How Can We Help Each Other? (Input welcome!)

Making it work, 2. (DN 5.12)

We’ve established that coherence isn’t inherently bad (and can be very good) and that atomization isn’t inherently good (and can be very bad). And we are going to opt for coherence.

Not governance. Not control. Not a state.

Just coherence. A little bit of shared culture and belief. (And some fellow feeling would be nice!)

But how do we achieve such a thing? Ultimately, we won’t be able to cohere around my Substack. We will need a bit more.

Avoiding dependence on ‘leaders’

And speaking of me and my Substack, the thing around which we cohere cannot be me.

Yes, I am the one who is serving as a sherpa, guiding our distributed nation into existence. I suppose that makes me our “recognized founder,” in Balaji Srinivasan’s terminology. But if, 100 years from now, our people are calling me a “founding father,” then we’re doing it wrong. I am but a trustee—steering us towards what we are destined to become.

What we are building here is meant to continue far, far into the future. It is much harder to do that if we allow it to become person-centric. An endeavor that is dependent on a great leader or personality cult usually crashes and burns when that person dies.

Even if that does not happen, there is always the risk of elevating past leaders to the status of saints, as, for example, many American conservatives have done with the Founding Fathers. As a result of this quasi-beatification, the gaze of many conservatives is cast forever backward, to a moment in time now frozen in amber.

Classical liberal thought has advanced significantly in the 250 years since that moment, but many cannot see it. They continue to believe that the Founders’ creation was near-perfect, and that to question it is to question saints. Thus, the freedom movement—of which conservatives are by far the largest subgroup—is itself somewhat mired in amber.

Naturally, people will step up to devote their skill, energy, and wisdom to various tasks at various times, but we will not have any rulers or authorities in the classical sense. Universal principles, a common cause, and a transcendent mission must always be our touchstone and lodestar.

The AHI

I have proposed something unique to help guide us into this future. Not a leader or a central authority, but a humble, think-tank-like organization, which we will call, as a working title, the Alliance for Human Independence (AHI).

We can envision the AHI serving in a variety of capacities, including as

• A communications hub to connect our otherwise diasporized people,

• A steward of our founding documents,

• An ambassador (of a sort) to external entities, whether existing involuntary governments or a future framework of free polities.

It can also study mechanisms for peaceful devolution, foster the gradual replacement of government services with their private analogues, and much more.

Helping each other

We can discuss all this moving forward (and your ideas are always welcome). However, right now I would like to focus our attention on other ways that the AHI may be able to help us to help each other.

So what is it that we need help with? What is it that we want?

Obviously, we want to live in a world of peace, where consent is respected. We want to be free and independent. (Independence, of course, will have to be gradual. We must find ways to distance ourselves from the state, gradually widening the gap over time.) And, naturally, we just want to live good, clean, happy, safe lives.

There are many small things we need to do to achieve these big goals. Let’s start a preliminary conversation about those.

Little by little

Let us assume a slow, steady growth path for both our nation and the AHI. We’re not going to come out of the gates a million strong, and that’s okay. Lots of movements start small and eventually grow to be massive. One of the core traits of our nation is patience.

Thus, we can envision a phased increase in the scope and quality of the help the AHI can provide:

1. Curating a list of potentially helpful resources.

2. Recommending a refined list of vetted resources.

3. Affiliating with partner-providers of resources.

4. Fostering the development of new resources to address unmet needs.

Take education, for example. We cannot gain greater independence if we keep sending our children to Bismarckian indoctrination facilities … statist cults … public schools.

So, in the early going, we can work together, through swarm intelligence, to develop a list of alternatives. Once the AHI is launched, it can begin curating and aggregating those alternatives.

The AHI can then begin expanding the list, vetting everything in order to make the best recommendations. Resources for homeschooling parents. Select curricula. Homeschooling co-ops. Best practices. Micro-schools. Alternative schools.

Once it has grown to a respectable degree, the AHI can begin partnering with vetted providers, adding affiliation programs to create discounts for our members (and perhaps some revenue for the AHI).

Eventually, the AHI will have reached a degree of strength and prestige that it can begin fostering and facilitating the creation of completely parallel systems.

No matter what its stage of development, the AHI will always seek the input and involvement of members. This is the way.

It might take 100 years, but eventually, the minds and bodies of our children simply won’t be accessible to statists and their shadowy puppet masters any longer. We’ll be fully out. Not through bloody revolution, but through patience, effort, and commitment over time.

Potential resource areas

So, with that phased model in mind, what else can we help each other with? What sorts of things would we want a trustee organization like the AHI to help us with?

Here are a few ideas. Some are mine. Some have been suggested by some of you over the last year. Some are curated from a conversation I had with ChatGPT on the subject. (I know how some feel about AI, but we can take ideas from anywhere, so long as they are helpful to us.)

I have slapped this list together fairly quickly. We can refine and expand it down the road. For now, I want to get your input.

What is missing? What do you like/not like on this list? All thoughts welcome!

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Food and water

• safety (good/bad products)

• freedom (local sourcing networks, farmers, co-ops, buying clubs

• self-reliance (gardening and small-scale production

• storage and rotation systems

• health (cooking skills, bulk prep, nutrition)

• less dependence on fragile supply chains.

• clean water options (filters, chemicals, containers)

• collection (rainwater, laws, etc.)

Education

• homeschooling (curricula, unschooling, co-ops, resources, etc.)

• microschools

• alternative schools/networks

Communication & Social Connection

• secure communication tools and discussion spaces

• local meetups

• connections (business, mutual aid, housing, learning)

• maybe a member directory (opt-in and privacy-preserving, of course.)

Mutual aid

• ad hoc at first, but eventually we can develop our own mutual aid networks/system

• community care: meals, rides, childcare swaps, etc.

• emergency protocols

• neighbor-to-neighbor help requests

• Eventually…?

  • skills corps: volunteers by specialty

  • emergency funds

  • refugee support

  • firefighting

Privacy & Digital Autonomy (verbatim from ChatGPT)

• opSec guides (devices, accounts, compartmentalization)

• encrypted comms recommendations + setup help

• data minimization checklists (phones, cars, smart home)

• anti-surveillance habits (browsing, purchases, travel)

• identity protection and reputation hygiene

• “exit ramps” from major platforms

Skill development

• information on our principles

• practical methods for greater independence (privacy/security, finances, etc.)

• apprenticeships/mentorship networks

(ChatGPT said “competence is sovereignty,” which is actually pretty good!)

Legal Literacy & Risk Navigation (verbatim from ChatGPT)

• country/state-level “how to stay safe” checklists

• templates: contracts, leases, waivers, bylaws for voluntary clubs

• immigration/residency pathways (comparative)

• business formation basics (co-ops, LLCs, trusts)

• “know your rights” basics (speech, property, self-defense, due process)

Goal: reduce accidental legal exposure while living independently.

Finance, trade, and currency

• advice and guidance (banking, unbanking, diversification, scam-avoidance)

• internal/mutual trade, credit, barter networks

• currency

  • Phase 1: discussion of alternatives

  • Phase 2: vetting and recommendations

  • Phase 3: partnerships

  • Phase 4: our own parallel currency and financial system (well down the road)

Security & physical resilience (verbatim from ChatGPT)

• Personal safety training resources (situational awareness, de-escalation)

• Home hardening basics (locks, lighting, cameras—tradeoffs explained)

• Travel security and document redundancy

• Disaster readiness (power, water, meds, comms)

• Community-level safety coordination (without militias or vigilantism)

Product recommendations

• Develop a database

  • durability

  • no “smart” appliances

  • repairability

  • low-tox/low microplastics

  • lists: vendors who are ethical privacy-respecting, independent, etc.

• vetted/tested products

• survival stuff

• products sold by our members

• products from affiliates/partners

• DIY alternatives

Medicine, health, and wellness

• resources on insurance, insurance alternatives

• resources on health, wellness, dangers

• fitness, healthspan, longevity

• list of aligned providers (privacy-friendly clinics, cash-pay options, etc.)

• list of free-market alternatives to insurance

• mental resilience (stress, isolation, meaning)

• first-aid training directories

Land and living spaces

• land

  • purchasing

  • zoning/HOA warning guides

  • homesteading

  • locations

  • construction

  • off-grid

    • energy/heat

    • water

    • legal guides

• arrangements

  • co-living

  • intentional communities

  • urban nodes

• remote-work-friendly location guides

Work, Business, & Voluntary Enterprise (verbatim from ChatGPT)

• skill exchange marketplace

• hiring network (values-aligned employers)

• “build a small business” guides

• co-op, partnership, and contractor templates

• reputation + review systems that protect against fraud without central authority

Art and entertainment

• recommendations (quality, freedom-aligned, non-woke, etc.)

• showcasing members’ work

• supporting members’ work (patronage, crowdfunding)

• commissioning cultural products

Events
(not just ideology, but a real social fabric!)

• local dinners/potlucks

• local member gatherings

• regional events, retreats

• artistic events

• festivals and shared celebrations (develop our own someday?)

• annual summits

• international events (eventually!)

Research & intelligence (verbatim from ChatGPT)

• comparative policy tracking (where independence is easier)

• fraud and scam warnings

• “state of the world” reports relevant to autonomy

• tool comparisons and best practices

• lessons learned from member experiments

Goal: situational awareness, not paranoia.

Security, justice, and dispute resolution

• voluntary mediation resources

• arbitration models (opt-in, contract-based, restorative)

• community reputation standards

• private security and justice agencies

  • recommendations

  • affiliations

  • foster expansion and development of fully private provision

  • negotiate with local governments for greater autonomy

  • help private agencies negotiate with local governments to replace government police/courts with private security and justice (well down the road!)

I could keep going, but I will stop here and let you guys take over. No idea is off limits. Speak your mind!

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 | 3.6 | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.9 | 3.10 | 3.11 | 3.12 | 3.13 || Who: 4.0 | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.XX | 4.XY | 4.6 | 4.7 | 4.8 | 4.9 | 4.10 | 4.11 | 4.12 | 4.XZ | 4.13 | 4.YX | 4.14 | 4.15 | 4.16 | 4.17 | 4.18 | 4.19 | 4.YY | 4.YZ | 4.ZX | 4.20 | 4.21 | 4.22 || How: 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.3 | 5.4 | 5.5 | 5.6 | 5.X.1 | 5.7 I 5.X.2 | 5.8 | 5.X.3 | 5.9 | 5.10 I 5.X.4 | 5.X.5 | 5.11 | 5.12