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Benefits |
It will take a heap of work, to graduate from TOLFA. Why bother; what's in it for you?
The heavyweight benefits come several years down the road, when most of our neighbors have also graduated; but some of them - quite enough to make it well worthwhile - come at once.
(a) What's in it for you now
TOLFA is about personal freedom. What it means, why we don't have much today, what results follow from that. How we have been badly misled, by the enemies of personal freedom. How life would be so very much better, if we were each properly free. You will understand that, after graduation, and be able in some degree to put what you found into practice in daily life.You'll therefore have a much-enhanced purpose in life - instead of being the victim of forces beyond your control, you will know where you're headed and why.
You'll also have a rational ethical standard - meaning, you'll know not just what's right and wrong, but why it's right and wrong. Some already have a religious basis for behavior; TOLFA presents an universal basis, not dependent on religion but on our nature as human beings. Everyone wants to hold himself in high respect, and this gives a sound basis for doing so.
Further, you'll have a reason for hope about the future - yours, and your children and theirs. Often the daily news is so depressing one is tempted to despair. Not any longer.
(b) What's in it for you later
These will come when the rest of society joins you in your quest for personal freedom.Every TOLFA graduate is asked to identify ONE of his or her friends per year, to introduce to the Academy by offering a CD copy he has downloaded, or (while it's still up) pointing him to this web site at TOLFA.us and help (or mentor) them through the course of Segments, just as your own Mentor will help you. Make sure each gets an answer to any tough questions that arise. Ensure they complete the Segments and graduate. And then - key point - make certain they do exactly the same; identify and mentor one of their friends every year.
That's the simple way the entire population will be brought, like you, passionately to want freedom - to "yearn to breathe free" as Emma Lazarus put it, except that this time we're going to do it right. It's easy to see that when each graduate finds and mentors one other per year, the full membership or "alumnus" body will double annually. We hope that a few hundred will join it in the first year, so it follows that the whole US population will reach that same state of passionate yearning at some time during the 2020s.
When that happy stage is reached, since nobody will want government to continue, those supporting it will simply walk away and get on with their own lives; it will implode, like a punctured balloon. Like the Eastern European governments did in 1989, only more so (those populations walked away, but only from Communist government. We will do much better.)
So much for how we will get there. At that point, let's notice what further benefits will be yours. Much more is said about them in most of the other TOLFA Segments - but in a single phrase,
you'll have your life back
You'll make all your own decisions affecting your own life! Today it's not possible to turn around or brush one's teeth without some government nanny telling us what's best for us, or threatening punishment if we fail to follow the path prescribed. That will all stop, cold; you'll suffer the burden of no obligation you did not freely choose to undertake.
There will be a huge increase in prosperity as members of the presently parasitic part of society that works for government are released to re-train themselves and contribute to the free-market economy; their new work will boost the living standards of everyone. Also the taxation that now pays them will vanish, so everyone will be twice as well off overnight, less the cost of the small number of former government services that we actually want to buy - from new, alternative vendors. Then in the absence of petty regulations, restrictions and regimentation the vast reserve of inventiveness and initiative will blossom in an almost unimaginable range of new products and services for us all to buy and enjoy.
Next will come a vast improvement in peace, harmony and justice as all foreign provocation ends (and with it, the danger of war and terrorism) and as the vital function of justice is taken over by competing, profit-seeking free enterprises and so becomes an agent of restitution to anyone harmed, rather than retribution by an uninvolved third party. For example the "Drug War" will have ended, since taking drugs forces harm on nobody but the addict - except that prohibition magnifies prices and so stimulates real crime such as theft, while attracting public acceptance of government scrutiny of everyone's financial transactions.
Replacement of the government "education" monopoly will, likewise, usher in a bright new era of true learning, for your children and everyone else's - with enormous medium- and long-term benefits for the whole of society, as all graduates are taught how to think instead of what to think. The variety of educational services offered in a free market to paying parents will be as rich as is enjoyed today in such markets as clothes, food, automobiles and houses; and of course, home-schooling will always be an excellent option. Result: bright kids! - and a further cycle of boosted prosperity as they grow up and bring their well-stimulated ideas and talents to market.
This is perhaps the easiest Segment in TOLFA, but let's not make it too easy! Here is an interactive Q&A, to make sure we're in sync so far. Be sure to answer all questions correctly before moving on to the next Segment - and call your Mentor if any of them gives difficulty.
After deciding to proceed, be sure to read How Best to Use TOLFA and then go to Segment #1 via the Study Plan page.