Kristen's husband Steve Liberati heads Steve's Club, a Crossfit Affiliate in Camden, New Jersey with a unique mission:
Steve's Club is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering young athletes (and non-athletes) of Camden, NJ world-class coaching, community and training techniques used by elite and professional athletes worldwide to help strengthen the foundation of our future.
Specifically, Steve helps at-risk kids grow into productive, positive people through Crossfit training. I resonate with Steve's message:
"The greatest discovery any alien outsider could make about Camden is its overriding response to failure: If it didn’t work last year, do it AGAIN this year (and if possible do it MORE). Every year they pass more laws, hire more police, build more prisons, and sentence more offenders for longer periods-all without moving one inch closer to “ending” crime. If it didn’t work last year or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that, but you can be sure we’ll try it again this year, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it won’t work this year either. Every year they spend more money on schools, hoping to “fix” whatever’s wrong with them, and every year the schools remain stubbornly unfixed. Spending money didn’t work last year or the year before that or the year before that, but you can be sure we’ll try it again this year, knowing beyond shadow of a doubt that it won’t work this year either. Every year they try to make the criminals go away, and every year they remain with us. We couldn’t shoehorn these criminals back into the “the mainstream” last year or the year before that or the year before that or the year before that, but you can be sure we’ll try it again this year, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it won’t work this year either. Maybe its time to TRY something DIFFERENT. Afterall, IF Camden is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but by new minds with no programs at all."How fitting that Steve has the surname Liberati -- the liberator!
I would substitute for Camden the name of any "government" and it would remain just as true. Try this:
After all, IF the U.S. is saved, it will not be saved by old minds with new programs but BY NEW MINDS WITH NO PROGRAMS AT ALL.
New minds realize that programs don't work because they attempt to impose order from top down. True social order comes from the spontaneous interactions of healthy human hearts and minds, which generate community from bottom up. The way Steve and the rest of us do it.
The very highest [ruler] is barely known by men.
Then comes that which they know and love,
Then that which is feared.
Then that which is despised.
He who does not trust enough will not be trusted.
When actions are performed without unnecessary speech,
People say, "We did it [ourselves]!"
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 17.
Politicians act as if they have expertise in all aspects of human behavior, economics, health care, nutrition, science, automotive manufacturing, insurance....on and on; they believe and want us to believe that they have qualifications to tell everyone how to do everything from birth to death. But as Steve points out, their "programs" rarely if ever address root causes, and their abundant failures demonstrate that they don't have a clue how things or people work. In fact if you trace the loop you will find that their "programs" create the problems, not solve them.
The more laws and restrictions there are,
The poorer people become.
The sharper men's weapons,
The more trouble in the land.
The more ingenious and clever men are,
The more strange things happen.
The more rules and regulations,
The more thieves and robbers.
Therefore the sage says:
I take no action and people are reformed.
I enjoy peace and people become honest.
I do nothing and people become rich.
I have no desires and people return to the good and simple life.
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 57
Obviously few if any politicians are sages, most are goons. I would call them clever--like a cleaver, good at splitting things apart, as in divide and conquer--but not intelligent or even less, wise.
Take the red pill, and you see their game: They keep stealing more and more of our time and productivity from us (via taxes), leaving us less and less capable of caring for our families, friends, and communities on our own. Even under these circumstances we do our best to help one another, but when half your income goes to the goons with the biggest guns ("government"), you have to keep almost every thing you make for your self and don't have much extra available to help your extended family, friends, or community. Then the goons say "Look at how evil you masses are, you guys don't care for your own, you need our Programs." So then they raise taxes and tyranny up another notch with the claim that this will "help" the people. Taoists saw through the game thousands of years ago:
Why are the people starving?
Because the rulers eat up the money in taxes.
Therefore the people are starving.
Why are the people rebellious?
Because the rulers interfere to much.
Therefore they are rebellious.
Why do the people think so little of death?
Because the rulers demand to much of life.
Therefore the people take death lightly.
Having little to live on, one knows better than to value life too much.
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 75.
Politicians and other misanthropists would have us believe that without their top-down interference in our lives no one would take care of anyone else, that people like Steve don't exist. They want you to believe that if they didn't "control" your life with their "programs" we would live in chaos, going at each other's throats with machetes. I can't think of anything more bullshit than this, and I believe that Steve and you also, my dear reader, prove it. Just look at your life. Have you not done your best to do more good than harm? Do you not help the helpless when you can? Do you not care for children and do your best to support the youth and care for the elders?
Why? Humans evolved as cooperative creatures engaged in cooperative hunting and gathering, sharing food, mutual aid in times of need, and mutual protection from predators. Natural selection favored cooperation and devotion to family and friends, and especially the youth and elders who had experience. Tribes full of people who cooperated and loved children and taught them well certainly had more descendants than tribes full of miscreants who couldn't care less about their children. Cooperative people not only survived, they thrived, and jerks either had no mates, rightfully got the death penalty directly, or got expelled from the tribe to deal with the wild cats on their own (good riddance and good luck!).
Don't let the misanthropes, the control freaks, the goons and thugs, define you in their own image, as a beast. Stand up and claim your humanity. You would put their tax and tyranny schemes to shame by naturally living out paleolithic "ethics," if you just let your human nature free and put your intelligence and love into helping your family, friends, and community.
Steve supports the club in part by producing Paleokits:
I bet you'll support them when you see their purpose, because I feel pretty confident you wouldn't read this blog if you didn't have a compassion ten times larger than a politician's cleverness.
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