Welcome to A Fresh Start

Our institutions have failed us and modern living is poisoning us. Where do we go from here?

They say that if you drop a frog into hot water, he’ll leap right out. But if you put him in a pot of warm water and slowly turn up the heat, he won’t notice when the water gradually gets to a boiling point.

Are humans the same way? It can certainly seem like we are. If conditions are mostly good, people will put up with (or ignore) the bad, just to keep an equilibrium. Things have to be pretty bad before people realize they are unbearable.

Today, more and more people are realizing that some things are really, seriously bad.

The COVID-19 pandemic helped to open a lot of eyes to this. Is it any wonder that people no longer trust the old institutions when government leaders and the media acted so incompetently, dishonestly, and callously throughout the emergency?

Do you really think that our elected officials were acting in the people’s best interest when they barred folks from visiting their dying relatives in the hospital, while at the same time allowed—even encouraged—violent mobs to riot in cities?

Can parents really trust a school system that exposes their children to an ideology that convinces them to take puberty blockers or surgically mutilate their genitals? Or to see their own neighbors and family as racist oppressors? Can parents trust the government agencies that now label them as threats for objecting to this indoctrination?

Do you feel in control of your life when you could lose your job for declining the vaccine or opposing abortion or refusing to submit to critical race theory training? Do you trust that the people who own and maintain the tech companies that we rely on for modern living are unbiased or uncompromised?

What I have noticed over the last few years is that a growing number of people no longer trust the major institutions that undergird modern life.

They have become aware that we are living in an environment that is making us sick, poor, anxious, depressed, addicted, isolated, unfulfilled, and spiritually empty.

They have come to perceive modern living as a sort of gerbil cage: safe, with plenty of pellets to eat and some mild amusements—but ultimately an existence that is meaningless… and totally at the mercy of someone else.

They no longer want to live in a cage. They no longer want to live in fear of mobs or unelected decision-makers that don’t have their best interests at heart.

Which Brings Me to the Fresh Start Project…

This is a project that will look at these problems and try to find solutions.

It starts with identifying the “normal” aspects of modern life that aren’t necessarily optimal—in fact, they might be poison.

This is certainly not easy. They say that a fish will be the last to discover water. What I want to do is find out what we’re swimming in—to see through the marketing, psyops, propaganda, and conditioning that invisibly shape the modern way of life.

Next, I want to find out ways to disconnect from the sick system. I don’t think this is at all impossible—it’s just beyond the scope of imagination for most.

Consider the (tragic) story about how elephants are broken in by their trainers: As babies, they are secured to a stake by a strong, heavy chain. No matter how hard they try, they can’t break free from it. By the time they are adults, they are so convinced by the strength of their bonds, and in their own inability, that a full-grown elephant can be restrained by a thin rope.

My hunch is that a lot of people are like that elephant—they feel trapped by their bonds, but don’t realize that they have the power to break free. Not only that, but once they are free, they are much stronger than the “trainers” that kept them captive.

I want to learn from people who have freed themselves, and can now help others regain their self-sovereignty and agency.

Lastly, I want to find answers to the question, “If not this, then what?”

While it is true that many of us no longer trust the old institutions, the corollary is also true: there is a growing number of ordinary individuals who have a great deal of knowledge and wisdom to share on how to move forward. These are the people who can help evaluate what is good about the modern world and should be kept, and what is bad and should be shed.

This is a project about getting a fresh start, and then using it to build meaningful, dignified, joyful lives—to truly flourish as humans.