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As Tropical Storm Olivia bore down on the island of Maui in September 2018, Kaliko and her family grabbed their most important belongings and fled. The storm inundated the island with more than a foot of rain, and the floodwater lifted Kaliko's home from its foundation and washed part of it away. Now, 11-year-old Kaliko is one of 14 youth suing the State of Hawaii for failing to adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions to protect them from the worsening dangers of climate change.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday, the young plaintiffs allege that the director of Hawaii's Department of Transportation, Jade Butay, the department itself, Governor David Ige, and the State of Hawaii are violating their constitutional rights by failing to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. In Hawaii, the state constitution has guaranteed each person since 1978 "the right to a clean and healthful environment." Climate change threatens that right. But when it comes to decarbonizing the state's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions - transportation - the plaintiffs say state leadership has been asleep at the wheel.

"What we want is for the Transportation Department to start doing the things it's already supposed to be doing to help mitigate climate change," said Leināʻala Ley, an attorney with Earthjustice and a co-counsel for the case.

The Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment, and Governor Ige's office declined to comment on the pending litigation.

The State of Hawaii recognizes that climate change is an existential threat. Last year, it became the first state in the U.S. to declare a climate emergency. Three years before that, Governor Ige signed a law committing the state to becoming carbon neutral by 2045. In many ways, Hawaii has been a climate leader - but not when it comes to the transportation sector. If the state continues on its current trajectory, by 2030 the emissions will have increased by 41 percent from 2020 levels, according to the state's most recent emissions report.

Earthjustice and Our Children's Trust - the two organizations representing the 14 plaintiffs - chose to focus on the Department of Transportation because there is much more it could and should be doing, Ley said. There are statutes that require the agency to take steps to cut emissions, like reducing vehicle miles traveled and improving pedestrian and bike pathways, "but the state Department of Transportation isn't meeting any of these goals and mandates that are already on the books," Ley said.

Leināʻala Ley, an attorney for Earthjustice, stands in front of the Supreme Court of Hawaii the morning the lawsuit was filed. Marti Townsend / Courtesy of Earthjustice

"We have the tools in our hands to fix the climate crisis, we just have to have the political will to do that," she added. "This lawsuit can help push the government in the right direction."

Today's youth have the most to lose if we don't act quickly to address climate change. The personal stories of the youth plaintiffs, who are between 9 and 18 years old and come from across the Hawaiian Islands, illustrate how climate change is already affecting the region. Fourteen-year-old Navahine and her family maintain a fishpond, but polluted runoff from unusually heavy downpours and rising sea levels threaten the Native Hawaiian practice. "If urgent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are not made, these lands will most likely be underwater within my lifetime. And if that happens, our legacy and our future on this island will be lost," she told Grist.

Ka'ōnohi, 15, is a diver and spearfisher, but ocean acidification and rising temperatures have caused wide-scale bleaching and die-offs of Hawaii's once-vibrant reefs. Others have had their homes threatened by intensifying storms, their roads washed away by flash floods, and their food and water security torn away by the changing climate.

In previous cases, youth have sued the federal government and other state governments over climate inaction. In 2015, 21 young people filed a lawsuit against the federal government in a case called Juliana v. United States, or Youth v. Gov. Five years later, a federal appeals court dismissed the lawsuit, writing that the issue should be addressed by the executive and legislative branches, rather than the courts, but now the plaintiffs have filed an amended complaint.

Recently, activists have been trying a different tactic, filing lawsuits in places like Hawaii, where the state constitution guarantees the right to a clean and healthful environment. Similar cases are also pending in Utah and Montana, but the outcomes are still uncertain.

As kids, it can be frustrating "to constantly feel like our voice isn't heard in these big conversations about our future," said Navahine, the lead plaintiff. "These decisions that are made regarding climate change are going to impact my generation and the generations after us the most." She sees this lawsuit as a way for her and her peers to make their voices heard.

Though it feels a bit overwhelming, she said, "I do know that it's the right thing to do. And I really hope that it makes an impact."

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Youth climate lawsuit filed in Hawaii says constitutional rights violated

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As Tropical Storm Olivia bore down on the island of Maui in September 2018, Kaliko and her family grabbed their most important belongings and fled. The storm inundated the island with more than a foot of rain, and the floodwater lifted Kaliko's home from its foundation and washed part of it away.

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subscribe to The NPR Politics Podcast podcast

Melissa Block talks to Jim Cutting, a teacher at Lincoln Akerman School in New Hampshire, who led his fourth-graders' effort to turn a bill into a law, only to have it rejected right in front of them.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

Some fourth-graders in New Hampshire got a rough lesson in the ups and downs of legislation. The kids had proposed a bill to make the red-tailed hawk the official state raptor. They praised the male and female hawk's teamwork on nest-building, incubation and feeding of their young. They said the bird's strength and determination made it a worthy state symbol. Well, the bill got through committee and the kids went to the New Hampshire House Gallery last week to watch the debate. But then, things quickly went south. Jim Cutting is the fourth-graders' teacher at Lincoln H. Akerman school in Hampton Falls. I asked him how his class came up with the idea to propose an official state raptor.

JIM CUTTING: We talked about some of the previous state symbols that have been initiated by children. And eight of them decided that they would like to pursue this a little further and I had suggested to them that they might consider a state raptor, being a majestic bird. They decided that the red-tailed hawk would best meet their criteria. And they were willing to take some time away from recess and stay inside to discuss it and begin to kind of move this process forward.

BLOCK: Well, let's go to where the bill got into trouble. So the eight kids from the class went to the legislature in New Hampshire. And we have some audio of what happened in House debate. Let's take a listen to a few clips. The first here is Christy Bartlett.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHRISTY BARTLETT: We already have a state bird. But now do we need a state raptor? Isn't that a bird?

BLOCK: Ms. Bartlett said there are just too many bills like this, that it's distracting the legislature from more important issues. And that view was picked up by another representative named John Burt.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BURT: If we keep bringing more of these bills and bills and bills forward that really I feel we shouldn't have in front of us, we'll be picking a state hot dog next.

BLOCK: State hot dog. OK. Then there was Warren Groen who tried to draw a link between this discussion about the hawk and his staunch opposition to abortion. And he said on the floor he has been studying how the red-tailed hawk operates.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

REPRESENTATIVE WARREN GROEN: And it mostly likes field mice and small rodents, but its grasps them with its talons and then uses its razor-sharp beak to rip its victim to shreds - tear it apart limb-by-limb. And I guess the shame about making this the state bird is it would serve as a much better mascot for Planned Parenthood.

BLOCK: Mr. Cutting, how did the kids react when they heard this?

CUTTING: I think that they were a bit discouraged to hear anybody speak against their bill. Most of the comments I don't think that they really - I think that they had a sense of the tone of it and they were tuned in to the reaction of other people, whether it was their families that were with them. There was some laughter on the House floor, and one child asked, why did people laugh at us? But I think that, in particular, the Planned Parenthood comment was not something that they really understood.

BLOCK: Well, the bill to make the red-tailed hawk the New Hampshire state raptor - it was defeated. Was this a teachable moment for you? I mean, did it provide a lesson in something about civics and the way government works?

CUTTING: It did from the standpoint that just because there's a chance that something might fail doesn't mean that there's not a reason to give it your best effort. You know, that was really, I think, the message that came from this, to be proud of, you know, trying and following something through to the very end and ensuring that you've done everything you could. The children all wore shirts to the House vote that said, live free and fly. It had a picture of the red-tailed hawk on the shirt. They were there ahead of time to hand out flyers to the representatives as they entered, encouraging them to vote for their bill. So they really reached out in every way that they could.

BLOCK: Well, Mr. Cutting, thanks for talking to us. We appreciate it.

CUTTING: You're welcome.

BLOCK: Jim Cutting teaches fourth grade at Lincoln H. Akerman School in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. His students' bill to make the red-tailed hawk the official state raptor failed by a vote of 133 to 160.

Copyright © 2015 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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Fourth-Graders Get Rough Lesson In Politics

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subscribe to The NPR Politics Podcast podcast Melissa Block talks to Jim Cutting, a teacher at Lincoln Akerman School in New Hampshire, who led his fourth-graders' effort to turn a bill into a law, only to have it rejected right in front of them.

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Watch: Child Activists Confront Sen. Dianne Feinstein On Climate Change | NBC News

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Teenage activist Marley Dias on the trailblazer who inspired her

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Testimony of a KS Student on Mosquito Biocontrol

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Testimony of a KS Student on Mosquito Biocontrol

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Testimony of a KS Student on Mosquito Release

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The Hawaiian Monk Seal and Tourist Incident - A Local's Reaction

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Pig hunters voice concerns at DLNR meeting on birth control hog feed measures

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https://operations.du.edu/irise/content/news/source-wound

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Hawaii Exempt From Environmental Study Before Releasing Bacterium-Injected Mosquito! OMG!

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Climate activist Brianna Fruean's full speech at COP26

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The National Museums Northern Ireland returned ancestral Hawaiian human remains, also known as iwi kūpuna, during an official handover ceremony earlier this month.

A Hawaiian delegation, museum colleagues and American embassy delegates attended the handover ceremony. The repatriation took place after talks between the museum, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Hui Iwi Kuamoʻo.

Five mea makamae pili aliʻi, or treasures associated with aliʻi, were also returned.

Researchers believe that Gordon Augustus Thomson removed the iwi from burial caves when he traveled to Hawaiʻi in 1840. He donated the remains to the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society in 1857. They were included in a 1910 donation to the Belfast Museum and Art Gallery, a precursor to NMNI.

The iwi kūpuna and mea makamae pili aliʻi had been part of the museum's World Cultures Collection.

"National Museums Northern Ireland believes it has legal and ethical responsibilities to redress the injustices shown to Native Hawaiian cultural values and traditions, and so through ongoing dialogue, it was agreed that these iwi kūpuna and mea makamae pili aliʻi should be returned by repatriation to the Native Hawaiians through the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a self-governing corporate body of the State of Hawaiʻi," Kathryn Thomson, chief executive at NMNI, said in a statement.

"We are re-evaluating our World Cultures Collection on an ongoing basis, to better understand the complex global stories of some 4,500 items - and how and why they came to be in Belfast. We understand and respect cultural values and are in ongoing liaison with source communities and their representatives to establish if items within the collection can and should be returned to their ancestral homes. We remain open to further repatriations as these engagements develop," she said.

The Hawaiian delegation also repatriated an iwi poʻo, or skull, from Surgeons' Hall Museums in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The iwi kūpuna will be reburied on Molokaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island.

OHA will steward the returned mea makamae pili aliʻi.

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Iwi kūpuna and treasures repatriated during trip to United Kingdom

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The National Museums Northern Ireland returned ancestral Hawaiian human remains, also known as iwi kūpuna, during an official handover ceremony earlier this month. A Hawaiian delegation, museum colleagues and American embassy delegates attended the handover ceremony. The repatriation took place after talks between the museum, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Hui Iwi Kuamoʻo.

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Bishop Museum CEO says she wants answers from board about why she was put on leave

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The Bishop Museum board of directors is holding an emergency meeting after placing three top leaders on paid administrative leave.

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873 comments

Daphne_ontheriver

I think Server Security is high on demand and does pay well

2d ago

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Danny

Yes I’m trying to get into project management

2d ago

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Z Savage

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2d ago

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unicornsdonnotcry

digital marketers have been waiting 10 years for this... maybe 20

2d ago

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Marla Lewis535

I’m in IT Project Management, best career ever! Will start my own consulting company soon!

1d ago

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Raquel

Wow. I’m going to be one of those old people that doesn’t want to learn such tech skills 🥺

2d ago

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Andres

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2d ago

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Magic Marbles

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2d ago

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blessdwife777

heck ya! I recieved my PMP cert last year and am now working as a Project Manager 💪🏼.

1d ago

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Betty

Telehealth therapist

2d ago

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Anna Newman

Wait I can edit videos on Adobe! What can I do with it!?

2d ago

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2d ago

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Martin N

Data Analytics shoul be there

1d ago

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Donna_burns

You forgot accountant cause everyone of those people need accountants

1d ago

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Robert Skrobe

Stay far, far away from user experience (UX). It’s a hybrid of research and design with no demonstrated impact on business results. 😬

1d ago

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Me

Kids don’t want to listen

1d ago

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The top skills for MAKING MONEY! 💵 #money #moneytips #moneytok #millionaire #fyp #foryou

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@lorallangemeier
The top skills for MAKING MONEY! 💵 #money #moneytips #moneytok #millionaire #fyp #foryou
♬ Jupiter & Mars - ARDN

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The U.S. has the 2nd highest child poverty rate in the developed world. Why?

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The U.S. has the 2nd highest child poverty rate in the developed world. Why?

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How likely is it that you will become wealthy if you were born poor?

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How likely is it that you will become wealthy if you were born poor?

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This figure shows the percent likelihood of a child transitioning to a higher quintile of income based on how wealthy their parents are.

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#TheWorldWeWant - The world through your eyes

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Secretary-General António Guterres signs a Book of Condolences in memory of Shinzo Abe, former Prime Minister of Japan, at the Permanent Mission of Japan to the

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UN7944081
New York, 7/12/2022

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The personal conquest of the power/knowledge that is the Essence of Bitcoin

"Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion." - Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

"There is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations" ― Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Pedagogy is the way and means that someone comes to understand a topic. It is how someone learns a subject, how it is taught to them, and all of the wider social context in which someone learns. Larger than just learning, teaching, or understanding; pedagogy involves the social, historic, political, economic, technological, and every other contextual situation in which someone is attempting to learn a particular subject. In short, we could call it the philosophy of learning. This is important for our context because the pedagogy of Bitcoin is also the pedagogy of liberation insofar that both endows us with a radical new understanding of the world that makes our oppression no longer viable. It is through this key of decrypting the meaning of what crypto is that we can remake the world.

Pedagogy of Oppressed is the title of Paulo Freire's magnum opus on the topic of radical collaborative learning as personal empowerment. In this book Freire explains how both the oppressed and oppressors find themselves enslaved to systems of power which operate through pedagogical means. The oppressed are taught they are too stupid, lazy, or infirm to help themselves and that they must 'learn' from their oppressors to lessen their misery. Likewise, the oppressors are also entrapped within these systems of power through being taught that they have the 'right' ideas within them, and that only through depositing these right ideas of theirs into the oppressed through hierarchical systems of power, such as education, legal, economic, and so on, that the oppressed will be able to change their circumstances by emulating their oppressors. What is critical about both of these roles and perspectives is that they both rely upon seeing oneself and others as objects first, and as human-beings secondly. For it is once that you realize that all people are first and foremost human-beings that have a consciousness and critical agency; you can also understand that these systems of power can be broken because of the critical consciousness and personal agency that all humans have the potential for.

This power that is the critical consciousness of the individual to recognize their personal agency and power through the acquisition of knowledge is the greatest secret that there is. It is THE singular power that we have as human-beings and it is only an endogenous phenomena that may be discovered from within. This discovery allows the clearing of the possibility that all beings may use to compel themselves the will-to-power, and the solidarity that is the task of respecting The Other as 'a being whom I have no power over'.

It is only when we understand that humans are beings with critical agency, and each of us, as an engine of our being-in-the-world, are animated by this capacity for critical agency; can we also come to understand the capacity for self-actualized power that exist within each of us. It is a personal secret discovery that once we know it exist, we can cultivate and broaden this power within ourselves to become The Power by which we will conquer the world. It is through this recognition of our agency and that of The Other's as well, that we can dignify us both with the greatest gift that can be given-Bitcoin.

Bitcoin not as just an idea, but as an apparatus of power in the world of today. The singular hope for a freedom in the future that is beyond the last vestiges of slavery we call fiat money.

The power of understanding The Truth Machine

Bitcoin is an invincible energy machine of immutable power whose oath cannot be broken. It renders and guarantees a kind of protection that nothing else on this planet can offer. It is the promise of what truth means in our fallen world, and the consequence of its unvarnished rediscovery at this time. Through each of our own personal discoveries of this Truth Machine and what it means to us personally as an enslaved people, do we also have an understanding of its messianic power. We understand that with Bitcoin and cryptography we can recover an ancient form of power that will give us the ability not only to vanquish the state; but to organize for the new coming epoch. It is The Truth that allows for us to rise above and beyond the limits we believe we had for the courage that our love of The Other instills within us-it is the deepest solidarity that there can be.

It is once you understanding that the power that resides within each of us as an esoteric discovery that is activated by the unveiling that is critical consciousness that is the pursuit of truth; that you can also start to understand how such a power is limitless. It is this secret hidden deep inside each of us that hodls the power to break the state's hypnosis of control, its order of authority over truth. It is the empowerment of knowing that you can free yourself from the camps and that you can kill the police officer in your head in the most horrific of ways for the most magnanimous of all causes:

Your own freedom.

The current paradigm of state society relies upon a system of discreet disciplinary enforcements where everyone is under suspicion and everyone is a potential criminal in order to create a panoptic disciplinary system where everyone and everything is monitored. And to be clear, this is far beyond just policing powers, but is the whole regulatory system which has fused with the modren economic and financial systems to teach us our own oppression, to be our own police.

This is how the police officer got into your head and was allowed to colonize there; having you hesitate because you don't know if you are being watched; waiting to be hit rather than preparing to fight back. It is because we have lost our personal agency and no longer see ourselves as sovereign beings of light and love, but citizen subjects with bodies that can be brutally destroyed. No longer are we taught to think, but to comply. Not to create, but to work. Not to be free, but be fearful. We have become slaves to an existence that traps, molests, and mutilates us. No longer are we free people, but the remnants of a horrific science experiment gone wrong; the artifacts of a failed democracy that was liquidated long ago.

We are told that if we simply follow the advice of the experts who know better than we do, that we will attain the same power that they have. However, once we start to questioning the legitimacy of these 'correct' ways, we can start to see and understand a totally different form of power that is created when it is not compliance that is offered, but questioning. It is this courageous action of questioning, that Kant called 'Sapere Aude (Dare to Know)' that allows for a new form of critical consciousness to be cultivated from within. This allows for the individual to locate the true locus of power which they rediscovered within themselves to become the secret person they are destined to be. This new critical consciousness that is awaked within people that allows for new forms of critical questioning to be created Freire called " conscientização " or consciousness-raising.

Conscientização then becomes the tool that we need towards information technology, monetary history, and most importantly cryptography, in order to raise our critical awareness to understand Bitcoin as a tool of liberation first and for most. For it is only once we are critically questioning in a way that expands our power do we start to become self-sovereign. Only when we have the critical awareness of what bitcoin is, how its encryption to protect us, why decentralization allows for Bitcoin to be anti-fragile and what consequence that has in the world today, will we start to build conscientização around our relationship to technology, and how we can use bitcoin to make it a free one.

It is with this new consciousness of how we can use this knowledge of technology as personal power that we now have a choice:

To use the technology that enslaves you, or to understand the technology that liberates you.

It is your choice alone.

With the exquisite technique of the discovery of personal knowledge in the information age one may become the master of their domain once again. With the specific knowledge of how Bitcoin and cryptography operate, and a wider knowledge of how the internet and privacy can protect us; we start to understand the true consequence of what this knowledge means in the world of today. We start to see how the promise of cryptography and what its discipline and liturgy offers humanity is a new kind of promise that has never been possible before. With this knowledge we can start to cultivate a new form of consciousness within ourselves that is outside and beyond the approval or power of any state or external power that exist. This is what I mean by the phrase 'Crypto-Sovereignty'.

Through our holistic understanding of Bitcoin, our consciousness is raised in such a way that unveils the secrets of a radically different understanding of money, finance, wealth, value and power through its revolutionary praxis that is the knowledge of Bitcoin. This praxis of Bitcoin, when well-understood, allows for any person-regardless of their political caste, religious creed, or station of birth-to reclaim the right to the most basic commonality that is property ownership. It is a right outside and beyond the power of any temporal being or political institution. However, to understand what this means we must first ask the question 'what is wealth?' in order for us to have a critical consciousness of what it is, and how it functions.

The commonwealth of knowledge

Wealth is a concept that goes well beyond simply money, but relates to the security of the sovereign order itself. It is the promise of safety and security that once was only possible to be offered by a sovereign who was beyond the law, for they established the law. Through the exchange of the subject submitting themselves fully to the sovereign they could have confidence and esteem in the order of the commonwealth, and its security and safety. It was the guarantee of the sovereign to deliver on its promise of the commonality of law and the consanguinity of justice for all subjects equally and alike. Without this guarantee of safety and security, every other assurance is hollow and meaningless, including money. This is better surmised by Hobbes as:

"The Obligation of Subjects to the Sovereign is understood to last as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth, by which he is able to protect them. For the right men have by Nature to protect themselves, when none else can protect them, can by no Covenant be relinquished. "
-Hobbes, Leviathan

When we start to critically consider the concept of wealth in a more holistic way, we can see that wealth comprises of much more than just money, or even the guarantee that the law is suppose to be; but is a form of actualization directly. It is what is at stake in a promise or an oath that no state, institution, or individual can provide. When we consider what Bitcoin has to offer us in this context, operating beyond the order of the state or contemporary banking and finance, it unveils a totally new and different form of what can be considered wealth. It is here that we see the flash of recognition that allows for a totally new form of consciousness that creates this new formula of wealth that is Bitcoin.

The coming Polis of Bitcoin

"Every religious, moral, economic, ethical, or other antithesis transforms into a political one if it is sufficiently strong to group human beings effectively according to friend and enemy. The political does not reside in the battle itself, which. possesses its own technical, psychological, and military laws, but in the mode of behavior which is determined by this possibility, by clearly evaluating the concrete situation and thereby being able to distinguish correctly the real friend and the real enemy."
-Carl Schmitt, On The Concept of The Political

Through the commonality that is the knowledge of cryptography and how it must operate with mathematical statements that can be verified as being true, a whole new world opens to man and the possibilities he can create through a consensual, non-violent agreements using this technology. It now becomes possible to concretely evaluate who your real friends and real enemies are. When wealth is no longer tied to just material objects and state legal ownership; but opens itself to a much broader idea of what wealth could and should be, we start to understand the true power of Bitcoin. It is this new social commons of the internet that contains the friendship that is this new commonality of wealth. It is this commonality of rules, and not rulers; of protocols, and not princes; of verification, not trust, that creates the new commonwealth that is Bitcoin.

It is of no coincidence that root word of 'commonwealth' has wealth within it. It is also of no coincidence that 'Res Publica' (the public thing) is the etymological origin for the word commonwealth, which is also known as Republic. For wealth is something that we can only hold in common within our society for it is only though social agreements with others, and the power of those agreements, that we can find the guarantee of safety and security that wealth truly is. Wealth must be contextually understood and recognizing by other members of a society in order for it to function as any kind of barer of value. In other words, wealth is the measure of value to which we consensually agree; or are forcibly subjected to.

It is the later point to which we must apply our critical thought. Have any of us ever agreed to how money is created, distributed and controlled? I think not. Do we have any say over the inflation rates, issuance, or even the power to reject fiat money when we are asked to transact with it? Again, I think not. The supposed commonality from which our shared wealth is suppose created displays that its true nature is not one of consensual agreement, but forced subjection. The only true commonality of fiat money is its general means of oppression for all people. It is a poverty that only people with a corrupt money can share; a commonality of destitution and constitution of corruption.

Even the richest of fiat owners may not spend their money freely or as they please. With each cent spent, governments leer and impatiently wait for their cut of the transaction which they so guilefully call 'tax'. And if forbidden items would like to be purchased, unauthorized transactions created, one runs the risk of being caged and punished under the most horrifying and degrading of means possible-to become enslaved to the state for simply not complying with what governments have demanded to be obeyed for no reason more than obedience. What this simple exercise towards fiat money shows us is that our wealth is not really ours, but is little more than a permission based system to access the right to the means of life, i.e. property. Whatever goods one may need to survive, must first be 'whitelisted' by the state, and approved for our use, but only after permission is given.

From this vantage point of understanding power, we can see that cryptography unlocks a spectacular new form of power that could only be called a destituent power. This is not a kind of legal power, nor is it even economic clout or a social principal; but is a totalizing form of power created through withdraw and refusal. It is to follow the messianic path of Bartleby the Scrivener though the action of, 'I would rather not'. It is through this power of refusal to participate because we understand what Bitcoin offers that we will recreate the world in a better and more fitting image for our time.

In short we can say, as Giorgio Agamben so pointedly said:

"If revolutions and insurrections correspond to constituent power, that is, a violence that establishes and constitutes the new law, in order to think a destituent power we have to imagine completely other strategies, whose definition is the task of the coming politics. A power that was only just overthrown by violence will rise again in another form, in the incessant, inevitable dialectic between constituent power and constituted power, violence which makes the law and violence that preserves it." -What is a Destituent Power?

It is this new formula of destituent power that we find hidden within cryptography that also allows for a totally different strategy of money, power, and law. However, the most critical aspect that allows for this radical new form of power to function is to dare to ask the question 'Why?' For if we cannot find the courage to think for ourselves then everything is lost. We must have the courage to question the systems of money, wealth, law and power that we have been offered, and to question this system from a sincere foundation of courageous logic. It is with this radical power of pedagogy we find the critical tools that allows for the awakening of our inner spark that is our power, our critical consciousness. For it is only once we can see there is a possibility to free ourselves from the chains of fiat money, and the vast system of exploitation which does not ask us to think, but only to obey; that we will achieve freedom. It is only once we are free to choose, do we have a way in which we can start to question this way of living, this system of power, these laws and money. When we see that there is a choice, we will find the hidden secrets of a life that is beyond the state's power and control-a life that is for us and us alone.

Through the radical personal discovery of Bitcoin as a critique of our current systems of money, wealth, and power; a new critical consciousness is created. It is the hope that is awakened in any individual on the planet today when they start to think about wealth with the most critical lens, and are open to the radical possibility of what Bitcoin promises. It is the truth that we discover within Bitcoin that allows for us to live courageously in the world again for we know that truth is a real thing of this world that has value and others see it too.

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The Pedagogy of Bitcoin - Crypto Sovereignty

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"Freedom is acquired by conquest, not by gift. It must be pursued constantly and responsibly. Freedom is not an ideal located outside of man; nor is it an idea which becomes myth. It is rather the indispensable condition for the quest for human completion."

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877 comments

Zadie5

It’s a lot easier to have that kind of perseverance when you have a safety net. Not that those without can’t have grit too but the stakes are diff.

5d ago

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Cindy

Omg tedtok??? A great username shift

5d ago

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Alberto Voltron Rive

how is grit quantified. this argument without the rest of the context is incomplete. funny that she never mentioned socioeconomics as a charactersics

5d ago

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Chris

You need to have a long-term goal that you stick with. The problem is people abandon the goal when they realize the work it will take to get there

5d ago

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I

This way of thinking is problematic

5d ago

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Danny

So the one who tries the hardest succeeds. Shocker

5d ago

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Bob Smith

I agree, but I go further to call it delayed gratification. Sacrifice now for benefits later.

5d ago

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Makienze Moore

I’ve watched this TED talk over and over. Still the best one I’ve seen

5d ago

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Mari Best

My two cents… Teachers should teach lessons specific to how each child learns. Visual hands-on etc.

5d ago

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KOSDFF

Thank you. Been saying this for YEARS. Hard work is measured in decades.

5d ago

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Munchkin

That only exist if all of child’s basic needs are met such food, shelter, emotional needs etc.

5d ago

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Eric

This defines my success and work ethic. I’ve always wondered what it was actually called, and this just makes sense!

5d ago

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“Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.” - Angela Lee Duckworth #grit #growthmindset #passion #perserverance #throwbackthursday

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@tedtoks
“Grit is living life like it's a marathon, not a sprint.” - Angela Lee Duckworth #grit #growthmindset #passion #perserverance #throwbackthursday
♬ original sound - TED Talks