This is a series about my search for liberty and purpose. You can find all articles of this series here. Subsequent parts will follow soon.
A Good Citizen
“Now, the pandemic is finally over and we can all go back to normal.” That is what I thought in the summer of 2020. I was a good citizen—I already had a few questions about the official narrative, but my belief in the benevolent state working together with the experts was solid. When the year started, I had just turned 18, and, as part of my “social obligation,” I was following the news closely with a firm belief that the German government—my government—was doing everything it could, so that I would have a prosperous life protected from the dangers of the world.
Oh boy, was it a nasty surprise when the covid restrictions intensified again. Yet, I was calmly analyzing the data—trying to stay above whatever the current way of twisting it to fit the narrative was—and still convinced that we would be going back to normal as soon as our politicians realized that covid wasn’t as bad as they had originally thought—although I had begun getting a bit angry.
During that time, I also started digging into Bitcoin. The Bitcoin Standard—which I read sometime in Q1/Q2/Q3 2020—had contributed to my growing doubt about the omniscient, benevolent state. I had become a restrained advocate of a smaller government. Covid—or to be precise, the reaction to it—and Bitcoin had jointly converted me from an advocate of state surveillance (“You shouldn’t fear anything if you have nothing to hide.”) to an opponent of big government.
Education
In the subsequent months to years, I continued my reading-based learning journey. Human Action educated me about economics—that is Austrian Economics, real economics. I loved how Mises analyzed human behavior and made inferences based on his analysis instead of, like modern economists, trying to influence citizens to behave as the state wants them to. Austrian Economics showed that state intervention does often not only fail to achieve its goals but creates exactly those situations that it tries to prevent (e. g., price controls lead to shortages). It taught me that an economy runs best with government keeping its hands out.
Other literary works, like 1984, strengthened my orientation towards freedom, but the most life-changing books, shattering my worldview, were The Bitcoin Standard and Human Action. In addition to this form of education, accessing the thoughts of the greatest contemporary as well as historical thinkers, I simultaneously started following many “conspiracy theorists” questioning the covid narrative and the state’s approach to manipulating the market on Twitter (before its rebrand). (I was not publicly present at all at this time and just had a private account.) These elements mixed a large cocktail that made me very skeptical about official narratives.
The Land of the Free
While I formed my own small world consuming knowledge of historical intellectuals and contemporary skeptics, the offline situation looked dire. I didn’t see how we would ever be able to move (relatively) freely again. There would not ever be a life without the movement licenses (Newspeak: vaccine passports) again. I still don’t know how we stopped using these. Why don’t we wear face diapers anymore? I consider us lucky that we got over this state of total surveillance and control—of course, not without wounds: The state’s control of us increased. However, we can move largely freely again.
With the bad outlook of 2021 and 2022, I found myself questioning whether this was the life I wanted to live. Did no freer places exist elsewhere? I got soaked into the classical US attitude quite quickly. What the Founding Fathers had imagined was what I wanted. Living in liberty without much government interference? Sign me up! Sure, places like California look pretty appalling from the liberty perspective, but I could see myself moving to Texas. The United States was where I wanted to go.
Searching
During this time, I was part of a “dual studies” program: practical vocational training alternating with theoretical studies. As part of this program, I was employed at a huge corporation. I explored diligently all options within and outside this international giant to move to the US after the end of my study program. However, at the time, this goal was not that urgent, as I did not see an option of relocating without first developing a solid occupational foundation. After all, why would any company take on such relocation costs without having an employee creating immense added value?
Unfortunately, this thought was very valid. More valid than I had hoped. Even when I had finished the program, I couldn’t attain a relocation opportunity. Maybe, with some more experience, an opportunity would arise in the next 5 to 10 years, but for the time being, I had to stay in Germany. However, in addition to the fact that this relocation opportunity wasn’t certain to arise, there were 3 main reasons why I did not want to wait for that long: I did not want to continue this life for, possibly, another decade; threats like Agenda 2030 are approaching; nobody is dependent on me which makes moving a lot easier. The point to take action had come.
Accordingly, I started researching myself. In the meanwhile, I had already been following cultural developments in the US quite closely (more closely than those in Germany) and, yet again, doubts about my future, this time about my destination, had begun to emerge. Furthermore, immigrating into the US (legally) is very difficult without family relations or a sponsoring company. Therefore, I, yet again, started to broaden my horizon and consider other options. Probably, I had come across the terms expat or digital nomad before, but up to now, I had not researched them. I started exploring expat channels and did a lot of online research to find a Plan B fitting to my expectations…
Think for yourself and question everything, my fellow liberty people!
You are far ahead of where I was at your age! I know that makes me sound old (perhaps I am 😅) and patronizing, but I intend it to be genuine admiration and joy for you.
The first words of your article -- the subhead "A Good Citizen" -- made me laugh, as I'm an advocate for Bad Citizens 😎
Allbest to you, wherever you reside!
And I will add, if I were you I would avoid all of the five eye countries, namely all the English speaking ones. These are fully ruled by satanist masons.