LIAM CHAI

Total Disempowerment

Finding truth in a world where it is so easy to create fake truth is difficult.

There is a crisis in sense making.

Recently I wondered if there was a better mental model I could use to help discern and navigate my way in times of confusion.

Instead of searching for what is factual and truthful, I play with this question:

Does it feel empowering or disempowering?

An example is with the recent coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown rules of not being allowed outside. Curfews. Mandated mask wearing. Cravings for a vaccine.

I did try to discern what is true and what is not. I still am.

But a heuristic that feels helpful is the question above. And with the lockdown policies, the answer is that they are disempowering.

I would rather die from the virus than live a life of total disempowerment. Where my very life becomes dependent on a panel of experts or authorities who have the power to dictate where I can and cannot go. Who I can and cannot see. What I must wear in a public space or what I must inject into my body “for the good of others”.

I take inspiration from Sweden’s decision not to lockdown. On principle of liberty. That they are not a communist country like China. And to mandate legislation to force the public to do things was just not on for a democratic country.

In a liberal democracy you have to convince and not command people into action – or you lose your soul

Have we lost our souls here in the UK? Or in the US and other democratic countries that imposed a lockdown?

You can shame me and call me selfish. You can call me names or shout at me. I am ok with that. But I fear a totalitarian state more than I fear a virus. You should too.

Whether it’s the Chinese Communist Party, Pol Pot or the Bolsheviks – more deaths have been caused by regimes vying for power and dominance than nature’s will. Even including the estimated 50 million deaths from the Black Death.

Give me liberty, or give me death!

Patrick Henry

A life without liberty is not a life.



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