Partake Freely: Transfigurist Politics and Free Will

Speaker 1

Next, we’ll be hearing from Pace Ellsworth, who was born in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. And he is the son of a diplomat and linguist Matt Alan Ellsworth. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor’s in linguistics and minors in Spanish and Linguistic Computing. His main interests are classical liberalism and futurism. Happy to be called an anarcho-transfigurist. He works as a marketing consultant for small businesses in the technology and finance sectors. Pace.

Pace Ellsworth

Hello, everybody. Let’s find the uh thank you. You have to make it full screen, too. Uh no. When it loads right there. Alright, yes. Hey, everybody. It’s uh Okay.

Pace Ellsworth

So now I’m going to talk here about agency um and uh and the future. We’re taught that we are agents, empowered to act, and accept that the problem of evil and the solution of good are the result of our prized ability to act according to the dictates of our own conscience. My favorite scripture is this: Whosoever will come may come, and partake of the waters of life freely, and whosoever will not come, the same is not compelled to come. In Moses 4, Satan came, saying, I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost. Wherefore Satan sought to destroy the agency of man. Which I, the Lord God, had given him. See, Satan’s plan could only eliminate the evil of our choices by also taking away the good. By keeping us from being agents unto ourselves, eliminating any potential for us to appreciate human and post-human life Without agency, without the power to act, we could not love, agree, work, follow, lead, save, create, nor become.

Pace Ellsworth

You don’t need to be religious to believe that the freedom to choose may be more important than life itself, and say with Patrick Henry, give me liberty or give me death. Unfortunately, political debate has been centered on conservative versus progressive instead of on freedom itself. For that reason, I support finding solutions that both sides agree with, ones that can serve good choices that expand freedom while progressing away from bad choices that limit it.

Pace Ellsworth

Our technological progress has finally given voice to people who in the past could only share with people in physical proximity, like what James was talking about. Today, people can do, and you know, they can and do form bonds with others no matter where they are. The world has discovered there are many ways to look at issues. and all these differing opinions must have some validity. So instead of seeking power to put others down, the further decentralization and connectivity of the future promotes individual preferences. This individualism breeds a new creature, the connected individual, someone aware of the suffering of life on the opposite side of the planet, or perhaps some farther distance in the future. and empowered to act to minimize that suffering.

Pace Ellsworth

The Mormon transhumanist affirmation likewise shows a vision of a society where people and communities can act according to their wills, desires and laws to the extent that they are not oppressed. Let’s talk about technology, but first, there’s a very common belief in mainstream politics that an authoritarian governing body is necessary to get things done for people who cannot govern themselves. But let’s see if I’ve got this correct. You believe people can’t govern themselves, but you believe some people can govern hundreds of millions of other people. Of course, this message oversimplifies things tremendously, but it does lead us to a great point. Oppressive systems fail at the outset because of a government because a government system represents power over others. a win-lose system, with some seeing more benefits than others. And I’m speaking strictly practically in terms of real experience. Obviously, the theory of government is very idealistic and very strong. A voluntary transaction, in contrast, is power with others. Where both parties win by gaining something they value more and trading away something they value less.

Pace Ellsworth

Finally, tools like the Internet have given have started to give people the ability to improve government in more ways than just voting. There’s a whole marketplace of free people. agents of their own actions, finally sharing their ideas with the world. Now about exponential growth a bit. As the devices we’ve used become lightweight wireless, mobile, wearable, and embedded, they connect us closer together from farther distances while at the same time empowering us with new tools to promote social action. Let’s look at some of the biggest freedom revolutions that are well underway today.

Pace Ellsworth

Marriage. Marriage is ancient, so I get it that many conservatives wish to define marriage for everyone. How can you conserve anything without defining what it is exactly you want to conserve? Changing the definition goes against their fundamental political identity of conservation. It’s mind-blowing for them. Unfortunately, preserving a specific definition means that certain preferences will be derided or ignored, which causes real pain for millions of partnerships and their families. So ironically, many religious groups are in favor of government stepping in to impose limits on the freedom of religion for those in the minority.

Pace Ellsworth

Of course, this second definition here can still be oppressive to polyamorous families who want legal recognition. Which begs the question, should adults of sound mind even require permission from strangers? to marry. Just a century ago, a majority of the states which comprised this country had laws in place which prohibited white persons from marrying, well, basically anybody else. without a state-granted license, a government permission slip, and the laws expressly forbade it. So when they were enforced, it rarely happened. What if we no longer policed marriage and instead allowed individuals to decide this for themselves at this point in our history, with support from their physical and digital community of friends and family? It turns out that few people care very much about being accepted by strangers for who they are, so this really shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Pace Ellsworth

Now, how would freeing marriage from the state affect the LDS church? The obvious way would be that the church wouldn’t need to make itself a punching bag by seeking to preserve a definition contrary to public opinion. As ironic as that is, since just as many of the early people in the early church sought to be free from the same oppressive definition over a hundred years ago.

Pace Ellsworth

This is Edmund Ellsworth. I’m sorry the text isn’t great, but he was the first captain of the captain of the first handcart company in 1856. He’s my great-great-great-grandfather. Who else had the great great great grandfather? That was really awesome too. So he, on June 2nd, 1885, he was convicted of the crime of polygamy in Arizona. He was moved to Yuma Territorial Prison for a sentence of two months. He kept a journal. I’ll read some excerpts. June thirtieth, Tuesday. Repaired a clock. Ten more prisoners arrived from Prescott. Weather hot and sultry. July one, my birthday. Liberty, the sacred boon, is unappreciated by those who enjoy it. It is mourned by tho mourned for by those who are deprived of it. I count half of my prison life to day. Thanks. Called on to sit up with a man in the hospital. July four, four cannons fired to remind us of religious freedom.

Pace Ellsworth

Now decentralizing marriage would also help solve a a real concern for many members of the church in the US and Canada. I think some of you have heard of this. Family First Weddings is asking our church leaders to inquire of the Lord if the one-year wait on temple ceiling can be changed. Despite the fact that in most of the world, LDS couples have civil marriage ceremonies a few days before a temple ceiling. In the U. S. and Canada, the church policy discourages traditional marriage. You see that? The church discourages traditional marriage in the U. and Canada in some ways. By enforcing a one-year wait after a civil marriage before a temple ceiling can take place. This leaves many waiting outside the temple, unable to share in the moment. This happened to me and my wife as more than twenty people in my family shuffled into the biggest ceiling room in the Mesa Temple, but none of her family nor her best friends could attend. The pain that this causes is often tremendous, as it has been for us.

Pace Ellsworth

Of course which is a simple policy put in place by the Church, easily remedied by the Church. So let’s help the Church seek true freedom by claiming the privilege of marrying according to the dictates of our own conscience. and allow all others the same privilege, let them marry who, how, or where they may. Above all, all our relations with other people should be voluntary, by mutual consent.

Pace Ellsworth

Now we’ll go from that low to a high. That’s right, body freedom, which means drugs. Now, okay, this is a little bit sobering, so hopefully I can compose myself. The war on drugs has been, in my opinion, one of the greatest tragedies of social policy, especially in the United States, and I know many of you agree. Millions of people whose worst crime was possession or sale of an illegal drug have been marked for life, unable to find jobs or vote because of their status as former felons who broke federal law. The worst part, these laws are class based, targeting Latinos, blacks and other minorities instead of whites. Whereas whites actually have similar usage levels. And here’s an example. Crack cocaine is the cheaper version of the drug, mostly available in the slums. And it carries the same sentence as possessing 18 times as much powder cocaine, which is much more expensive and mainly used by the predominantly white upper class. And conviction rates are much higher for minorities than whites.

Pace Ellsworth

Now let’s look at Mexico’s drug war, where violence has increased year over year, as exemplified by this not very well done graph. Now one tiny concern. What’s right up here where most of the violence is? Well, that’s California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. You see, unfortunately, when you make something illegal so that sane, nonviolent people are not allowed to use and sell it, that means a black market is formed, usually where people that are used to breaking other laws rise to the top. This happened with Al Capone and other gangsters during the prohibition of alcohol. It’s been happening for decades with the prohibition of marijuana and coca, two of the most beneficial plants on God’s green earth.

Pace Ellsworth

And here’s an example. I don’t think there’s any sound. I’ll narrate. So there was a TEDx talk about this. There’s a strain. of marijuana, that they distilled all the THC out of it so there’s no high. They initially called it hippie’s disappointment or something like that. They tested it on this girl named Charlotte, who had Druvette syndrome. She had hundreds of seizures every day. She couldn’t obviously develop. It completely ended her seizures. And she has like one every week or every month. Now, so they call it Charlotte’s Web. They tested it on 40 kids. For 39 of them, it eliminated almost all of their seizures. This is an appeal to change the law, which is very needed.

Pace Ellsworth

So, because of course All wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man, every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof. Thereof. All these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving, not mass incarceration and government-induced racism, poverty, and violence. That’s my word of wisdom. I hope we can all learn more about this issue and how the drug war hurts science, it hurts children, it hurts the poor, and most definitely hurts freedom. Now

Pace Ellsworth

getting to some of my more favorite ones, learning. Speaking of learning, ever since the federal takeover of education, our national scores started progressing more slowly than other developed nations. Most children left behind, I mean no child left behind, and Rise to the Top and Common Core have focused on improving school performance through standardization, tests, and programs, spending billions. I show this not because it’s particularly helpful. just to illustrate the sheer grandiosity of the undertakings that have usually proven to be remarkably ineffective.

Pace Ellsworth

Some politicians have urged a creative alternative, charter schools which have persistently failed to excel when compared to the public schools from which they are siphoning resources and children. Some parents have the option of a different path for their children Private schools, however, are often out of reach of average American family, and many parochial religious schools, while often cheaper, run the risk of having children focus on religious tenets at the expense of critical thinking. And breadth of knowledge.

Pace Ellsworth

Regardless, what do most public, charter, private, and religious schools have in common? Well, authoritarian structure, dress code, emphasis on silence and order, negative reinforcement. Walking in lines, loss of individual autonomy, abridged freedoms, no input in decision making, set times for enforced for walking, eating, et cetera, basically prison.

Pace Ellsworth

Now what do any of these really have to do with what a child wants to learn? Or what we want to learn? Transhumanism is not taught in schools. Einstein said, School failed me, and it it bored me. The teachers behaved like sergeants. I don’t speak German, somebody will help me afterwards. I wanted to learn what I wanted to know, but they wanted me to learn for the exam. What I hated most was the competitive system. Because of this, I wasn’t worth anything, and several times they suggested I leave. I felt that my thirst for knowledge was being strangled by my teachers. Grades were their only measurement. How can a teacher understand youth with such a system? From the age of twelve I began to suspect authority and distrust teachers.

Pace Ellsworth

How many children feel, even for a moment, the way that he felt? One child is enough. To know that the grade-centered systems that teach to the test with a closed curriculum fail to address the needs of a variety of unique children. Children are curious. They learn because they love learning and can’t help doing it. Sir Ken Robinson described freedom of choice in learning as creating a climate of possibility. If you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things you completely did not anticipate and couldn’t have expected.

Pace Ellsworth

So, you know, waves of change are disrupting traditional schools and inviting children, parents and teachers into free universe of online learning, such as Khan Academy, K-12, TED, Linda, Udacity, Coursera, MIT, OpenCourseWare, Craigslist, just kidding about Craigslist. But of course, Google, YouTube, and the free encyclopedia itself, and offline options like Sudbury Schools. We call this unschooling, where children are allowed to let their natural curiosity guide them to their personal chosen project or focus. This is easy now and only getting easier until each child grows and learns in the best way for them and at their own pace. If you want to see some more links about unschooling, I invite you to my wife’s Pinterest board on the topic right here. And I’ll display a link to review the whole presentation at the very end of the presentation.

Pace Ellsworth

Last but most fun, digital freedom. The freedom to innovate. Who here used Napster in the 1990s? Okay, great. You’re all you’re all criminals. I did. It was probably my first experience breaking federal law, since I never did touch marijuana, still haven’t unfortunately. Napster allowed people to share files easily, mostly music, so you’d have to listen to them with a miraculous device called a WinAmp. Of course, that this violated intellectual property laws, and Napster got shut down because they couldn’t win the legal battles. Of course, too late, they basically won the war. The rise of MP3s that this instigated led to portable music players smaller than the Wachman, eventually allowing the iPod, which led to the iPhone and the iPad, and this is just, you know, one string of products, and the Internet revolution in the hands of the masses.

Pace Ellsworth

Mickey Mouse is old. It turns out that right before he was supposed to be released to the public domain, Disney lobbied for an increase in their copyright protections, allowing them to enjoy sole ownership over their copyrights trademarks for decades to come. You’d think that as our computing power doubles, it gets shorter and shorter. How how long will 14 to 20 year patents and 70 to 120 year copyrights really become extreme hindrances to innovation?

Pace Ellsworth

3D printers, I’m running a little bit short, but it’s obvious that they’re crucial to the freedom of innovation. The implications of their use are extreme. They’re getting extremely cheap. The open source nature means it’s only easier for people to stretch the bounds, and regulations will be more and more difficult to enforce for restricted products.

Pace Ellsworth

Bitcoin, I love this one. Bitcoin represents one of the ultimate signs of the obsolescence of the state and the rise of personal freedom. Not tied to any physical medium, digital coins can be transferred instantaneously, lowering transaction costs. But of course, Bitcoin is not flawless. It’s the first popular application of cryptocurrency in a field flooded with new ideas just waiting for the right conditions to pop up. Its status as a competing interest against international banks and governments means it’s going to be a target of suppression. even though it’s one of our best options for global liquidity in the event of an economic collapse.

Pace Ellsworth

Where does this all lead? I left this blank on purpose. Libertarianism has a basic principle. Aggression is inherently illegitimate. but as a philosophy, it does not provide all the answers. The problems of the present and future are more varied than any one group can solve, but the move towards the connected individual means that we can all solve these problems together. We have to try anything and everything we can to seek a brighter future, continually reducing the forms of corruption and oppression that have plagued traditional hierarchies for millennia.

Pace Ellsworth

There really doesn’t need to be any r specific movement to break down government. If you just wait, government will gradually become obsolete and no one will miss it. Go ahead and keep beneficial programs in place for now, but allow new alternatives, digital or analog, to compete with these services without limitation, and they will do so ably.

Pace Ellsworth

It can start with freeing marriage for loving families, with liberating the nonviolent captives suffering in prison. It can start with allowing creativity in education, in media, manufacturing, and money systems. It will continue with individual preferences for new forms of transportation like driverless cars and personal flight, better investment models like Kickstarter, better welfare systems like Give Directly. better personal health care, better peace, as we further connect with and then love those who our governments want us to consider our enemies.

Pace Ellsworth

The path to greater individual freedom may start slow, and some of us like me may be as impatient as we are with not yet having the next big thing. But it is as inevitable as the next big thing. If we simply believe in our own efforts to build a better future and secure prosperity for all, then we can respect and protect all sorts of people and their activities better by celebrating their own creative differences. Celebrating individual freedoms can help us find beauty in the chaos of life in humanity. By protecting all avenues of human expression, yes, we allow greater risk, but we encourage multiple times greater levels of reward. It is then left to us to partake freely of the waters of life, spring they forth from religion, from science, from mathematics, from art, from love, from beyond our physical world or from within ourselves, and not compel others to do the same. At the very end, the way we grew, accompanied by love, not force, will make all the difference.