I'm all about symbols and music. They have to be great, though. They don't have to be garish or obvious, but they are powerful because human beings are works of art, just like music and symbols. P.S. I'm still in love with the pledge of allegiance. Also, I cry a little tear during the anthem. I'll always feel that way, I think, but they represent a different time and place. Hope some in this group are creative and artistic. The only creative gene I have is in the kitchen. 😄
I used to get choked up at "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Perhaps I still might. Music works on the soul, and if the music is imbued with an important meaning, then all the more so.
Ultimately, we can cherish our past while not getting mired in it. And perhaps we can build a future, and add some new music, and imbue that with meaning too.
Hey you two 😁. I'm just going to add something for your entertainment regarding a motivational song by a great band rooted in the 70's now re-formed in this millennial. Enjoy!
Totally! And the whole tracklist Kicks ass. I can't stop listening to that particular "Album" (mp3) from Tidal. I've got 2 Blackstar Riders Albums. 🤜🏼💥🤛🏼
There's about to be a very big display of flags, anthems and allegiances that will be absolutely inescapable in fourteen months. Come January, 2026 we will enter the Semiquincentennial anniversary of our nation's founding. It will build all year to a crescendo on July 4th, 2026.
The story of the founding of the United States 250 years before will be told. Who tells that story is kind of important, given the power of symbols, especially for major anniversaries.
Will it be America haters, those who never loved it - like Michelle Obama - until Barry became president? Will it be MAGA?
Like it or not the story that is told through symbols will have a profound and lasting effect on the psyche of the nation and future generations. I'm a product of the Bicentennial symbols and stories I experienced as a child. I know her flaws, but love her promise, realized or not.
I know the larger critique of the current system and structure you share. But I also know the power of the moment that 2026 will present. What would 2026 look like to you if you could use the symbols and tell the story?
It's going to be told by the Semiquincentennial Commission as things stand today. A bipartisan band of America-hating, MAGA-hating Marxists and Fascists. Their narration of mass symbolism will be in our faces in 2026. I think the Commission must be disbanded by Trump immediately upon his return to the White House. Let's imagine he did that, what do you think it should/could be replaced with? It's a powerful, once every 50 years opportunity to tell the story of this nation, these people. How can the power of symbolism on steroids be harnessed by those who value true freedom? Realistic suggestions? And idealistic suggestions?
Giving a proper answer to that question would require more time than I have available.
I certainly would NOT do what they lefties would do: pick at every scab, focus on every flaw, obsess over race and slavery, etc. I would also NOT do what they always do—turn all of the Democrats' crimes into America's crimes! (So many wicked things done exclusively, or primarily, by the Democratic Party at various times in their history, but they always manage to turn those into everyone's crimes, don't they? I would not do that.)
But it is also a tough question to ask me right now, since I have gotten to the point where I do not believe that any nation state, as they are currently constituted, should exist—including America. However, if I were, in some weird hypothetical world, put in charge, I would try to create a celebration of our ideas, our successes, and the great prosperity, innovation, opportunity, and comparative freedom that the American experiment has created. I would try to create a celebration that patriotic people would be very happy with.
I don't enjoy having to unmoor myself from my former patriotism. But in the end, if we keep living in the delusion that this system was ever actually consensual, we will never be able to move on and make things better. The statists will just keep telling us we must live in the state, and the patriots will keep telling us that we have to keep living in the state and just hold on for one more election cycle until we can bring things back to the "original vision." My reflexive patriotism kept me in that delusion. It hurts, a little, to be separated from that easy patriotism now, but I have to live in the truth.
I understand and relate. I've always been a patriot, loved what I was taught about my nation growing up. The Bicentennial messaging was inspirational, aspirational and felt empowering. The Iran fiasco and malaise of the Carter administration followed by the morning in America of the Reagan administration inspired me to join the US Air Force. That little movie Red Dawn "Wolverines" did its part too. I bought into it. Hard.
I was on my base Honor Guard. Performed funeral ceremonies, met visiting dignitaries, marched in parades, halftime shows at college football games. Reverence, duty, tradition. All about honor. Especially the symbolism of the flag.
Later in life I worked on behalf of every major veteran organization recognized by Congress, as well as the active military installations in my state, guard units. More honor, symbolism. I truly love my nation...the nation I was taught I lived in. The nation portrayed in the Bicentennial.
Then 2020 happened. Lockdowns, mandated speech, prohibited speech, mandated injections, leaders saying "Go F your selfish freeDUM." All of it. local, state, federal executives and legislators, judges all said that: "Go F your selfish freeDUM." While hypocritically exercising their own selfish freeDUM as "more sophisticated" people made of "finer clay" than the rest of us. And then they stole the election result from the people, nullified, vetoed the free choice. The nation's military turned its guns on citizens petitioning their government for grievances, exercising their First Amendment right. They knew wasn't an "insurrection" and did it anyways. Just like state legislatures, city councils and school boards turned the guns of their police against citizens petitioning their government over pandemic restrictions, CRT/trans indoctrination. Even the SCOTUS was complicit in all of it. Pandemic restrictions, gutting of the Bill of Rights - every single one of them - election fraud. All given official OK approval by the top judges in the land.
The judges revealed themselves to me as the politicians, high priests in black robes they always were. A president called me a mass murderer for not wearing a symbolic mask and refusing to take a dangerous and poisonous biotoxin. His patience was wearing thin, he demanded I must show him respect. Not my nation! I stood in uniform to defeat collectivist authoritarianism, the Soviet Union menace. I learned they had actually won the Cold War. The ideology, not the nation.
Trump's election feels better, more hopeful than had the other option won. But I'm under no illusion about what that means. And I know that if those who share the understanding of freedom as I was taught in those Bicentennial years don't get involved in making major changes to our governance we'll be right back where the other option wants to go in four years. Even sooner. But I can already see and tell that many who felt the tip of the spear on their throat from the totalitarians that compelled them to vote for Trump are already going back to business as usual, "Problem solved, now back to normal life." And that's sobering. We have more work to do. Maybe the more we can steer the 2026 Sesquicentennial to what you describe perhaps there will be fewer people shouting "F your selfish freeDUM" to us again?
If people devote their efforts to shoring up the ship in order to buy us time to move on from morally impermissible systems, then great.
The problem I see is this: people stop at the shoring up part, and never get to the moving on part.
It's just one election cycle after the other. "This is the most important election in history." "This guy's gonna fix everything." "We just have to get back to what the Founders really wanted." Forever and ever and ever. A permanent hellscape. That is what I have a problem with, and that is what almost everyone does.
I am not into symbols, flags and allegiances. Having or doing those things lets the enemy (and you are going to have many) know where and who you are. I'd rather remain hidden in the bushes perhaps working underground, until the tide has turned in a momentous way. I really don't care about pride or pledges as I wish to have no false gods before me. But I honor anyone's right to think and be whatever but refuse to be enslaved by them.
But then (just so I understand clearly), once the tide has turned in a momentous way, would you then feel comfortable expressing that you are a part of a group of people who share your principles?
When I read your post, I think of the brain. We want you to use the whole thing…not just the left, logical side. And symbols speak to the right side, as does any kind of art including poetry and music. Symbols can be used covertly to subconsciously control people or as a beacon…and are a way to say a lot without so many words, to help people feel more. And that is important. Like anything, it comes down to how it is used and the intention behind it. I just attended Adopting Bitcoin. That orange “B” with two lines through it symbolizes something and honestly, it will be unique in subtle and not so subtle ways to each person. Maybe if there are symbols and flags, flowers, and songs…there could also be dialogue between people about what they symbolize and mean to each individual to go with them so we all grow our capacity to take in more, more consciously. Not many of us chatted in school about why there was a pyramid with the top cut off and a big eye looking out of it on the dollar bill, which is interesting when you think about it. So, if there are symbols, let’s notice them, talk about them, what they mean to people, why they are there and use them to support what we want to experience more of. For sure we need them. Just like we need our entire brain. But we also need to be more aware of all these things so we can choose with what and how we engage. A friend mentioned the flag here in El Salvador had a pyramid on it…so I went to the one hanging outside a neighbor’s house and took a closer look. It did. But not the same as the one on the dollar bill in the US. Who designed it? Why is it there? What is the intention? Those are conversations that seem interesting and important and won’t have just one answer. Your article here is a testament to that. It lands in people so many ways regardless of your original intent. That can be a beautiful thing if the underlying intentions are uplifting.
I don't know how to draw it simply, and simple symbols seem key. But I always feel you write about mycelial networks. If you think of it, hit me up again in about six months. After I get my book out, I plan to take a course at vesica.org, where I hope to learn more about sacred geometry and patterns. Actually, (this came to me as I am typing), what I think would be really interesting Christopher, would be to get some spring water, put it in a petri dish, and use Veda Austin's technique to freeze it and see what the water shows when you pray/ask the question you just asked me. vedaaustin.com has a 2 minute video that shows and explains things. Plus, it would be fun for your kids!
Personal transformation and relationships with a focus on energetic healing, attachment styles, intergenerational patterns that are inherited and how the body stores and can release physical and emotional pain…it has a little bit of a lot of things. My working title is: I Want A Divorce: losing everything and finding yourself. But it is not just about divorce. It could be applied to what you write about. Taking a leap from something not working into uncertainty, and how it can be transformational even when it isn’t easy.
No…I would say it is more about relationship to oneself, others, and how that is affected by many things including intergenerational energetic patterns that we inherit, attachment styles, experiences we have had that may not be fully integrated….etc… I have no idea if that will be the final title or not. People struggling or wanting to understand relational patterns would probably find it interesting.
Have you considered the advantage of an anthem with no lyrics? There are actually four national anthems in the world without any lyrics: Spain, San Marino, Kosovo, and Bosnia & Hercegovina.
I play guitar and sometimes harmonica, and I sing. Mostly americana styles (rock, folk, blues). I was gigging from about 2002 until 2013, never enough to earn a living at it.
Here's my "national anthem," which strangely enough I could never play live, because while it had no instruments other than voice and hand claps, it also would require eight more of me. Alas, the science of cloning wasn't there yet 🤣 https://open.spotify.com/track/1nuhkTkDi4IIVcKh7h5Ue1
I wouldn't really say I am a musician anymore. I was somewhat serious about it when I was much younger. Then it became more of a hobby. Then it pretty much disappeared entirely, swept away by other uses of time.
I found a piano in the nave of a church a couple of years ago (I escaped from the party in the basement) and tried to play a little. My hands are sacks of meat now, and my memory doesn't remember the things it once had memorized. Ah well, I suppose I could get some of it back if it became a priority again.
No samples of anything online, nope. We made some recordings, but it was all pre-internet.
Davie Friedman recently posted as essay noting libertarian poetry, including a surprisingly heavy dose of Kipling (https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/libertarian-poems). Hum, if his Smuggler's Song could be set to music or run up a flag pole, I'd be in!
It's exciting to know that as this seed grows and becomes known to creative and inspired people there will be those who will contribute powerful expressions of our purpose and goal, things that will make us known as a people and a movement.
Yeah, that NO is one of the reasons why I like F. Paul Wilson's KYFHO so much. It kinds of sums it up!
Flags are obviously tough, and to some degree a matter of taste. For example, I love the idea of a tree or a leaf. A tree represents so much—the soil is the ground of natural law, from which the principled roots drink. It represents life. Its boughs shade all in ontological equality. And they're just so pretty. And strong.
Plus, the branching structure is dictated by Constructal Law, which, while technically a law of thermodynamics, has powerful ties to the philosophy of freedom. (I will be sharing more on that down the road.)
Of course there are many other possibilities. Perhaps, when the time comes, we will find a way to pursue a few different options and then see what is best.
Symbols, Flags, etc. also have very important Esoteric Energy behind them we must take this into account very carefully. Using an extreme example the symbol which Hitler utilized for the Nazis was for eons a symbol of peace but he turned it on a corner which incorporated (and attracted) dark energy to drive it.
I especially liked this in this chapter:
"You do not pledge allegiance to the distributed nation. The distributed nation pledges its allegiance to you. To your rights and freedom, in the sovereign space in which you dwell.
Any flag we have will symbolize that commitment.
A flag does not have to be a symbol of obedience. It can also be a declaration."
Once our ideas seep into the culture and are embraced, the art and music and literature will come - organically. Until then, it'll come in dribs and drabs, like this:
Re the Pledge of Allegiance - when we recite it, we literally pledge to a *republic*, not a "democracy*. That republic is/was intended to be founded on a rule of law consistent with the Constitution and the Declaration. Both promote and protect the *individual* over the mighty *state*, licensing to the state only powers to be exercised with the *consent of the governed.*
That idea was radical in its day, and we've certainly strayed a long way from it. My favorite example is multi-thousand page spending bills passed at the 11th hour with virtually no discussion or debate. That badly needs repair, and the new administration in DC looks like it's going to make some progress -- we'll see. How I wish them well!
At any rate, I wish more conservatives would point out that, while growing up, we literally pledged allegiance to a *republic*, not to a "democracy." Most rankling of all is their use of phrases like "threat to our democracy" and "undermine our democracy" when their many Big Govt initiatives are actually a *threat to our republic* and the individual rights it was formed to protect.
It is not a democracy in the narrow sense that the Founders were using the term (direct/pure democracy). But it is a democracy in the top-level categorical sense as a system that uses voting. It is an indirect democracy, in that we vote for representatives instead of voting directly for policy. (Democracy as opposed to monarchy or anarchy.)
But none of that matters anyway. Even when the country was started in 1790, voting did not equal "the consent of the governed." Never did, never was, never will be. Voting is not consent. You did not consent to be governed in this way, and things are done to you as a result of voting to which you did not consent.
If you want to argue that we cannot do any better, that is a separate question. But voting does not equal consent, and there is no time in the past when it did.
You can see My symbol for the Society Of Ethical Sovereigns (SOES) at the end of each of My posts. I want People to "pledge allegiance" to the principles of sovereign Individuals and the three Laws of Ethics (Natural Law expressed as the three things not to do), not to the symbol itself.
I'm all about symbols and music. They have to be great, though. They don't have to be garish or obvious, but they are powerful because human beings are works of art, just like music and symbols. P.S. I'm still in love with the pledge of allegiance. Also, I cry a little tear during the anthem. I'll always feel that way, I think, but they represent a different time and place. Hope some in this group are creative and artistic. The only creative gene I have is in the kitchen. 😄
I used to get choked up at "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Perhaps I still might. Music works on the soul, and if the music is imbued with an important meaning, then all the more so.
Ultimately, we can cherish our past while not getting mired in it. And perhaps we can build a future, and add some new music, and imbue that with meaning too.
Hey you two 😁. I'm just going to add something for your entertainment regarding a motivational song by a great band rooted in the 70's now re-formed in this millennial. Enjoy!
https://www.last.fm/music/Black+Star+Riders/Another+State+of+Grace/In+the+Shadow+of+the+War+Machine
This song kinda kicks ass!
Totally! And the whole tracklist Kicks ass. I can't stop listening to that particular "Album" (mp3) from Tidal. I've got 2 Blackstar Riders Albums. 🤜🏼💥🤛🏼
Oooh, I like that.
Alright! It's official.
Thank you.
There's about to be a very big display of flags, anthems and allegiances that will be absolutely inescapable in fourteen months. Come January, 2026 we will enter the Semiquincentennial anniversary of our nation's founding. It will build all year to a crescendo on July 4th, 2026.
The story of the founding of the United States 250 years before will be told. Who tells that story is kind of important, given the power of symbols, especially for major anniversaries.
Will it be America haters, those who never loved it - like Michelle Obama - until Barry became president? Will it be MAGA?
Like it or not the story that is told through symbols will have a profound and lasting effect on the psyche of the nation and future generations. I'm a product of the Bicentennial symbols and stories I experienced as a child. I know her flaws, but love her promise, realized or not.
I know the larger critique of the current system and structure you share. But I also know the power of the moment that 2026 will present. What would 2026 look like to you if you could use the symbols and tell the story?
It's going to be told by the Semiquincentennial Commission as things stand today. A bipartisan band of America-hating, MAGA-hating Marxists and Fascists. Their narration of mass symbolism will be in our faces in 2026. I think the Commission must be disbanded by Trump immediately upon his return to the White House. Let's imagine he did that, what do you think it should/could be replaced with? It's a powerful, once every 50 years opportunity to tell the story of this nation, these people. How can the power of symbolism on steroids be harnessed by those who value true freedom? Realistic suggestions? And idealistic suggestions?
I think Trump's already got his sights set…
https://nypost.com/2023/05/31/trump-to-convene-birthday-taskforce-on-day-one-to-plan-entire-year-of-festivities-for-americas-250th-anniversary/
That will be better than the current Commission, that's for sure.
But what would you, CC, do with that symbolic opportunity as related to the points you make in your Stack?
Giving a proper answer to that question would require more time than I have available.
I certainly would NOT do what they lefties would do: pick at every scab, focus on every flaw, obsess over race and slavery, etc. I would also NOT do what they always do—turn all of the Democrats' crimes into America's crimes! (So many wicked things done exclusively, or primarily, by the Democratic Party at various times in their history, but they always manage to turn those into everyone's crimes, don't they? I would not do that.)
But it is also a tough question to ask me right now, since I have gotten to the point where I do not believe that any nation state, as they are currently constituted, should exist—including America. However, if I were, in some weird hypothetical world, put in charge, I would try to create a celebration of our ideas, our successes, and the great prosperity, innovation, opportunity, and comparative freedom that the American experiment has created. I would try to create a celebration that patriotic people would be very happy with.
Why do you ask?
Curiosity. I'd probably do what you describe.
I don't enjoy having to unmoor myself from my former patriotism. But in the end, if we keep living in the delusion that this system was ever actually consensual, we will never be able to move on and make things better. The statists will just keep telling us we must live in the state, and the patriots will keep telling us that we have to keep living in the state and just hold on for one more election cycle until we can bring things back to the "original vision." My reflexive patriotism kept me in that delusion. It hurts, a little, to be separated from that easy patriotism now, but I have to live in the truth.
I understand and relate. I've always been a patriot, loved what I was taught about my nation growing up. The Bicentennial messaging was inspirational, aspirational and felt empowering. The Iran fiasco and malaise of the Carter administration followed by the morning in America of the Reagan administration inspired me to join the US Air Force. That little movie Red Dawn "Wolverines" did its part too. I bought into it. Hard.
I was on my base Honor Guard. Performed funeral ceremonies, met visiting dignitaries, marched in parades, halftime shows at college football games. Reverence, duty, tradition. All about honor. Especially the symbolism of the flag.
Later in life I worked on behalf of every major veteran organization recognized by Congress, as well as the active military installations in my state, guard units. More honor, symbolism. I truly love my nation...the nation I was taught I lived in. The nation portrayed in the Bicentennial.
Then 2020 happened. Lockdowns, mandated speech, prohibited speech, mandated injections, leaders saying "Go F your selfish freeDUM." All of it. local, state, federal executives and legislators, judges all said that: "Go F your selfish freeDUM." While hypocritically exercising their own selfish freeDUM as "more sophisticated" people made of "finer clay" than the rest of us. And then they stole the election result from the people, nullified, vetoed the free choice. The nation's military turned its guns on citizens petitioning their government for grievances, exercising their First Amendment right. They knew wasn't an "insurrection" and did it anyways. Just like state legislatures, city councils and school boards turned the guns of their police against citizens petitioning their government over pandemic restrictions, CRT/trans indoctrination. Even the SCOTUS was complicit in all of it. Pandemic restrictions, gutting of the Bill of Rights - every single one of them - election fraud. All given official OK approval by the top judges in the land.
The judges revealed themselves to me as the politicians, high priests in black robes they always were. A president called me a mass murderer for not wearing a symbolic mask and refusing to take a dangerous and poisonous biotoxin. His patience was wearing thin, he demanded I must show him respect. Not my nation! I stood in uniform to defeat collectivist authoritarianism, the Soviet Union menace. I learned they had actually won the Cold War. The ideology, not the nation.
Trump's election feels better, more hopeful than had the other option won. But I'm under no illusion about what that means. And I know that if those who share the understanding of freedom as I was taught in those Bicentennial years don't get involved in making major changes to our governance we'll be right back where the other option wants to go in four years. Even sooner. But I can already see and tell that many who felt the tip of the spear on their throat from the totalitarians that compelled them to vote for Trump are already going back to business as usual, "Problem solved, now back to normal life." And that's sobering. We have more work to do. Maybe the more we can steer the 2026 Sesquicentennial to what you describe perhaps there will be fewer people shouting "F your selfish freeDUM" to us again?
Great exchange Fox & Cook!
Me, I lean toward keeping, making, the Republic, the ship we're on, seaworthy.
If she ends up sailing to an Anarcho-capitalism safe harbor, fine but first we need assure she doesn't flounder on socialist, or whatever, shoals.
Thanks :-)
If people devote their efforts to shoring up the ship in order to buy us time to move on from morally impermissible systems, then great.
The problem I see is this: people stop at the shoring up part, and never get to the moving on part.
It's just one election cycle after the other. "This is the most important election in history." "This guy's gonna fix everything." "We just have to get back to what the Founders really wanted." Forever and ever and ever. A permanent hellscape. That is what I have a problem with, and that is what almost everyone does.
Was hoping you'd address this, first time I really examined the topic myself was through the Liberty Foundation's work: https://artofliberty.org/understanding-our-slavery-rebranded-and-expanded/
You mean the pledge specifically?
yes https://government-scam.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/UoSlavery-Pledge_of_Allegience_Shady_History.pdf
Holy crapmonkeys—how did I not know about the Bellamy Salute?!!
Great post, the pledge of allegiance is cult-like and creepy, can’t believe I participated in it…I remember in school it being forced.
Seems like the info is sparse on the topic 🤷🏻♀️
Gee………I can't imagine why. 🤣🤣🤣
😂
I am not into symbols, flags and allegiances. Having or doing those things lets the enemy (and you are going to have many) know where and who you are. I'd rather remain hidden in the bushes perhaps working underground, until the tide has turned in a momentous way. I really don't care about pride or pledges as I wish to have no false gods before me. But I honor anyone's right to think and be whatever but refuse to be enslaved by them.
I understand the concern and the sentiment.
But then (just so I understand clearly), once the tide has turned in a momentous way, would you then feel comfortable expressing that you are a part of a group of people who share your principles?
When I read your post, I think of the brain. We want you to use the whole thing…not just the left, logical side. And symbols speak to the right side, as does any kind of art including poetry and music. Symbols can be used covertly to subconsciously control people or as a beacon…and are a way to say a lot without so many words, to help people feel more. And that is important. Like anything, it comes down to how it is used and the intention behind it. I just attended Adopting Bitcoin. That orange “B” with two lines through it symbolizes something and honestly, it will be unique in subtle and not so subtle ways to each person. Maybe if there are symbols and flags, flowers, and songs…there could also be dialogue between people about what they symbolize and mean to each individual to go with them so we all grow our capacity to take in more, more consciously. Not many of us chatted in school about why there was a pyramid with the top cut off and a big eye looking out of it on the dollar bill, which is interesting when you think about it. So, if there are symbols, let’s notice them, talk about them, what they mean to people, why they are there and use them to support what we want to experience more of. For sure we need them. Just like we need our entire brain. But we also need to be more aware of all these things so we can choose with what and how we engage. A friend mentioned the flag here in El Salvador had a pyramid on it…so I went to the one hanging outside a neighbor’s house and took a closer look. It did. But not the same as the one on the dollar bill in the US. Who designed it? Why is it there? What is the intention? Those are conversations that seem interesting and important and won’t have just one answer. Your article here is a testament to that. It lands in people so many ways regardless of your original intent. That can be a beautiful thing if the underlying intentions are uplifting.
Well said, and important.
Symbols, as you say, can be used in any way, for good or ill, and awareness/discussion is key.
What sort of symbols do you feel might be good to represent our topic here—our growing nation?
I don't know how to draw it simply, and simple symbols seem key. But I always feel you write about mycelial networks. If you think of it, hit me up again in about six months. After I get my book out, I plan to take a course at vesica.org, where I hope to learn more about sacred geometry and patterns. Actually, (this came to me as I am typing), what I think would be really interesting Christopher, would be to get some spring water, put it in a petri dish, and use Veda Austin's technique to freeze it and see what the water shows when you pray/ask the question you just asked me. vedaaustin.com has a 2 minute video that shows and explains things. Plus, it would be fun for your kids!
Really cool idea vis-a-vis the water!
What is your book about?
Personal transformation and relationships with a focus on energetic healing, attachment styles, intergenerational patterns that are inherited and how the body stores and can release physical and emotional pain…it has a little bit of a lot of things. My working title is: I Want A Divorce: losing everything and finding yourself. But it is not just about divorce. It could be applied to what you write about. Taking a leap from something not working into uncertainty, and how it can be transformational even when it isn’t easy.
Interesting!
Is divorce the main topic? (I ask because the title seems likely to attract people who are contemplating divorce as a primary audience.)
No…I would say it is more about relationship to oneself, others, and how that is affected by many things including intergenerational energetic patterns that we inherit, attachment styles, experiences we have had that may not be fully integrated….etc… I have no idea if that will be the final title or not. People struggling or wanting to understand relational patterns would probably find it interesting.
Have you considered the advantage of an anthem with no lyrics? There are actually four national anthems in the world without any lyrics: Spain, San Marino, Kosovo, and Bosnia & Hercegovina.
Interesting! Or perhaps one that could go either way…
> I have toyed with a few ideas, based on a chord progression and melody I wrote with a friend many years ago.
You're a musician, too? I actively performed years ago, but now it's back to being a hobby. Got any samples of your songs online?
What sort of music did/do you play?
I play guitar and sometimes harmonica, and I sing. Mostly americana styles (rock, folk, blues). I was gigging from about 2002 until 2013, never enough to earn a living at it.
Here's my "national anthem," which strangely enough I could never play live, because while it had no instruments other than voice and hand claps, it also would require eight more of me. Alas, the science of cloning wasn't there yet 🤣 https://open.spotify.com/track/1nuhkTkDi4IIVcKh7h5Ue1
Cool!
Got it anywhere other than spotify?
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfeH0OQYkxg
Fun!
Is the line about the business partner autobiographical? :-)
Figuratively, yes. Literally, no.
🤯
I wouldn't really say I am a musician anymore. I was somewhat serious about it when I was much younger. Then it became more of a hobby. Then it pretty much disappeared entirely, swept away by other uses of time.
I found a piano in the nave of a church a couple of years ago (I escaped from the party in the basement) and tried to play a little. My hands are sacks of meat now, and my memory doesn't remember the things it once had memorized. Ah well, I suppose I could get some of it back if it became a priority again.
No samples of anything online, nope. We made some recordings, but it was all pre-internet.
Davie Friedman recently posted as essay noting libertarian poetry, including a surprisingly heavy dose of Kipling (https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/libertarian-poems). Hum, if his Smuggler's Song could be set to music or run up a flag pole, I'd be in!
I have been saying that I need to start reading Kipling. Here's my chance!
It's exciting to know that as this seed grows and becomes known to creative and inspired people there will be those who will contribute powerful expressions of our purpose and goal, things that will make us known as a people and a movement.
Right! Exactly what we need!
The flag could represent consent somehow.
For instance it could be represented by the word "No", since it's the one thing you can't say if you are being ordered and not asked.
It could also represent voluntaryism.
Yeah, that NO is one of the reasons why I like F. Paul Wilson's KYFHO so much. It kinds of sums it up!
Flags are obviously tough, and to some degree a matter of taste. For example, I love the idea of a tree or a leaf. A tree represents so much—the soil is the ground of natural law, from which the principled roots drink. It represents life. Its boughs shade all in ontological equality. And they're just so pretty. And strong.
Plus, the branching structure is dictated by Constructal Law, which, while technically a law of thermodynamics, has powerful ties to the philosophy of freedom. (I will be sharing more on that down the road.)
Of course there are many other possibilities. Perhaps, when the time comes, we will find a way to pursue a few different options and then see what is best.
Another Great Chapter Christopher!
Symbols, Flags, etc. also have very important Esoteric Energy behind them we must take this into account very carefully. Using an extreme example the symbol which Hitler utilized for the Nazis was for eons a symbol of peace but he turned it on a corner which incorporated (and attracted) dark energy to drive it.
I especially liked this in this chapter:
"You do not pledge allegiance to the distributed nation. The distributed nation pledges its allegiance to you. To your rights and freedom, in the sovereign space in which you dwell.
Any flag we have will symbolize that commitment.
A flag does not have to be a symbol of obedience. It can also be a declaration."
Good points, and thank you!
Once our ideas seep into the culture and are embraced, the art and music and literature will come - organically. Until then, it'll come in dribs and drabs, like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJQEI1d0blo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqK-Vt0NnaM
Incidentally, I think we've made great progress lately. I'm cautiously optimistic that our ideas are starting to catch on.
Yes, I agree, I think our ideas really are spreading!
"one giant hairball of unity" LOL!!
Great work.
We indeed require symbols, as well as stories, to unite s people.
Lore, historical or symbolically, binds.
I am pleased that you approve.
Now we have to start building our lore!
Don't tread on me would be perfect flag but it's already taken
Right. It is a good version of the KYFHO sentiment!
Re the Pledge of Allegiance - when we recite it, we literally pledge to a *republic*, not a "democracy*. That republic is/was intended to be founded on a rule of law consistent with the Constitution and the Declaration. Both promote and protect the *individual* over the mighty *state*, licensing to the state only powers to be exercised with the *consent of the governed.*
That idea was radical in its day, and we've certainly strayed a long way from it. My favorite example is multi-thousand page spending bills passed at the 11th hour with virtually no discussion or debate. That badly needs repair, and the new administration in DC looks like it's going to make some progress -- we'll see. How I wish them well!
At any rate, I wish more conservatives would point out that, while growing up, we literally pledged allegiance to a *republic*, not to a "democracy." Most rankling of all is their use of phrases like "threat to our democracy" and "undermine our democracy" when their many Big Govt initiatives are actually a *threat to our republic* and the individual rights it was formed to protect.
It is not a democracy in the narrow sense that the Founders were using the term (direct/pure democracy). But it is a democracy in the top-level categorical sense as a system that uses voting. It is an indirect democracy, in that we vote for representatives instead of voting directly for policy. (Democracy as opposed to monarchy or anarchy.)
But none of that matters anyway. Even when the country was started in 1790, voting did not equal "the consent of the governed." Never did, never was, never will be. Voting is not consent. You did not consent to be governed in this way, and things are done to you as a result of voting to which you did not consent.
If you want to argue that we cannot do any better, that is a separate question. But voting does not equal consent, and there is no time in the past when it did.
You can see My symbol for the Society Of Ethical Sovereigns (SOES) at the end of each of My posts. I want People to "pledge allegiance" to the principles of sovereign Individuals and the three Laws of Ethics (Natural Law expressed as the three things not to do), not to the symbol itself.
Join Me as a Sovereign Here on Ethical Ground (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/join-me-as-a-sovereign-here-on-ethical
Blueprint for a Society of Ethical Sovereigns (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/blueprint-for-a-society-of-ethical
Recommended Principles for Ethical Sovereigns (article): https://amaterasusolar.substack.com/p/recommended-principles-for-ethical