If Things Were to Melt Down, How Would We Protect Each Other?
Building units of TRUST (DN 3.5)
Cover page | Preface | Introduction 1 | Introduction 2 | Introduction 3 |
(Part I) Why: 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.10 | 1.11 | 1.12 | 1.13 | 1.14 | 1.15 | 1.16 | 1.17 | 1.18 | 1.19 | 1.20 | 1.21 |1.22
(Part II) What: 2.0 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 2.6 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.9 | 2.10 I 2.11 | 2.12 | 2.13 | 2.14 | 2.15 | 2.16 | 2.17 | 2.XX | 2.18 | 2.19 | 2.20 | 2.21 | | Where: 3.0 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 | 3.5
Chapter 3.5
Organizational units, 3
We have proposed the House as our base unit of organization: sovereign individuals or families in their sovereign spaces. What comes next? Do we want to establish a system of larger units, allow such units to unfold organically, or some combination of both of those approaches?
Plenty of possibilities already exist…
There are units based on habitation:
street
neighborhood
village/town/city
area
region
continent
There are the units imposed by governments. In America, for example, this would be something like
precinct
ward
village/town/city
county (parish/borough/etc.)
congressional district
state
There are ancient units, such as the hides, hundreds, and shires of England. No doubt there are many other clever systems of organization found around the world.
There are, of course, the family-based units about which we’ve already spoken: immediate and nuclear families, and the various types of clans, tribes, and chiefdoms that have developed in different places, at different times.
There are purely physiographic designations: the people who live by the woods…on the ridge…near the meadow, etc. Many of our surnames are derived from such geographic locations.
There are regimented mathematical ways to organize too. For example, units could be decimalized, with ten houses making a hundred, ten hundreds making a thousand, etc.
Needless to say, such decisions are “problems” we want to have. If we have grown to the point where we are able to organize in any such way, we are doing well indeed.
The Lessons of Covid
While we might not wish to impose, ex ante, a totalizing system, we can at least consider some possibilities. One of the best ways to do that is to try to war-game some real-world scenarios. For this illustration, let us look at the years 2020-2022.
The covid years…
A totalitarian response to a manufactured disease. A poison vaccine. A statistically impossible series of chemical spills, train derailments, and attacks on food processing facilities. Orwellian levels of propaganda and blatant denial. Being told we see five lights when there are, in fact, only four.
I have a low normalcy bias (I expect things to get weird), and all of this was a shock even to me. It also changed me, as I know it changed many of you, in fundamental ways.
I am an extrovert by nature. I like people. But the general public’s reaction to covid was terrifying. Their blind compliance. Their bland acceptance of obvious falsehoods. The self-important way they deputized themselves as enforcers of the regime. The way they proved, at every turn, that Asch and Milgram really were onto something.
All of it taught me a harsh lesson: Not only are government officials and enforcers a threat, but the people around me are too. The blithe patriotism with which I had long comforted myself—that the “antibodies of liberty” run through my fellow Americans’ veins—turned out to be a bunch of insipid pablum. Arguably there are more Americans ready to stand up for their freedom than in other, more captive populations. But it still wasn’t enough.
I did what I could. I set an example whenever possible. I spoke to people. I exhorted groups of complete strangers to wake the hell up. I walked around Walmart wondering why I was the only person out of 200 with the courage to show my face. By mid 2021, I perceived that at least 30 percent of those around me knew that masking was a bunch of horse crap. But they all wore their face coverings anyway. They let me die alone on that hill.
The message? Only trust those whom you know you can trust.
It was at this point that I began to contemplate various scenarios. What if things get worse? Whom can I actually trust if things go further south. My family (my house), of course. But who else?
As it happens, we are blessed to have excellent neighbors on both sides. We have raucous yard parties during the summer, and other gatherings throughout the year. Our neighbors to the north invited us to their wedding after having known us for only a short time. They are all good, solid people.
We are also largely on the same page regarding politics, covid, and the like. They’re not full-blown ancaps—that would be too much to hope—but close enough. If things were to melt down, I would trust them to do the right thing.
Though the exact moment that I realized that I had become an anarchist/voluntaryist was sudden, the mental preparatory period from minarchist to anarchist did last some time, and, not entirely coincidentally, it mostly overlapped with the covid years. As such, I began having an “intrusive thought,” as it’s called in memes:
If things melt down, the first thing I am going to do is go to my neighbors and suggest that we start our own mini ‘country.’
We trust each other. We’ll have each other’s backs. We already live by natural law, vis-à-vis one another. The rest of the country is growing nuttier by the day, so it makes sense to form our own thing.
Then I thought about the other hundred or so houses in our neighborhood. Whom do I know among them? Whom would I trust? Maybe they might want to be a part of that ‘country’ too.
Needless to say, this is not a common thought people have. We have grown to believe that the state is all-powerful and inescapable, and that our very identities as people are wrapped up in it. “God, Family, Country” is a phrase often heard among the patriotic people with whom I had for so long made common cause. What sort of weirdo sees trouble and thinks, “I should start my own country”?
This weirdo, obviously. And, based on your comments and support, many of you are right there too.
As you no doubt perceive, these thoughts were part of the mental pathway that led ultimately to the concept of the distributed nation. First I thought of creating a tiny ‘country,’ just three houses big. Then I thought about which neighbors might wish to be a part of it…distributed throughout the neighborhood though they may be.
Local, Nano, Tribe, Team…
Though I have since expanded the concept from the neighborhood to the world, the core of the idea is the same: People, wherever they are, choosing to ally based on shared principles. People who want to be free. People who can help each other in times of need. People who will nurture a sense of fellow feeling and chosen community based on these shared values.
It all makes so much sense, when you think about it…
You trust your family.
You trust your friends.
You must absolutely deal fairly with all the other people in the world whom you encounter—in the community and wider economic market. But you certainly don’t trust every single one of them to do the same. So why should your personal community include people you don’t trust? Why must your circle be forced on you by accidents of geography? Why can’t you choose?
Why would I want to be in a polity with the bitter, obese, quintuple-vaccinated guy with the “In this house, we believe…” sign on his front yard?
Why should I have to be in a polity with people who want to take my children away from me, force me to wear a trackable badge, or put me in a literal concentration camp?1
Why should I make common cause with a regime-compliant law-and-order type (a cop or someone in the military) who is also a passionate Kamala Harris voter? When full-blown totalitarianism comes to town and the new Stasi is recruiting, who signs up first? THAT GUY.
Your house—you, your family, your property—comes first. It is a lot harder, however, to be friendless and alone. The support of a local group of trusted friends and allies is essential, especially in difficult circumstances.
But those friends and allies cannot be anyone or everyone. You must be able to choose.
When I consider a possible organizing unit larger than the house, it is this sort of local group to which my mind first travels. A few houses, in a local area, who deem themselves to be part of such a unit. A “team” of sorts.
Based on natural patterns and the exigencies of life, this sort of unit makes a lot of sense. It is the most likely unit to form organically.
But what to call it? A team? A nano-polity (or nano, for short)? A distributed neighborhood? Nah, that’s too long. A tribe? A local? (Is that too associated with unions? Does that matter?)
In truth, while I have given the concept a fair amount of thought, I have not devoted much effort to naming it. So I am open to suggestions.
The concept itself makes perfect sense, however. In exigent circumstances, you would not turn to everyone. You would find and form a small circle of trust among people nearby.
And after 2020–2022, exigent circumstances always seem like they might be right around the corner.
If you think there is “zero” difference between Republicans and Democrats, read these crosstabs. Half of Democrats want to do very, very bad things to you. I know that some of you dislike partisanship, and as a voluntaryist, I am supposed to have equal disdain for “both sides.” But data are data: If you encounter two Democrats and ask them both if they would put you into a concentration camp, they will both insist that they would not. But statistically, one of them is lying.
Well... In My case, I trust My friend whose studio apartment I occupy 6 sq feet of space within. In this concrete jungle, I will just have to hope for the best should it all fall apart. In highest probability however, I will be toast.
But I am glad that You will be in at least a fair bit of good company. I am always glad to see Others who will survive! I love Humanity! (Thus My work to solve for the moneyed psychopaths in control creating this mess.)
Love always!
Oh I have been through it and I have no support group. There is no system in place. However, my goal has been to establish a group of ‘backyard’ farmers and a distribution system that in the interim is focused on ‘what sells’ but could be ready for ramping up for a more local food distribution scenario, if needed or as more people come to see the light… But, because I know people don’t fully understand the truth, some still don’t see a problem w the covid policies or vaccines… plenty can relate to a need for autonomous food production and distribution systems for our little neck of the woods that is made up of a lot of poor people really. Probably a bunch of convicted pedophiles living out here. Lots of conservative types that don’t know that x is censoring and can’t conceive that musk was probably involved with the weather attack known as ‘Helene’. He was, in the very least, exploiting the situation before widespread news of the lithium mine had come out. (See the image in the circle next to my screen name). Millions to be made from lithium… one week deadline to invest! He said. Oh they might call out the con trails, but Musk… he’s about free speech! He’s with Trump. They say. Yes, a lot of Trump fans here.
During the mask era, I was going to gatherings of people who wanted to do something about it. I told them how people won’t just change their mind as you lay out the truth and we should take this in consideration as a strategy. I was immediately disliked by this group. They denied what I was saying. By the time I got there, they had all been planning some kind of group exit and build scenario and many of the protesters from all over the place actually achieved that. I had brought up my interest in this, but I was never invited. I think they didn’t trust me for telling them about how difficult it is to get people out of their cult adherent beliefs.
The point is that you can’t worry about the cult adherents. Especially if you believe in freedom. I think most Americans had done a good job of accepting that we all didn’t agree with one another and all were welcome at the grocery store. And yes, things have gotten to the point of manufactured hate for one another, topped with the challenge of knowing how many classroom pets are bringing us down in our immediate area.
We still require a covert hat. Because the bottom line is that we can’t flip the switch in the minds of enough people.
As a 20 year veteran in the anti vax truth spreading scene, shunned from all Facebook platforms since 2016… by that time realizing that the world is a cult… in sociology, we were assigned to research and write about ‘deviant societies’… I wrote about the Amish. Heavily researched the Branch Davidian slaughter… back then I had just begun to realize that world is the worst cult there is… and I learned that people who go off to form their ‘own country’ as I have dreamed about… end up with tyrannical leaders and all manner of just as fk’d up.
All we can do is plant seeds. There could come a day when people need food. We do need to exit and build, but we can’t exit completely. We have to let people be killed and injured by the cult, for them to see the light. And as the opportunity arises, we can drop little seeds of truth to help them see the other crimes and lies… cuz they will not see it all at once. They weren’t paying attention nor thinking too hard about the mounting tyranny prior to 2020 or whatever disaster that frees their captured minds. And they aren’t in positions to think, ‘exit and build’.
What they will do, is start looking for groups or certain experts and such. Hopefully they will find you and Derrick and Corbett and others. Moving forward, they will find the planted liars or the exploiting and mislead who will mislead them too.
The next step in change is to establish schools that stress freedom.
Looking back at my education, I assumed more people came thru with the same message I got regarding freedom and respect for the constitution. Maybe it was rare back in the eighties… but I recall convos about the fear mongering Cold War era. Then when that was over… we began to see more and more restrictions and hurdles, but few noticed. I noticed… my father was an architect and the planning department was enemy number one my whole life. I’m really proud that I’m able to live off grid and un permitted, on a level that most can’t fathom, because of my father’s influence.
Maybe you are not a Christian, but, Christians believe that the highest ‘good’ (in character) that one can achieve, is found in the Bible… despite the possibility that some of it maybe been tainted with messages like, ‘give unto Cesar what is Cesar’s’ but then Jesus asks, ‘for what credit is it to you, if you only love those who love you?’
As a Christian and as a person who sees the culy tyranny cooperators as a huge part of the problem… in the end, we must love them. They simply know not what they do. But WE can be the ones who are there for them when they take the red pill and need a new direction. WE can establish a plethora of small local farms and teach people how to return to the earth. WE can help educate the children to navigate through the mainstream cult without buying into it.