Be the Change

We’re all familiar with the famous Gandhi quote: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” It’s a great and memorable sentiment.

For the longest time, I heard this and assumed that “being the change” implied something drastic—like, say, a hunger strike for a cause I believed in.

It wasn’t until I found Bitcoin and ventured further down the rabbit hole that I realized executing on this idea is actually quite simple. Sometimes hard, but practically straightforward.

Many of us in Bitcoin, from what I can tell, share several objectives:

• End the forever wars
• End central banking and the wealth inequality and market distortion it creates
• Prevent authoritarian overreach and censorship
• Increase electrical grid stability with miners as a “buyer of last resort”

And the list goes on.

I racked my brain for some time, trying to determine how I might effect change on any of these fronts, but to no avail. Would I make any progress marching on the Federal Reserve building by myself? Probably not.

After many hours of podcast listening, dozens of books read, and a lot of time thinking, things became much clearer.

“Being the change” is as simple as opting out of the systems that feed our adversaries—and opting into the systems that starve them.

I don’t like health insurance companies, but for a long time assumed health insurance was a necessity. When I found CrowdHealth, I opted out of the broken sick-care system in favor of an alternative that aligned with my values.

I don’t like Big Food companies that poison us while funding research to justify the poison—and vilify those producing real, nourishing food. So I buy local when and where I can, and I haven’t eaten dessert in two years.

I don’t like the time-wasting nature of public schools—or the curriculum they’re teaching (even in private schools, for that matter). So my wife and I homeschool our kids.

I don’t like that doctors and Big Pharma have teamed up to push pills over lifestyle changes for the sake of expedience and profit. So we switched to a doctor with no vaccine schedule and a willingness to spend time understanding our kids' healthcare needs.

I don’t like that Wall Street gets bailed out, with losses socialized to us commoners when they get out over their skis. So I haven’t dropped a dollar of my income into equities or government bonds in about three years. I get paid in Bitcoin and keep my money there.

I’m one guy with very limited sway—but there are many like me out there, and I hope many more to come.

By removing our funding from these monstrous economic machines, we’ll make progress toward a future without them.

Perhaps it’s good that this will take time. If it all came crashing down tomorrow, the chaos would be hard to stomach.

But the choices we make each and every day either empower the systems so many of us have come to despise—or starve the beast of its ability to survive.

The choices are yours to make, but I hope that with enough unity and conviction, we can reshape the world to be freer and more fair for all.