Category: Uncategorized

Don’t Major in Minor Things

On By seancovellIn business, fitness, Health and Wellness, UncategorizedLeave a comment

“I can’t get no satisfaction.”- The Rolling Stones

There is an area of my life where I am not satisfied. It’s true! Call me insatiable. Call me ungrateful. Call me whatever you like, just don’t call me comfortable, because I’m not. This area of my life nags at me for attention. It keeps me up at night. It forces my mind to work overtime on how to quash this unease. This dissatisfaction in my life has forced me to question why I have not paid more attention to it before. The answer I have arrived at is the purpose for this article.

The reason I believe that many experience dissatisfaction, sadness and a feeling of lack in their lives is because they focus on things that don’t matter rather than designing a life. In other words, if life was a university, they are majoring in minor things. Many are well versed in sports statistics, celebrity gossip, the new flavor of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and so on. I’d liken this type of trivia to pouring trash into your mind. The mind’s capacity for knowledge is so great, yet we fill it with information and stories that keep us from achieving our true potential. I think we are guilty of this to a certain degree. Why? I would suggest the answer lies in our human desire to seek out pleasure and avoid pain. Trivia is fun, it’s exciting, it’s good in conversation. However, the pleasure gained from it is fleeting.

Disciplined thought and action on the other hand, will lead to long term pleasure and avoidance of many day to day pains that plague us. However, it’s not sexy. Talking about your disciplined routines and life goals at a party or family event will likely get you awkward stares, and rolling eyes. Thus, we go back to majoring in minor things–to avoid the social pain we might face. We all have the desire to be liked by others and our ability to do so determines a great deal of success. However, in our desire to be liked by others, the danger of being distracted by things that don’t matter becomes very real.

If you are not where you would like to be physically, financially, emotionally, it’s because you are not making that area of your life a priority–A MUST, if you will. You always get your MUSTS in life. You find a way to make them happen. But, if you are focusing on other areas instead, you are essentially HOPING for change without making those areas a priority above all else. So, be careful what information you pour into you mind. Choose you majors well and take massive action be sure that you are getting what you determine you MUST have. If it must happen, you will find a way. I have decided to refocus attention on those areas I believe are lacking. I hope you find the will to do the same.

In health,

Sean

Forget About Body Fat Percentage (Maybe)

On By seancovellIn Health and Wellness, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In the fitness world there is an obsession with knowing one’s body fat percentage or BF %. Of course, knowing your numbers in any aspect of life is certainly better than blindly walking through the world with your head buried in the sand. However, I’m going to comment on what I believe is an unnecessary fixation on the BF% number. First, most of what follows will be a commentary on athletes. If you do not train in the gym towards a goal, then yes, you should probably take a keen interest in what your body fat percentage is. Moreover, if you are sedentary and do not exercise, or you do but still have a large amount of body fat around your midsection, it’s likely that you have an unhealthy amount of visceral fat around your organs, which is very dangerous. If you need a kick in the pants to get up off the couch and get moving, go test your BF % and work to decrease it. Good. I’m glad that’s out of the way. Now we can move on.

Also, there is value in knowing what your lean body mass is. If you are eating one gram of protein and carbohydrates per pound of bodyweight, you’re likely taking in too many calories. A better formula would be to eat based on what your lean body mass is (total weight minus body fat). So, if I weight 180 pounds, but my lean body mass is 165 pounds, I should be taking in nutrients based on 165 pounds. This is especially true if fat loss is your goal.

Okay, so you’ve gotten through the first part of this and you’re thinking, “Sean, I do train hard and I’m an athlete. Don’t I need to know my BF %?” My answer to that is no. Let me explain. As a trainer and health club owner, I see too many people become distracted by obtaining a lower BF % and I believe this is the wrong goal. For most cross fit athletes, MMA fighters and other professional sports, the amount of body fat one has is nearly irrelevant. What matters more is performance and the ability to produce on command. For this goal, you need to have a little body fat for the body to tap into for energy. If, on the other hand, an athlete becomes obsessed with some abstraction like BF%, his or her ability to perform will be hindered by an unneeded distraction about knowing a piece of information that will not help them.

It should also be noted that body types range widely from person to person. Some folks might walk around at 10% body fat and looked cut and jacked out of their mind simply because they hold fat in different places. I know guys with 15% body fat with incredible abs. The same goes for women. So, if your goal is purely aesthetic, and you train hard and are healthy, the mirror is a much better guide than a BF measurement. Again, some people are genetically predisposed to store more fat in their legs and glutes. Some people store it in their midsection. Where your body’s fat stores are has as much impact on how you look as your BF % does. Bottom line here, bodybuilders and physique competitors should let the mirror be their guide.

Another very important thing to remember about body fat testing is the inconsistency in which results occur. The method of testing–calipers, bioelectrical impedance, hydrostatic tanks–they all produce different results. Most bioelectrical impedance machines (the ones where you grab the metal parts and hold your arms out) are very unreliable and produce varying results hour to hour. This is especially true if you are well hydrated or have an increased intake in sodium. My wife and I competed in a bodybuilding and physique show and our coach, IFBB Pro Jon DeLaRosa (www.JonDelarosa.com), kept our sodium intake high throughout the entire contest prep. About three weeks into the prep, one of my employees at the gym wanted to test Holly’s body fat and the result from the machine was so ridiculous that it made me laugh. It didn’t make her laugh though. Despite having become significantly leaner, the machine had her at nearly 30 % body fat, reading as overweight/obese. I reassured her not to worry and explained how the reading was off. But, Holly was nearly de-railed by a piece of false information. She should have trusted the mirror and herself. Calipers and hydro tanks are more accurate, however, it’s worth repeating that your BF % may not have any relevance to you, depending on what your goals as an athlete are.

In closing, if you are an athlete, don’t focus on BF %. It’s a complete distraction to you and will hinder your ability to achieve your goals. If you are NOT an athlete and you know that you have a significant amount of fat to lose, or your gut is solid from too much visceral fat, then you should know your BF% number and work to decrease it via training hard and fueling your body with the proper nutrients based on your lean body mass, not your overall bodyweight. Again, the real takeaway here is that there is no cookie cutter approach or metric that can be applied to the whole population for anything in life. That includes ideal BF %, BMI, sodium intake, or anything else. Know thyself. Don’t be defined or distracted by a number!

In health,

Sean

7 Qualities of a Leader

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Everyone wants to make more money, but few are willing to take on the responsibilities and execute the duties associated with bringing more value to the marketplace. Value is really what we are talking about when we talk about money. Now, everyone has value. As a person, a husband, a wife, you name it. But in terms of income, value to the marketplace is what determines your pay. Sure, you may be able to fool or scam some people short term and make a bunch of cash, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time as the saying goes. Eventually, the laws of compensation will catch up with everyone and everything in this universe. That said, here are the Seven Qualities that will ensure your income rises regardless of the economic climate. They just also happen to be the Seven Qualities of Leaders.

    1. VISION—To ensure more income for yourself and to be a great leader, you must have the capacity to see what is not yet there. You must have vision. You must tap into creativity—the energy source that brings life to all new things. Yes, you must see things as they are, but not worse than what they are. THEN, you must have vision for what could be better. After that, massive action is necessary to see your vision become a reality.
    2. COURAGE—This, in my opinion, is the most important trait to have. Without courage, nothing happens. Fear will always cloud your thinking and get in the way of your success. An example of courage in the marketplace is making cold calls to prospects or asking existing clients for referrals. That takes courage. Simply showing up to work and going through the motions takes no courage. In other words, to utilize courage, you must be willing to be uncomfortable—that’s the only way you can grow. All growth comes from a period of discomfort, and making more money requires doing what others are not willing to do.
    3. INTEGRITY—No one will follow a person without integrity for a sustained period of time. Being a person of ethics and values—having a code and living by it—will cause others to trust you and trust your judgment because they believe that you have their best interest at heart. This matters a great deal in every relationship, including those in the marketplace.
    4. HUMILITY—Having a modest view of your own importance as it relates to others is vital for any leader. Of course you are important, but no more important than anyone else as far as they are concerned. Understand that everyone is the star of his or her own movie! You are merely the cameo appearance. So, if you want to succeed in being a leader and making increased income, check your ego at the door. If others see you as being a person who lacks the humility to accept the importance of others, you may do well, but it will not last. People like to follow others they respect. And employers love to pay respectable people more.
    5. STRATEGIC PLANNING—This quality is so needed today, I could write hundreds of pages about the subject. The bottom line here is that the tactical work of doing the job as it is required and the strategic work of planning the future work that must be done for increased levels of success are two very, very different things. Most believe that by showing up and doing the job as required is enough to be compensated more (because there exist so many people who can’t even do that!). The truth, however, is very different. The truth is that in today’s marketplace, strategic planning is required to ensure that you become irreplaceable. Look at great leaders in history—they all had the capacity for strategic planning: Disney, Jobs, Washington, Churchill, Marshall, and Khan—all of these people were incredible planners and that’s why their names will be cemented in history.
    6. FOCUS ON STRENGTHS AND USING THEM—Great leaders focus on their own strengths as well as the strengths of others and plan a way to best employ those strengths. In other words, they don’t complain that “everyone around here is stupid” or “I’m the only one who really works hard.” Those are limiting beliefs that will ensure you never get to where you want to be. Those who focus on the tools they have and how they can possibly be used to accomplish a goal will usually figure out a way to get it done, even if they are lacking a certain tool or trait. This is due to the fact that they are more mindful than those who only see faults in others.
    7. FOCUS ON RESULTS—At the end of the day, RESULTS RULE. PERIOD. END OF STORY! If workplace morale is down, month over month or year over year revenues are down, or there exists an exponential increase in the costs associated with doing business or some other massive problem, you must figure out what is not working right. What needs to be optimized? What needs to be innovated? Who do you need around you to accomplish your goal? Who is not a right fit? What must happen to make your world incredible both at work and outside of it? Results rule. Do not keep going down the same road because you’re used to it. What if a giant tree or sinkhole was blocking the road? Would you still consider the route? Of course not. A great leader would formulate a new plan of action and then implement it to get the desired result. Change your approach until the result you want is reached.

 

There they are: seven qualities of a leader. Remember though, it’s not enough to understand something intellectually. You must embody it. You must live it and keep on living it so that others will follow you and help you achieve your desires!

10 Bests List (Fitness Edition)

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Best Exercise for Quadricep Mass–Leg press. Many would say heavy squats, but I believe that the ability to change angles of your feet on the leg press allows for overall quad development and emphasis, rather than on the glutes. Those who I have seen that squat regularly appear to have overdeveloped glutes.

Best Fitness Accessory–VersaGrips. These grips are a great way to protect the hands and prevent calluses, but they are double as lifting straps that can help you use more weight than your normal grip would allow. They are very comfortable, can be used during the entire workout and help a great deal with back exercises. (Runner Up–Weight Lifting Belt)

Best Cardio Machine–Stepmill. Not only is the stepmill difficult, it can be used in a variety of ways to improve the calves, quads, hamstrings and glutes. Overall caloric expenditure on this machine is higher than most other pieces of cardio. (Runner Up–Jacobs Ladder)

Best Arm Mass Building Exercise– Close grip bench press/cheat curls with forced negatives. These two movements, one for tricep mass and one for bicep mass, respectively, will beef up your arms a great deal if performed correctly.

Best Abdominal Exercise–Hanging leg raise. Not only does this exercise give traction for the spine and stretch out the lower back, it also strengthens the entire core. This movement is also very applicable to sports. (Runner up–Planks)

Best Chest Exercise for Pectoral Development–Incline dumbbell press. Some would argue the incline barbell press is better for building strength and power. I agree. However, dumbbells can be used in a variety of ways and angles that allow for more pectoral activation and emphasis and less shoulder recruitment. The amount of gym-goers who have undergone shoulder surgery from barbell presses is endless. Keep that in mind. (Runner Up–Cable flyes)

Best Post-Workout Supplement–Whey protein isolate. Loaded with L-leucine and other essential amino acids, this supplement digests quickly and also has an effect on spiking insulin post workout, which aids massively in repairing muscle tissue. (Runner Up–Fermented Branch Chain Amino Acids, BCAA)

Best Pre-Workout Supplement–Caffeine with Creatine. One stimulates the central nervous system and allows for increases in endurance and strength. The other allows for extra water to enter muscle cells, resulting in increased endurance and causes an increase in protein synthesis, meaning your muscles grow.

Best Back Exercise—Pull-ups. Not only are they one of the hardest exercises, they also are one of the most applicable to sports and real life situations. If you only did pull-ups for back work, you could still achieve an impressive back.

Best Butt Exercise–Reverse hack squats. Doing squats on the hack squat (facing the pads) allows your body to drop back and keep the tension on the glutes as if you were sitting down in a chair. I like the hack squat because I find it to be somewhat more accessible for people than barbell squats. Also, it’s much easier to do partial reps on this machine and absolutely tear up your buns. (Runner Up–Deep barbell back squats)

 

Bonus—Best Time to Workout for Muscle Gains–Afternoon between 3-6pm (if you wake up around 6-9 am). The afternoon is when your core temperature is the highest and it’s likely your strength will be as well. (Runner up–first thing in the morning fasted-great for fast loss and boosting natural growth hormone)

Check Your Carbs

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Check Your Carb Sources

If you are overweight or carrying more body fat than you’d like, there’s a very high chance that you are eating too many carbohydrates. Carbohydrate consumption triggers the pancreas to release insulin to bring down blood sugar. Insulin then transports the glucose in the bloodstream into muscle tissue for repair or it stores the glucose in fat deposits. Since most Americans are consuming carbohydrates in abundance at every meal (and many don’t even know what a carbohydrate is) I suggest that you reduce your carb sources to only one or two total. My reasoning behind this is twofold; 1.) so that you can properly identify and measure out exactly the amount of carbohydrates you are consuming and 2.) so that you can identify if certain carb sources are causing your body distress and messing with your metabolic and digestive functions. The truth is that many people have an immune response to certain foods. Dairy, grains, soy and sugar, nightshades and citrus are all very common allergies for people.

The second reason given is also somewhat of a revelation that I’ve had recently. I’ve been battling autoimmune disease for the last 15 years. I thought that I had finally narrowed down the culprit foods to wheat and dairy, however it wasn’t until I began prepping for a bodybuilding show and my only carb source became jasmine rice that I realized my body gets inflamed from starches such as beans and potatoes as well. I had been consuming those foods, the same ones causing minor inflammation in my body for years thinking that I was doing better. I was, but it wasn’t until I really eliminated them for a period of time that I finally realized I may be better off without them. Also, it’s very easy for me to measure out the jasmine rice throughout the day so that I can properly measure the amount of carbs I’m getting. I find it much more difficult to do this eating sugars, flours, potatoes, beans and other carbohydrates.

The famous strength coach Charles Poliquin says you have to “earn your carbs”- meaning that your body fat must be low enough to utilize the carbs without turning them into fat. This happens from training intensely and being diligent about measuring your carbohydrates throughout the day. This is not to say that you need to deprive yourself of food or not indulge on occasion, but frankly, most people don’t need to eat as many carbs as they do. There are no “essential carbs” like there are amino acids and fats. Carbohydrates can be a great energy source for training, but if your bodyfat needs to come down, they are the first macronutrient to begin scaling back. So, learn which carbs you respond well to and then be sure to measure them out and consume the majority of your carbs around the time you train. This will decrease the likelihood they will be stored as extra fat.

What If (part 2)

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What if the most important question you could ask yourself is, “could I be wrong about this?” What is that is the only way to properly analyze something and explore all possibilities? What if most people never do this? What if most people become polarized against others? What if most people want the same things in life? What if our ideologies prevented us from getting what we really want? What if some don’t know what they want in life? What if they feel hollow inside? What if their lives are filled with fear and anxiety? What if the only way to prevent this was to take control of your humanity?

What if you don’t know what humanity means? What if you are confused by what your purpose is? What if the answer was simple? What if all of our purpose is to embrace our consciousness? What if our true purpose was to attempt to fulfill our potential- whatever that may be? What if the hollow and empty feeling we get is because we are not living up to our potential? What if the cause of most anxiety and fear is really a disappointment in ourselves? What if, deep down, we always know the truth, but we hide it from the world? What if our ego is our greatest enemy? What if our desire to be liked by others is killing our humanity? What if the real secret is to like yourself first? What if we are not being our true selves and we are suffering the consequences internally? What if you and I could stamp out anxiety forever by playing full out each day? What if true success is in knowing that you did your absolute best? What if that is the first step in fulfilling your potential?

What if you are capable of much more than you even know? What if you could not fail? What would you do? What reasons do you have for not playing full out every day? What stories do you tell yourself that make you sick? What if those stories hold you back? What would have to happen to be proud of yourself at night? Who else do you want to make proud of you? What reasons do you have for wanting what you want? What if you started today? What if there is no tomorrow to get started? What if each day is a new chance at life? What would that mean to you? What’s holding you back? What if the only limits on your potential are the ones you create? What if you destroyed them?

 

What if?

For Auld Lang Syne

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The New Year is upon us!!! What was awesome about your 2016? What didn’t work out so well for you? The questions you ask yourself and the evaluations you give to those questions will determine the quality of your life, not just for this new year, but forever. Most of us ask questions that trigger bad answers. Ask: Why am I fat? , your brain will say: “Because you’re lazy”. The reason for this, is because most of carry around our past failures with us. Instead, carry your victories with you. Ask better questions if you want better results. What are you proud of? What are you juiced about? What makes your feel good? Those questions will get you unbelievable results in the gym and in your life.

Sometimes it helps to think about areas of you life like fitness as if it were a car being driven along the road. What type of car do you want to drive? How fast are you reaching your destination? Do you have enough fuel? I like to remind people they are always driving somewhere, but often they’re looking in the wrong direction. While the rear view mirror is very useful, if that’s all you’re looking at while driving……CRASH!!!! Make sure you check it to see what’s behind you, but focus on the windshield so you can see what lies ahead. And what a bright future it can be if you let it.

Auld Lang Syne the tune many of us hear during the New Year was written in 1788 by a Scottish poet named Robert Burns. You know the tune, but do you know what it means? Auld Lang Syne means ‘for days of old’. The poet was talking about “talking a cup of kindness” for days of old. The song instructs us to think fondly of our past, not take our defeats with us. In other words, it’s good to reminisce, but only if you’re focusing on what was good and what you can  be grateful for.

So let’s change your focus in 2017 to your victories and not your defeats. Focus on what you love and not what you fear. Focus on your goals, but focus more on the reasons you want to achieve them. Remember, success leaves clues. Find out what you want, then figure out who has done it before you and get some coaching.

So what’s your real goals for 2017?

-Sean Covell

Be Negative!

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The Importance of Thinking Negative

 

Despite popular belief amongst my family, friends and employees, I am not a very positive person. Actually, I don’t believe in positive thinking–believing that everything will always work out because you want it to be a certain way. No, the truth is that you don’t get what you want in life. You get what you tolerate. You get your standards. Bad stuff happens all the time, even to good people. That’s the way of the universe. Don’t ask me why. I wasn’t included in the board meeting during the master plan to create this reality. I have a belief that nature is clueless and could care less about your desires. You operate in nature, not the other way around. Sure, you can alter nature slightly, using your mind and body to invent and create things that improve your standard of living, but I think it’s always best to be mindful of the reality of nature. Hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquake, fires, accidents– these are all a natural part of life. No amount of positive thinking is going to make all that go away.

So do we walk around moping all the time and murmuring about how hard life is? Absolutely not! Though I don’t believe in positive thinking, I do believe in accurate thinking–seeing things as they are, but not worse than what they are. For some odd reason, humans have the tendency to create stories about occurrences in everyday life that lead to the conclusion that all hell will break lose, or that no one will love us, or we will never be enough. Accurate thinking, or what the Stoics called Reason, is a tool unique to humans and we can use it to examine the world around us, and make choices that positively affect our lives. Conversely, only thinking about things in a positive way hinders us from being able to correctly identify obstacles and formulate plans to overcome them using reason. What I’m contending here is that seeing the downside to a plan, being able to negatively visualize an outcome is an incredible tool for preventing pain and can actually help you grow as a person. Moreover, not being blindsided by some negative event may allow you to maintain tranquility. I believe the ability to identify possible problems is a crucial part to survival.

Is the glass half full or half empty? This question missed the entire point. Reason would tell us that the glass is filled to half of its capacity. The glass is halfway filled up. This type of thinking is not new. In fact, it’s thousands of years old. The school of philosophy called Stoicism and it’s teachers spoke about using reason to control your emotions and maintain tranquility. Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius also suggested that we use negative visualization as not only a way to identify possible problems before hand, but also to better appreciate the things and people we have in our lives. Here, these philosophers argued that in addition to seeing things as they are, rather than how we’d like them to be, we should also envision the worst-case scenario on occasion. Why? Suppose that in your interactions with others, you envision that this is the last time you might see them because something terrible will happen to you or them. How will you treat them? Will you yell and roll your eyes at them like some of us do? What are the thoughts that will enter your head? Will they be thoughts of malice and hate? Or will they perhaps be thoughts of regret? Regret that you didn’t make more of the time you had together.  What of your possessions?  By imagining you may lose them all, you may develop a better appreciation for what your already have rather than seeking pleasure in acquiring new things.

The point of this exercise is to remind us that eventually there will be a last time for something. Our time is limited and that what is makes it special. Pretending that every time you kiss your wife or kids is the last time may sound depressing, but let me suggest that engaging in this practice radically changes the way you act towards people. By constantly reminding ourselves that our lives are on loan to us and that everything we have will come to and end, we can become driven to do the things that really matter. Also, the way we act towards others will become more positive because few want our last memory of something to be negative-so we being to cherish the relationships that mean something to us even more. Thinking about the negative in this situation can actually cause us to become happier and more fulfilled.

In conclusion, being constantly cheery while ignoring problems is no way to go through life. Happiness is not necessarily our default emotion. Our brains were not designed to make us happy. They certainly can, but their primary purpose is to evaluate the world around us and help us identify obstacles and the solutions to them. Our brains are wired for survival, not necessarily joy. So, if you don’t wake up happy or walk around with a permanent smile, don’t worry. You’re not abnormal. Just be sure that you see things as they are but not worse than what they are. Walking into your garden and chanting “there’s no weeds” will not make the weeds go away. But by thinking “positively” and ignoring them, they might just grow right up over your feet. See things as they really are, not better than they are, not worse than they are. Once you know the reality, you can begin to improve it. And remember too, that we all fated with a death sentence. We all have very limited time. So spend it wisely!

 

In Health,

 

 

Sean

 

 

 

Finding Balance

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Finding Balance

What follows is a journal entry written to myself. If there is any value in it whatsoever for you, I’m grateful for that.

A fulfilling life is all about finding balance. So many of us live at the extremes of life, letting those emotions affect us negatively. Balance ensures mindfulness and control. Truly, the only thing we really have control over is our philosophy towards life, so let me suggest that you evaluate whether your personal philosophy contains balance in the extremes. Over-caution must be balanced with recklessness. Fear must be balanced with courage. Stress must be balanced out with contentment and joy. You must be determined to achieve something while also being mindful of why you do what you do. You must balance the desires and goals that drive you with gratitude and appreciation for what you already have. You must balance aggression with compassion. You must balance indifference with strong passions. You must balance strength with vulnerability. You must balance studying with teaching. You must balance good times with bad times.

You must balance the importance of what you are engaged in with the thought that “we are but a speck in the universe, spinning around and one day we will all be gone.” You must balance desires with restraint. You must balance the love you give unconditionally among all you love. You must balance earning with investing. Saving with spending. You must balance learning one side of an argument with the other (s). You must balance imposing your will with accepting others’ will. You must balance reading with writing. You must balance the idea that all lives are incredibly important with the idea that we are all fated with a death sentence. You must balance caring with not caring. You must balance giving with allowing yourself to receive. You must balance focusing on the future while remembering the past. You must balance what you know with what you don’t know. You must balance confidence with humility. You must balance the light with the dark. You must balance happiness with sadness. Sorrow and despair with hope, so that neither affect you adversely.

But, above all- you must balance emotion with reason.

Democracy: The Big Lie

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“Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.” – Hans Herman Hoppe

I felt obligated to write this after watching the news coverage on this Election Day, 2016. Everywhere I turn, I hear the word democracy. The word democracy is something thrown around in the culture today as if it were the true ideal for any society. It’s supposed to be something that is virtuous and synonymous with freedom. In the United States, school children are mistakenly taught that America is a democracy. In fact, the founders of the United States understood democracy to be something to be avoided. Most of them detested the word. Why? Because they understood that democracy is tyranny of the majority. The majority rule ethic of democracy allows certain people to have their rights and property taken from them because a majority of the people decided so. Jefferson, Madison and others understood that the true ideal is individual liberty and that a majority can and will easily violate the rights of the minority if allowed to do so. Instead, they attempted to establish a Constitutional Republic—one in which representatives are elected into a government, but are restrained by limitations on their powers as well as term limits. Other Amendments to the Constitution were written to ensure that individual and state rights were not trampled upon by the legislators who assumed power. The State was supposed to have its power “shackled” by the Constitution. Our founders failed us.

Unfortunately, America has come to a point where the majority of the citizens are now on some assistance from the State, meaning that the majority of the people have succeeded in plundering the rest as a way to survive. This plunder is done in the name of democracy through taxation, bonds, fees and inflation of the money supply. You may know these programs as “entitlements, Social Security, fair share taxation and monetary easing”. Regardless of the name they go by, they all have one thing in common: certain groups are being plundered so that others may prosper. The law is being used to aggress against others and take from them—not protect them as laws are supposed to do. Yet, we are told to believe that because most of the people want it, it must be ethical. We are told by politicians that they have a mandate from the people. Obviously this logic, if followed through to its conclusion, has scary implications for groups who disagree with the majority. I believe Leo Tolstoy summed it up best, “Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.”

Democracy was never the ideal in America until very recently. In fact, Liberty was the ideal. Liberty runs counter to democracy because it favors private property rights and non-aggression—which basically says that one cannot initiate violence against you, your party or your property even through legislative means. Let me suggest to you that we return to the ideal of liberty rather than entitlement. Self-reliance rather than plunder. Hard work rather than state assistance. Some will read this and no doubt say that I am cold-hearted. The opposite is true. The larger the State becomes, the less free its citizens are, even if a majority has elected the government. Without freedom, we cannot fulfill our potential as humans. Without liberty, we are stripped of our humanity. It’s democracy that is cold-hearted. It’s democracy that strips away individual rights. It’s the leviathan of the state that we must be wary of. So on Election Day, ask yourself, “What have I done to make myself and my family more free?” If your reply is that you participated in this great democracy, you have chosen to use force against your fellow citizen. Choose liberty over force. Choose individual rights over the majority rule.

In Liberty,

Sean