Patrik D

J. D. Stembal, (I'm having problems quoting you in my post) Unfortunately, I suspect that we would be prescribed supplements of vitamin D before we would even see the inside of a court. Also it seems to be virtually impossible to absorb vitamin D from the sun here from October to Mars. The sun seems to be at an unsufficient angle during the winter causing UVB to be filtered away through the atmosphere. http://d2uvjpb1682v16.cloudfront.net/content/nutritionreviews/66/suppl_2/S182/F3.medium.gif Bergen in Norway with a latitude 60 degrees to the North is the closest of those cities with regards to latitude (and longitude). I agree with you both on the need to leave Sweden and on the importance of vitamin D. I included the sunlight as a secondary factor because I'm sick of the darkness we have to endure during the winters. This factor might disqualify the UK from the list as well despite their seemingly advantageous laws with regards to education (refering to the legality of so called autonomous education which is the same as unschooling as I understand it). Mellomama, Thank you for your suggestion! I've heard of the Free State Project before and it definitely seems to be worth a visit or at least further research.

Homeschooling is virtually outlawed in Sweden (except if you have a disease or condition that prevents you from attending school) and I would rather abstain from having children than see them forced to attend school, robbing them of some 9-12 years of their formative years. Even if I would never have children of my own I would still like to be part of an as-voluntary-as-possible community. Because of this I've decided to relocate to another country that allows homeschooling (unschooling) and preferably a country that have a sizeable community of unschoolers (other factors of voluntaryism/freedom would be greatly appreciated as well). Where can I find such a community? Do you know of any websites or forums (besides this one) that might be helpful? I would like to travel to other countries, get to know people and find my new tribe and place to call home. What countries/regions/places would you recommend? I've been thinking about the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Also which regions/locations within the country in particular would you like to recommend? Other laws that I would like to avoid would be a military draft/conscription and curfew laws. As a side point or secondary factor I would like to move somewhere where sunlight is more evenly spread over the year. We might have x number of hours of sunlight in Sweden but they are very concentrated in the summers and we have very dark winters.

Hi everyone! I created this profile some time ago (summer of 2013) but I've never introduced myself properly at the forums. I'm currently 25 years old, from Sweden and I'm studying to become a licensed psychologist (I'm at my 2nd semester out of 10 so far). So originally I found Stefan Molyneux on Youtube in 2011/2012 through some of the following videos I believe, either "Stefan Molyneux on 'Is TVP/TZM a cult?'" or "Jon Stewart's 19 Tough Questions for Libertarians!". I found Stef´s thoughts and arguments to be rational and insightful to a degree that was largely unprecedented for me at the time. My focus was primarily centered on political/economical analysis at the time but with Stef and FDR I've come to focus much more on personal relationships, peaceful parenting and self knowledge. I believe the greatest potential for positive change lies within our relationship with ourselves and others. If we can learn to understand our innermost thoughts, patterns, reactions and internal working models we also gain insight to how we relate to others and how we've been raised to relate to others and solve conflicts in the past. On this path we form the potential to create a community of curious, authentic interaction with the ability to solve conflicts without initiating force or use aggression. I see this as a crucial step in the multigenerational process for achieving a peaceful, voluntary and ethically virtuous society. I've also found this to be one of the most effective ways to increase ones quality of life in the shorter term (shorter compared to multigenerational change). I've been inactive on the forums for some time now, partly due to a lack of proper internet connection and a reevaluation of my educational goals. But I would like to be much more active from this time forward and would like to get to know people from the FDR forums who share my interest in curiosity, authenticity, peaceful parenting, self knowledge and personal relationships. /Patrik D

I found the episode on Youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DStY7vsD4UI

That's interesting, I didn't think of conscription laws myself when considering such a list of countries but it is indeed quite important. The best countries with regards to homeschooling from what I've found seems to be Canada, Ireland, UK and USA. I can remove Denmark and Norway from the list because of their conscription laws (they don't have very good laws regarding homeschooling either but it would be geographically and culturally preferable for me because of similarities in language and the close distance to the rest of my family).I've never heard of Jesper Juul before. I did a quick youtube search on him and found a 35 min interview (in three parts) with him named after one of his books Your Competent Child. It was really interesting! This is very close to what I want to focus on in my work and education. Do you recommend any particular book or documentary that features his work? Besides Stef I was really intrigued by Stef's interviews with dr Peter Gray. I'm planning to buy his books Free to learn and Psychology in the near future. In your studies of psychology, do you know what kind of degree you are looking for in the end? I've been searching for information on this topic, it seems to vary from country to country (even from state to state withing the US) but it tend to require a master or a doctoral degree.

I just want to add that I'd be very interested in reading about people here on the board who find themselves in a similar situation. What strategies have you implemented with regards to education or finding work? Does your current job or potential career path involve working on personal relationships? If so, how did you or how do you plan to reach that goal (education or not? location?)? Have you thought about relocating in order to live more freely or be able to reduce or eliminate abusive elements in your child/children/potential children's environment? Where would that place be?

I’ve reached a point in my life where I’m trying to work out a path forward in life. I’m 24 years old, born and raised in Sweden. Educational background For the last two years I’ve been studying economics at the undergraduate level at a university in Sweden. The reason for this was that I initially wanted to engage in politics to change the system. I wanted to be able to contribute to the debate in economic/overall policy and provide research and statistics to support the libertarian/voluntaryist cause. My expectations of the quality and the methodology of the educational material were never really high and I knew that I would have to withstand some pseudo-scientific elements during the course of my education. But it turned out to be far worse than I expected. One doctoral candidate took notice of my briefcase from the Ludwig von Mises Institute and told me that he thought that the Austrian methodology was superior to the methodology used by most economists but also told me that the Austrian methodology was unlikely to find any widespread support amongst professors and other economists because the implementation of Austrian methodology would render many of them unemployed. During the course in public economics/finance the professor stated that she was insulted by a comment made by a student wherein he stated that any valid measure of value is impossible in the public sector due to the coercive nature of the transaction (the personal stakes/interests for the professor in these matters makes rational analysis impossible in this situation). It has become ever more evident to me that one of the core purposes of the publicly funded and approved education in economics is to find semi-sophisticated excuses for government force and intervention and a lot of obstacles for anyone daring to claim otherwise. It got increasingly hard for me to pass exams in courses based on faulty methodology combined with mathematical and statistical methods which seemed to increasingly lack relevance for a true study of human action. After failing 7 out of 8 courses in a year I’ve decided to take a break and probably change the path forward for me. I would still enjoy the increased awareness that could be provided by studying economics but this awareness will not be realized through studies at my university. I’m quite confident that I will be able to reach this awareness through self-studies in Austrian economics with some help from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Thoughts on future education or human capital accumulation I’ve also come to realize that a focus on personal development, self-knowledge and personal relationships will do far more to improve society and the cause of peaceful interactions. Following this path I would primarily work on my own self-knowledge and my own personal relationships. I’ve been thinking about studying psychology or something similar to eventually be able to support others with their self-knowledge and personal relationships. However, I don’t know really where to start. If I were to work with people in this field I would most of all prefer to work with parents and children at an early stage. But I don’t know if there is any demand or market for this. The most interesting case that comes to mind would be to work with people thinking about having a child and support them in their thoughts about parenting/child raising. But perhaps I’m looking on this from the wrong angle. Maybe it would be better and more realistic to work with people individually with self-knowledge as a psychotherapist or something of that sort. One concern I have regarding this topic is that the government authorities would try to intervene if I were to advice people in some way that went counter to the approved goals and methods of the government if I were to work as a licensed psychotherapist for example. What are your thoughts on this subject? Is it possible to work/find work in this area (I would like to help people in similar ways as Stef is doing but with more in depth application to specific cases like talk therapy. I think Stef is doing a phenomenal work but I don’t think that podcasts is the right format for me and I think that this area would profit from some division of labor)? Should I pursue formal education? If so, should it be mostly in psychology, behavioral science, sociology, social work or something else? If not, what should I do alternatively to accumulate the human capital necessary to provide some real value in this area? Do you think that my concerns regarding government intervention in my practice is valid? If so, what should I do to make the best of it given this environment? Strategic relocation As long as I can remember I’ve felt an unsettling and frustrating lack of control over my own life and elements of my surroundings that I feel I should be able to control to some degree. I’ve been bossed around and told what to do in school for 12 of my formative years only to find myself steadily unemployed and unqualified to do most anything. I can see the very same chaotic symptoms and consequences of forced economic planning in almost any aspect of my life such as healthcare, law enforcement/provision of security, the food industry, the financial industry, building and construction etc. It should be noted that I’m in the process of starting therapy to work on my self-knowledge after several failed attempts to find a therapist that would help me within the public sector. The only therapist I’ve been able to meet within the public sector was the one responsible for an initial assessment of my mental health. After scoring high enough on a standardized test for depression she started talking about medication and when talking about my lack of motivation she asked me about lack of motivation in school when I was young and said that she was scanning for symptoms of ADD. The only treatment available for public funding was a 6-12 session long treatment for certain specific problems. With potential shortcomings in my self-knowledge in mind I would say that the most damaging aspect of my childhood from my perspective would be the time spent in school with many years of forced schooling robbing me of my inner drive and power of initiative (much like Stef's video on procrastination). As noted above I believe that a focus on self-knowledge and personal relationships is the best way to achieve freedom. Peaceful parenting and minimizing abuse is crucial for the formative years of human life. That is why I believe that one of the most important things if I were to ever have a child would be the freedom or ability to raise my child independent of government influence or intervention. Sweden recently became one of the most restricted countries in Europe with regards to educational freedom (Sweden and Germany being the two most restricted in Europe). This is one of the most important reasons why I’m looking for alternative countries/places to live my life as independent of government influence as I can. I would also prefer to live amongst other unschoolers and peaceful parents/people. The United States is one of the places I’ve contemplated. Do you have any thoughts with regards to strategic relocation? Is the US a good alternative or would you suggest another destination?

I see, seems like a rather neat improvement in the approval process for new members. Thank you for answering my question!

I recently tried to include information on my profile regarding my gender and date of birth and was unable to save the changes to my profile settings with the message: "Why do you want to join the Freedomain Radio message board?: Cannot be left blank" After basically including the same message that I wrote for the initial account approval process I noticed that this information was displayed on my profile, is this intentional or an unintended feature of the newly upgraded forum? /Patrik