summary

Free from outside control; not subject to another's authority. (independency)

The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants. The power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity. (freedom)

Feeling or showing pleasure or contentment. (happiness)

independency seems to be a thing one struggels to be. Independent people are seen as strong, free, decisive.

Countless list with advice how to be more independent can be found on the internet. Basicly they all tell you the same: dependency is a danger, a place where you can't truly be yourself, a place where the induvidual is not taken seriously and where somebody else is making all of you decicions for you.

The level of independency they talk about is not considering a bigger system. For example they recomend being financial independent, and mean having a job and being able to pay for all you bills yourself, but don't consider the dependency on the financal system and money. It is for an individual much more difficult to get independent from this level of dependency, as it bears risk.

The story of Christopher McCandless (known form the movie 'into the wild') is a about leaving this

independency = freedom = happienss

system. He starts a search of slef-reliance and therefore independence of the society. He fails compleatly when he is not able to provide for himself and dies. The message seems to be clear, independece may seem like freedom and happiness, but is acctually death.

This outcome sound maybe a bit drastic, but it leaves us with the question: Is is possible to independent?

independency is a lie

living in one system like our apartment, or our city, or our country, or even the earth, therefor we are all connected.

Also there seem to be so many levels of dependency:

1. dependencies that are crutial to live like water or air
2. dependencies to bigger social systems. like the government, economical system etc.
3. dependencies we have controll over, like financial dependency

it is completely impossible to cancle the 1. and to cancel the 2. is really difficult.

System analysis teaches us to see every thing and
event as part of a bigger system. This will seem to make a problem more complex but also it will lead to more accurat solutions.

The same seems to be true for our lifes. We are all

together we are stronger

People and animals form groups out of several reasons. It will give you security, or to be faster to find food. Short it seems in the group we are more inteligent, because we can share wisdom.

One thing that humans makes special is our ability

to talk to each other and not only talk but also talk about inexsisting things. The historian and philosopher Harari calls this our collectiv imagination. And because it is collective we were able to build whole empires on the ground of this imagination. The imagination united the group.

Of cause if we are to act as a group, one thing gets really important: deciding. Deciding in a group is the thing that makes it difficult to stay a group. Humans have developed several methods how decicions can be taken in a group eg. maiority vote, consence decision making etc. Sometimes this methods relay on a leader sometimes everybody has to be part.

I asked friend following questions:

1. What/Who are you independent of?
2. What/Who would you like to be independent of?
3. What/Woh are you dependent on?
4. What/Who is dependent on you?

1. What/Who are you independent of?
This seemd to be the most difficult question, maybe because it concerns things that are not on our radar, or maybe because it is always more difficult to name our srenght then our flaws, or it is just such normal things (privilegs) that we don't even think about it

2. What/Who would you like to be independent of?
Some people mentiond here institutions like the tax system or school. But also a big part seem social affection. Or the feeling having to follow unwritten rules of behavior and the feeling of having to explain themself.

3. What/Woh are you dependent on?
almost everybody named their family or friends, and money in some kind of way (bank/job). Also phones and computers were mentioned, which are objects we use daily and therefor we become dependant on them. And of cause tabbaco as a dependency which is called addiction.

4. What/Who is dependent on you?
almost everybody mentioned here their family and friends, or pets. less people recognized that some instituions like the bank or the school are also depending on them, meaning it is two ways and an interdipendency.

Independency vs. dependency

Independency = freedom = happiness
Independent people can decide by themself.
Independent people can take care of themself.
Independency is a kind of addiction.
Dependency will drive you into doing things you don't want to do.
Dependency will stop you doing things you could do.

Independency is a lie.
We are stronger together.
Everything is connected.
Without a group we are vulnerable.
Dependency is crutial to make a group work, as it means trusting.
Independency means lonleyness.

I would like to create something that lets people see on what they are dependent or not. So i imagine it to be some kind of net like construction where connection can be made to things like your computer, the bank, your children etc. Maybe the connections have to be made or they are already existing and can be cut. Also i think it would be interesting to see what direction these connections go, meaning to see dependencies and interdependencies.