One of the Key influencers in the Self-sovereign Identity movement is a great mind named Jordan Hall, he provides a deeper meaning to sovereignty. Please take the time to read the entire article, the link of which goes to an awesome resource called Deep Code and a great articles called : On Sovereignty.
By sovereignty, I do not mean the notion that nation-states have the right to self-determination on the geopolitical stage. I also don’t mean that human individuals are magically able to separate themselves from the rest of the human world and make up their own rules. I mean something very specific, very central to being in the world and, if properly understood, very empowering.
“Sovereignty is the capacity to take responsibility. It is the ability to be present to the world and to respond to the world — rather than to be overwhelmed or merely reactive. Sovereignty is to be a conscious agent.
Jordan Greenhall
According to Jordan: Sovereignty can be understood as consisting of three distinguishable capacities.
- Your ability to relate to the world. This includes things like your ability to perceive the world. Reality. To be sensitive to what is going on in all sorts of different ways. To be able to listen and see. And feel. To “tune in” to what is going on without preemptively closing off the world with your own frames or judgements. Or to be overwhelmed by what the world is sending at you.
- Your ability to make sense of the world. This includes your ability to skillfully select frames and concepts that are appropriate to what is really going on. And to create new ones when the old ones won’t do. It is a measure of both speed and precision. Move too slowly and the world has passed you by. Move too haphazardly and you will confuse sense with error.
- Your ability to make and effect choice in the world. This includes both the ability to actually move the world with your actions (your ability to deploy a force on the world) and your capacity to do so with both wisdom and elegance. That is, your ability to move from sense to action with sound judgement (to make good choices) and your ability to do just and only what you intend. No more, no less. And with as little effort as necessary.”
(https://medium.com/deep-code/on-jordan-peterson-and-the-future-51402a370d79)
Sovereignty Photo credit: Juanedc on Visualhunt.com / CC BY Photo credit: kevindean on Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA
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