that. 

Resources - We all need resources. 2a was initially there to protect our freedom and resources. Then, it slowly gave people with less cardio a little extra oomph against those who may be bigger or just scrappier. Do you need money? I say money because it's usually the tool we use to get resources. If you are a farmer, then you probably need money, too. Fixing tractors and shipping ain't cheap. Personally, I have had times in my life where every step I took was an internal battle to choose between my integrity and my resources—living life with a cartoon angel and devil on each shoulder, bickering between what I need now and how I will feel about it in the future. My animal and my divine human were not aligned.

Metaphorically, weapons are a choice and a final decision. So, when we use weapons, we are making decisions. The bigger the weapon, the more significant the impact of that decision. So again, how do you plan to get your resources? Do you have the skills and community to continue getting your resources? Sometimes, you have way too many resources, and you need guns to protect them from the people around you who do not have them because why would you share? You worked hard to get what you have. Did you gain at the expense of others? Are you about to live out the ending of Scarface? You can always tell when someone takes at the expense of others. They need a lot more security than someone who is a true alpha and builds allies.  Someone who can unite people has enough to share, get more, create more, and empower others.  

Technology is shaking the jar full of ants. You are the ant, and the ants have guns. Since you need to see what you're shooting, the person manipulating you is very out of sight and uses Technology to keep shaking that jar full of you and your ant friends. We all saw this during riots when the viewing public would wonder why someone would destroy their own neighborhood. Riots are a cry for attention. Ask your baby why it will knock its food over. Sure, it needs food, but at the moment, it wants your attention.  

I was also raised to understand the importance of studying strategy and all forms of violence. We should also see that any tool is only as effective as the skill, integrity, and consciousness of the person using it. By age 12, I learned that violence is just another form of communication; it's not "bad" or "good." But as a martial artist, there are some contemplations that stay with me.

• Low-level martial arts involve violence, and high-level martial arts involve bringing peace through presence. What does your presence bring to the table? It's all about your state of mind and how it resonates through your posture and presence.
• Poison can become medicine with education, intention, and proper dosage. Seriously, properly dosed "poison" can heal you, even gluten or negativity;  any intervention in a system can be medicine or poison. I am speaking metaphorically. Please don't think I'm saying to add a little RAID to your Axe body spray tonight. I'm just saying, ease up on the painkillers.
• It's easy to kill things and much more challenging to bring them to life. So yeah, you can teach anyone to harm or kill quickly and easily. The latter takes a lot of devotion, wisdom, and training.

So, as an act of love and an exercise of courage, I have had this 2a conversation with hundreds of people, and the reactionary 2a community is falling into more traps and digging its own grave as we speak. It's easier to predict reactions when an idea emotionally triggers you. 

War is not violent; it's strategic.

Strategy is important. Violence is usually just some sort of tantrum or, at its highest points, a spectacular and tragic way to end a conversation. Without a strategy, you just end up in the streets throwing bricks and shooting at your own people, only to exhaust your resources. Then you'll find out that some teenager in a troll farm overseas just set up a bunch of fake social media accounts to antagonize and piss you and your "tribe" off.  Then they strategically set up an assembly right across the street from people with opposing views; a gun is not what you need in this moment of manipulation; you need emotional intelligence and decision-making skills because you're being effortlessly manipulated and laughed at.

Suppose you want to destroy a city or society on a budget.

Why would you ever spend your hard-earned money to bomb it when you can get the reactionary citizens to destroy it themselves using their moral high ground and groomed victim mentality against them? Duh. However, it's for a "good" cause, so it's justified, right? Hey,  It's your thing. Keep reacting and see where you land in the grand scheme of things. 

In a moment of negotiation where strategy is necessary, the first mistake is choosing and defending a side. First, listen and seek the essence of what is being asked, demanded, or sold. Lawyers defend a side, and they are paid to understand and protect whatever side of a complex social construct they're a part of and holy crap, that is way too complex for me to understand. Guys like Coloin Noir are a great example. He's good at what he does; however, he is relentless in his stance, which has made him very successful. Although very authentic, Mr. Noir's success is partly the character he's rewarded for playing, thus making it easy to predict. He is very smart, but ego and success are very intoxicating, putting him in a defensive stance trying to win against citizens who need to be united. It's hard to see someone so intelligent and effective think so small and one-sided, but I understand. He's paid to defend and win and is such a valuable voice to 2a, but the constant mention of ARs and this militant society is not progress.

When speaking of war and medicine, it's necessary to know how to wield it, and even better, never need to. As a martial artist, there comes a time to stop learning how to harm and focus on the real stuff. Longevity, peace, healing arts. It is not as fun as pretending to kill your friends at paintball and at Krav Maga class, but it takes maturity to see that killing will haunt your soul. The universe constantly gives you what you want, so if you consistently train for war, you might get what you want. Where is the time for peace? The war might be inside you. The mind can create some powerful things.

Use the 80-20 rule. Create Peace 80% of the time and 20% of the time, f!#?k Sh!t up! Same with health, spend more resources creating health than fighting disease. I know, I know, I sound boring. Sometimes wisdom lacks emergency, urgency, or spectacle; therefore, it's not that marketable. Do you wait for your car to catch fire before you change the oil, or do you do it because it makes things run smoother and last longer? 

It takes a powerful person to understand that true wisdom can unite people and find creative solutions that get as close to "win-win" as possible, but yes, all who speak that way end up dead. None of us are immune to chasing status at the expense of our wisdom. I do know that If you are in a boxing match and all you are focusing on is not getting hit, you're about to get hit a lot. If you are dating someone and all your energy is focused on not losing them as a partner, they're probably packing their bags.

Burning the Barn

It is important to see that protecting only guns is a distraction, undoing the essence of why 2a was created in the first place. A simple way to illustrate this is the "burn the barn" scene in many old Western films.

The villain catches the village barn on fire, so while all the families and neighbors form an assembly line and drain their wells with a train of people passing water buckets to put the flaming barn out, the corrupt sheriff is looting the rest of the town.

I ask you to find your most nonreactionary and strategic psychological stance and be wise. T en, use that to look at the essence of why and when 2a was written. You can double down on your defense all you want; not one part of this suggests taking your guns, but the "warrior" mind is all about strategy and emotional intelligence. The monkey and childish mind reacts and does shit like freak out over toilet paper because everyone else is freaking out over toilet paper. Remember that? Was that you? Get better; you're too easy to control. 

So, if all I have to do is shake a tree to get all the other monkeys screaming and distracted, how easy is it for me to steal all your mangoes? So, if the simple mention of adapting your mindset triggers you, you're a danger to yourself and others. Thus, maybe a gun is not something you should own anyway. Because while you are defending your guns, your food, fuel, and finances are being plucked from your grasp with Tech. Shoot all you want; it will just leave you frustrated and "hangry."

Energy

My dad used to tell me that he and his team would hang out around cities and ensure they cut off food and fuel access. Since we created city centers and suburbs, we've been able to pursue higher arts, education, frisbee golf, botox, brunch, Tech, and other industries that can now be delivered to your door from an app on your phone that tracks your spending and whereabouts all day, every day.

Exiting the farm requires them to ship food to us.

Food is your energy, and it takes fuel to get it to your stores, as you use fuel to drive to the store to pick it up. Not having to farm, hunt, hand wash our clothes, or pedal a generator has freed us up to be able to have snowflake kids who are great at using iPads and have the grip strength of soft shell crabs that live in lotion buckets but kick ass at fort nite.

So, energy is critical. Without energy, your life gets weird. Without electricity, we are camping and might have to talk to our damn communities again. Without food, your brain works horribly. Also, suppose you have no desire to choose healthy food. In that case, you are consuming some weird stuff that's just making your body less of a thinking and moving vessel of power and more like a deficient container for diabetes that may soon be waddling away to chain yourself below the deck of a medical slave ship we call "Healthcare." Food is freedom, food is liberty, and guns were here to protect that.

We need Technology to maintain our basics and provide us with food and the energy to live. Shipping and production are essential. So, as we are distracted by protecting guns, huge companies are buying up farmland and feeding you and your children toxic garbage. This is not some hippie crap. Ask hunters, anglers, and hippies about nature preservation and access to natural, healthy, and clean food and water. We can all agree that the FDA is not concerned with your health or children's well-being. They brought you winners like white sugar, corn syrup, and margarine. Badasses don't consume that stuff; why should your children?

Remember that your gun only works well with food. Without energy, your gun will not be made or shipped to you, and you will need food and fuel to get to the gun store to buy it. It's always been about food and an empowered, capable community. So, if you have been convinced otherwise, take a breath, get a snack, and regroup. 

The Algorithm

Again, in essence, 2a is about access to Technology that allows citizens to protect their resources. Thus, why are we not moving the conversation from Gun Control to Technology Control? To be more specific, let's at least control the algorithm.

Even if I  were allowed to buy a drone and perhaps a few decent used missiles in good shape, I wouldn't. I'd rather have a better marketing team and a sauna cold plunge set up at a house with a nice garden. For the price of one missile, I could probably retire. 

Right now, there are huge troll farms that are making you think that you are under attack, and they are playing the masses with as much ease as putting butter on toast because the one thing that Americans have more than hyper-individualistic tendencies is a very righteous tendency towards believing we have the moral high ground. We would never kill civilians, give or take an atomic bomb or drone attack. We're convinced we're better than that. It's a bomb, not a scalpel; check yourself.

How my fear of wearing shorts saved me

When I was considering joining the military, my father sat me down and made me agree or disagree with the realities of war. I said no to most of his questions because, before I say yes to any job, I make sure I know the scope of work and if I have the mental and physical skills to execute the tasks assigned to me. After that, I make sure I can sleep well at night knowing what I am participating in.

I decided I was not cut out for the military just when I saw that basic training meant I would be told what to do while wearing shorts; it felt too similar to PE class.

My teachers, who were military, were very proud of me for opting out. I grew up listening to their stories of how betrayed they felt when they found out what they were really fighting for, and honestly, I just wanted to dance and play guitar, then learn healing arts; I was a little "artsy." 

Being a caregiver and a softy, I find that my place of power is offering a safe place for people to be honest with themselves and find a path through the choices we often make in our youthful and righteous years as we shed our layers of ignorance to expose our wisdom. Once the bravado is gone and you are alone with your thoughts, that's the real you. Do you have to drink or take pills to tune that out? To love is to not judge. Although I have my preferences, I have learned that most people feel they are doing what they think is right. The trauma comes when wisdom, cause, and effect show differing results, and we know damn well we knew better. Then we sit in shame, regret, or heck, sometimes become heroes and wise. There's a wide range of results available to us all. But winning at the expense of others creates the situation we are in now.

So, of course, the winners don't want the losers to have guns.

The winners want to play golf and relax in their winnings. Watch every gangster movie; that's the situation you are reenacting over and over. Win-win is a remedy for that, and no, it's not socialism, and by the way, if you are military, don't pretend you didn't join a socialist organization that's used as a tool to defend capitalism. You're a socialist while you're enlisted, and the difference between the freedom of America and socialist regimes is that you are allowed to choose to enlist or not. Admit it, though: you decided to join a socialist organization and serve your country, and hopefully, you get an education and springboard to thrive. If you choose to join back into capitalism later, you'll have some walking around money and education. That's rad, and that's thanks to a socialist model.

Plus, I have heard too many times from 20-30-year decorated veterans that our modern government is one of the most un-American things that Americans will have to deal with in the future, along with a carefully groomed victim population and, of course, worshipping false idols. It's heartbreaking to hear them come to terms with that.

Technology will be used to turn us against one another, and the unwise will use guns and ignorant moral high ground to destroy themselves, thinking they're defending something. Study strategy and what a weapon truly is—a final decision. Technology is a way to compound or scale that decision.

Study what makes people violent or feel threatened.

You are more likely to be in a philosophical internal battle than under physical threat. Plus, perceived threat is such a powerful tool of control because it puts you on high alert from something that is just assumed to be lurking around every corner. A bear outside on your porch is an easy fix, but a looming disease or invisible oppressive force that's conspiring against you and your way of life allows your imagination to run wild. You then live in fear, and your inner peace erodes until you're trying anything to escape the voices in your head that you are making up, by the way. Then you will need to make sense of all this uncertainty, so you may start blaming and stockpiling supplies for your bunker and isolating yourself.

A neighborhood hood watch could remedy a lot of your paranoia. A community garden can connect you with the joys of creating community and resources. Have you ever shown or had someone show you their garden? You'll rarely hear more excitement and joy. Seriously, ask a gardener what they're growing. It's a total thrill ride to watch them light up as they tour you through their garden.

Then here we go again, there's the automated instigator, aka TECHNOLOGY, that is feeding you through an algorithm. Automating a feed into your life, phone, YouTube account, and social media, adding fuel to the fire of  our mind, view, and story. There is a reason why psychological torture and sleep deprivation is preferred to break will, brainwash, and enslave people. Pimps, gangs, and governments figured this out a long time ago. 

Technology controls how you see your world if you are not consistently aware of that; the keyword is "YOUR." Most of the Tech you interact with collects your data and creates a feed of information for you, not to balance you out but to create a "funnel" into a stream of media, sales, and information that allows marketers to target you with sniper precision, but that can't be the only thing it does. It has to make you emotional.

Emotional Reactions or Conscious Decisions. 

Emotional people will buy things they don't need, eat things that make them sick, and often fall into a spiral of vices and tuning out the feelings, but since a carefully curated newsfeed usually triggers it; you will still feel that you are tuning in and staying informed. No one is exempt from the algorithm not me, you, your mom, or your children. We are all boxed into our different feeds unless we get proactive and start choosing how we engage with Technology or else we end up like baby birds waiting for the algorithm to chew up a bunch of stuff and regurgitate it down our open throats. Num num, gimme guns.

Guns v Tech

Your gun is about as useful in the big-picture equation against modern attacks to take land and freedom as a purse dog. The modern attack will be through Technology, modern weapons such as media, misinformation, drones, bombs, cyber attacks, and shutting down the distribution of resources like food and fuel. So, when you imagine how you will protect your resources, does it have anything to do with finding a shipping hub  and making sure that their internet  and fuel are available so they can get the items to your store? Because only a very small percentage of us are farmers. Are you ready to defend your family against a neighbor with opposing views, or a government that you don't trust but still fly a flag for? 

Distraction

A creative way to take all your stuff and resources is distraction.

So, if you can be persuaded to believe that the only thing standing between you, oppression, and your precious way of life is a gun, then  pretending to take them away, or actually trying to is an easy way to get you to emotionally react and protect it with all your attention and passion. Infecting your children, taking your resources, shuting down your economy will then be pretty easy, and you will never shoot your way out of the cage that that lack of awareness, wisdom, and strategy has put you in.

Also, when I say this, I have yet to hear anyone who is not aware of that exact strategy.  However, you must be aware when you are not aware of it. So, all of us are wise until we are under stress or emotional. We all know that fast food is bad for us until we are running late and pass the drive-thru.  We all know we should learn from history, but there are still countless alcoholics who have had abusive alcoholic parents. It's emotions, not logic. It's reactions and triggers, not decisions.

Study strategy, study EQ, study your own views and stories, and how and why you may have blindly picked a side. Study what you really want to protect with your gun: family, safety, and immediate danger. Then, seek other points of view. A neighborhood watch will often leave you way safer than a gun. However, fear-based mass surveillance is an oppressive form of neighborhood watch. Which is what our moral high grounds are creating as we speak. Any moment of volatility will have countless bystanders reaching for their phones to oppress, shame, and hopefully  go viral. We have finally returned to our roots of lynch mobs and snitching. Hey, how do you think North Korea saves money on surveillance? It is called mass surveillance, and the people are rewarded for it. 

Admit it, the hippies have some valid ideas.

My family is very diverse: military, defense contractors, coal miners, welders, chefs, and some other weirdos who have gone into wellness, sex work, NASCAR, and even rodeo. Regardless of our line of work, owning a pistol, rifle, and shotgun is as important as good pots and pans, a reliable vehicle, and a clean water source. However, I did grow up thinking I was not supposed to like hippies.

However, I have very vast and, might I say, amazing taste in food, music, and snacks thanks to hippies. Wellness, nature, and so much great art are thanks to hippy culture. Hippies need to say thanks to a lot of their uptight square parents and bankers so they can fund their festivals and art projects. I hope to see a day that we can admit that we need both sides and we're strong enough to admit that we didn't go visit New York for the bank. We want the experience lifestyle created by bohemians, weirdos, and hippies. Music, art, culture, Led Zepplin! You love them, and they're weird, so find a way to work together, life can be interesting, safe, and well funded. 

I personally have had the privilege to train with high-level practitioners in martial arts and the military my whole life, I've been spoiled with great teachers and mentors, plus a life in the music and film industry surrounded by legendary beautiful weirdos that has shaped our culture just as much as the railroad, but they did it through art not force. Again, I've learned that:

•  Killing is easy, but it is hard to bring things to life. 
• "Alphas" make calm decisions that empower people.  Great leaders know how to obtain resources and create more, as well as how to unite communities. Unfortunately, most true leaders and" alphas" are killed in our society.
• Strength is the path to truth, and weakness is the path to corruption. Look at gangsters, abusive relationships, and, yes, even your own government. 

The Algorithm & Law of Attraction? What!?!

The algorithm works the same way the "law of attraction" is said to work. It's a simple process; I'll tell you why I'm bringing up that woo-woo stuff in a second. I don't want anyone to feel trapped or held hostage by a "Did you watch the secret?" conversation. Here is how the algorithm works in a nutshell:

• You go on the internet
• You search for something, or your "feed" feeds  you information
• Then you click on stuff
• The algorithm tracks what you interact with and feeds you more of that
• Now it knows where to put ads directed at you.

Here is what the algorithm is looking for:

• What you interact with.
• What do you react to?
• What do you engage with?

Here is what it is not looking for:

• Whether you're for or against it.
• Your opinion.
• Whether you are acting in line with your heart's true calling or integrity.

So whether you just watched ten videos on neo nazis and school shootings or unlikely animal friends videos, it isn't concerned with how you feel or your opinion of it. The algorithm knows that you interact with it, it knows how long, and now it knows what to feed you to put ads in front of you.

So what does this do? Why should this be controlled?

That algorithm is why you think the world is ending or why every cat has a duck for a best friend. It's because you're being flooded with what you engage with.

Then.

The "Virtue Signal" is the fuel of toxicity.

You see a video of some racists, and your rage and emotions tell you to share this video for the sole purpose of letting the world know that you are AGAINST this type of behavior. Now the algorithm thinks, "Wow, they share this type of info; we should give them more racists in mobile home videos," then poof! You think that the world is full of these drunk, friendless freaks.

Fun fact, though, you just made more. Why?

Because no one was listening to them until you and 2 million of your virtuous friends shared it. It's basic math. At least 1% of people are racists, and out of 2 million views, you may have just recruited 20k new members for the hate group.

So what would I suggest you do?

Click on and search for the world you want to see.

Yeah, yeah, I know. There has never been a bar that clears out because someone runs in and says,  Hey, everybody! Two people are getting along in the parking lot!"

Discipline and awareness is essential here, but I have learned that you never ask people to take responsibility for themselves. We know what happened to MLK, JFK, and Gandhi after they spouted that sh!t. Thus, if discipline is not an option, then perhaps, again, we need algorithm control. I ll tell you why.

• The algorithm is invisible.
• The algorithm is eve ywhere.
• The algorithm is how one-sided ideas spread. They go "Viral" and  "Viruses aren't helpful.
• The algorithm is just doing its job. Dangerous people, "just do their jobs."
• The algorithm is what fed the person the fear that got them to turn to the gun for protection or justice.
• The algorithm is why you keep thinking that"everyone is a _________ ________"
• The algorithm is why that once fringe group is now powerful and getting  ttention.
• The algorithm is why you may be wondering what is real, fake, truth, or lie.
• The algorithm is why you just got an ad for something you were just talking about.
• The algorithm is why many people feel alone, afraid, or that the world is going in a certain direction.
• The algorithm is making you weird.

I could go on and on, but really, I challenge you to change what you engage with and talk about, and just like the law of attraction, your life, your lens, and your view of the world may just change.

Plus, approaching 2a from this perspective keeps certain tools in the hands of people who do have resources to protect. It also invites all people into a conversation and not a debate. By controlling and regulating the algorithm, we can become more aware and thoughtful because we are no longer sitting in our bunkers like baby birds waiting for the mother algorithm to regurgitate more useless information into our benign mouths so we can hit "buy now" with our trigger fingers.

I hope you see that I love people and personal empowerment on a level that recognizes the importance of all walks of life. We need thinking and thriving communities made up of everything from waste management to farmers, engineers, artists, doctors, and baristas. All cultures, arts, and ecosystems must evolve. The low level of existence fights change at the expense of its own existence or innovates itself into lethargy and then extinction. Busy people often become so engaged in life itself that other powers start figuring out ways to keep people busy, bickering, and distracted. Go to change, go to stress, and go to wisdom; it sucks if these things find you before you find them. Thank you for reading this, and I hope it adds to your peace and worldview.