Europe and the loss of national sovereignty

In reading about this subject, we have to wade through pools of crocodile tears.
What is the issue? The Netherlands may lose its unbounded right to overspend and build up deficits. Nice right!
It is simple: overspending delays and increases payback. So, if you are old, vote against ‘more Europe.’ If you are young, vote in favor of it.
I am in favor of individual freedom, that is, my personal freedom. I am quite willing to grant others their individual freedom - as long as they don’t impinge on mine. I don’t want people to have the freedom to steal my purse, to enter my house, to trample my garden, to take my books home. In the end, I have more freedom if the larger community restrains some freedoms.
My freedoms are even more restricted. I can’t do with my house what I want. I may grow as many trees in my garden as I want, but I can’t chop them down when I want. So many restrictions. Still, I live pretty free.

I don’t think national sovereignty is at stake by a 3% ceiling on overspending. The European Union consists of what Daniel Boorstin called ‘modern democratic societies where each people asserts its divine right to go to hell in its own particular way.’ (The Image, 1962, preface to the Pelican edition) The right to freely overspend is an aspect of that divine right.
What happens if we don’t accept such restrictions by Brussels? We will become dependent on the vagaries of the financial markets, where money slushes through the system in search of short-term advantages for small participants. That may not be evil, but it certainly is incredibly more volatile and threatening than any ceiling from Brussels.
I see quite an other problem. In the future, any political wish that a government doesn’t want to grant, can be blamed on Brussels. Like parents who can’t satisfy the wishes of their children, blaming it all the time on their bank who limits overspending. The point is, of course, that if you don’t overspend, the bank remains completely uninvolved with how you spend your money.

Of course, there are several other aspects of the trend to further federalization within Europe, like common banking laws and common bonds. We should not fear the loss of national freedoms, but the loss of individual freedoms and individual prosperity.
We also should maintain a free market as far as possible. But people and companies that have benefited from the free market attain positions in which the freedom of their enterprise is used to curtail that of others as much as possible. Free enterprise means freedom for new enterprises, not for established ones. You need a strong state to keep the markets free. An indebted state is not a strong state.
So, please, please, somewhat less national sovereignty please. Financial sovereignty doesn’t mean to lend as you please, but solvability and liquidity. The reigns should only be loosened in case of war, calamity or promising new infrastructures for energy and transport.

Alignment

Alignment is about fine-tuning between efforts, factual circumstances, and personal skills and characteristics. Usually it is an intuitive quality, related to sensitivity. But it may be strengthened and fostered. What can be done about it?

The first thing is to be perceptive. In any situation that requires your own judgement, go to the spot, whenever possible. See the real situation and the real people working there. Look and hear and listen and feel. Get the smell. Hold things in your hand. Don’t be in a hurry. Take your time.
The second thing is to combine concentration with ease. Accomplish any task with undivided attention and a minimum of distraction and interruption. Avoid over-involvement if you can. Retain always some slack and ease. Pay attention to your bodily reactions - and those of others.
The third thing is to get rid of obsolete procedures and practices. Seek always the course of minimal resistance which brings you to your goal. Piggyback on available facilities and opportunities.

There is a simple recipe that covers all this, although it may be difficult to attain that simplicity: be in flow. Alignment brings flow. Flow brings alignment. How do you know that you are in flow? Because you forget the time.

Remove everything that hinders you to be in flow. If you can. If you can’t, at least minimize the frictions. Minimize your inner frictions: irritation, disappointment, deception, worry. If you can’t, consider to remove yourself. No use staying somewhere where alignment is made impossible. They say that wherever we go, we are always taking ourselves with us. That is true, but only a half-truth. Because wherever we stay, we absorb a lot of the conditions around us. The main thing is the irritation, disappointment, deception, worry of other people.

What are handicaps for alignment? The worst are also handicaps for all other aspect of Personal Mastery that I discussed before: clear-mindedness, decisiveness, equanimity and energy. This is my shortlist of common horrors:

  1. Dominating, condemning, manipulative bosses.
  2. Overly rigid systems. Too many rules and regulations.
  3. Sad dogs spreading gloom
  4. Your own over-qualification or under-qualification for the job.
  5. Bad health.

Get moving. get back into flow.