79 Comments
Aug 13Liked by Christopher Cook

You do not need to go down rabbit holes when the rabbits emerge every hour. And it is turtles all the way down!

Expand full comment
author

The rabbit holes just freak me out at this point. No matter how much you learn, there's always another blind alley right around the corner.

Expand full comment

I'm here on substack because I want to buy an island for free folk. I've been looking at this from many angles and I think an exit is necessary.

It's important to understand the structure of a problem so that you can surmount it. I too am in problem solving mode, it seems like we have spent enough time on the structure of the problem. For me it is time to make moves that at least provide breathing room from the political morass surrounding us.

Expand full comment
author

Yep. 💯

Have you heard of Prospéra?

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Christopher Cook

I looked this up. It’s either a bank, credit union, financial group, or a community in Roatan? I’m assuming you’re talking about the community in Roatan?

Expand full comment
author

Yep, that's the one! It's not the whole island, and it is not fully sovereign/independent, but it is a start!

Expand full comment

No, but I heard a talk on something similar. It was a proposal for a community where it provides for itself through mutual aid. People either paid in, or offered their time. A way to cut out the middle man, also known as "representative government." Just regular folks doing regular stuff, trading and living life. Kind of like communism always pretends to do but the only shared values they have is violence. And peace at the price of compliance.

Expand full comment
author

Love it!

That is possible now, though government will want its cut.

So it seems to me that there are three possibilities: fight with the state, negotiate for secession or special status, or accept the state’s overlordship and try to operate as independently as possible. Did I miss anything there?

Expand full comment

Let me look into that. I believe I saved the link.

Expand full comment
Aug 31Liked by Christopher Cook

I recently saw the choices expressed as:

“People have to choose, as individuals, whether they want to (1) stay in the corrupt modern corporate statutory system, (2) continue individual amateur (sovereign citizen) experiments by trial and error with frequent retaliation from that system, or (3) choose to let real Sovereign Institutions of the original Magna Carta Common Law system of the Freedom Jurisdiction share its own authorities to give solutions.

The third choice refers to the Knights Templar, the original Law-Givers of the Magna Carta, which created the Common Law.

They established lawful Sovereignty which is necessary to protect us, so we can restore the Golden Age Institutions necessary to operate the independent Common Law system again.”

I find this to be a feasible solution and continuing my study of what they have built so far in terms of an IGO at the level of the United Nations.

Glad to have found your stack and look forward to your book as it unfolds.

Expand full comment
author

I too am glad to meet you, and happy we are on the same team!

So let me ask you, though—why is method three any less likely to invite retaliation than method two? Why would it carry more weight with the statists and their enforcers?

Expand full comment
Aug 31Liked by Christopher Cook

I am still learning, but the short answer is that IVU was created using existing rules:

The official status of IVU and its IGO official bodies is established directly from the modern framework of conventions recognizing international law, which are binding upon all countries (1969 Law of Treaties, Article 38), and also binding upon the United Nations (UN) (2012 Declaration on Rule of Law, Article 2).

Accordingly, IVU already possesses the only “recognition” it needs, directly from specific provisions of conventional international law, which fully prove its official status and authorities.

Some very interesting reading here: https://ignitaveritasunited.org/international-law/

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Christopher Cook

Have either of you read, “Live Not By Lies?” I’ve had the “reciprocal community@ idea floating around in my mind for about 2 years now. Of course, I’ve always been a bit of a revolutionary. Most of my adult life I had the dream of living on a compound with just my husband and children. I guess I passed this dream in to my son because he made it come true for us 3 years ago. We now call it a homestead 😉 Everyone lives here except my oldest daughter ( I keep praying). There are 10 of us ages 5 through 69. Huge garden, lots of animals, and living my dream. It’s really hard though. Some still have to hold jobs which leaves the work to the few of us who are mostly kids. I try to talk to my church groups about creating a community outside of church but I don’t really know how to start it or explain it so it interests them.

Expand full comment
author

Sounds wonderful!

Expand full comment

I haven't, but I will look into it. I love this comment 😄 I have lived in different communities all over the US for the past 30 years, looking for a fit. I never found one, but I learned a lot! What not to do and what works. My favorite was too dogmatic in their religious beliefs, but they had a wonderful business model and thriving community. We worked really hard and ate really wholesome food. It almost had it all. Well I love the concept and I love hearing about yours, Mimi 💖 Thank you.

Expand full comment
Aug 31Liked by Christopher Cook

Just this evening i learned of the Free State Project:

The Free State Project is a movement of thousands of freedom-loving people to New Hampshire.

Already, there are thousands of individuals just like you right here in New Hampshire. Together, Free Staters have built an incredible, real-life community full of people who value liberty and responsibility.

https://www.fsp.org/

Expand full comment
author

Yeah, the FSP really has begun to transform NH somewhat. Still a long way to go, but it is working. If I didn't have family/location commitments, I would consider it myself.

Expand full comment
Aug 12Liked by Christopher Cook

I’ll look forward to the next issue. Hopefully it will be short on ‘blame’ (that’s a dead end) and stuffed full of practical, actionable ideas.

Expand full comment
author
Aug 12·edited Aug 12Author

Because I have to do this book in order, there will be a WHY section that will have to repeat some of the arguments I have already been making. I will keep them as concise as possible.

This is necessary to establish the case, and a record of that case, which must be a part of this project's documentation, if that makes sense. But the refresher will be instructive for all of us, especially since I am going to try to boil it down to its most important essentials.

I will do that as briefly as I can in Part 1, and then the good stuff is coming!

Expand full comment
founding

A worthy project, to say the least -- looking forward to more!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks, DL! I will be publishing installments regularly.

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Christopher Cook

Go ahead and give her a rip. I don't think mankind is evolved enough to give up his vanities and arrogance. Most people are indoctrinated to be part of the gang and play follow the leader. And 99%of the time the leaders are power hungry retards.

Expand full comment
author

All true. But we have to try. We have to get started sometime. And if it has to be a generational project, then so be it.

Expand full comment
Aug 12Liked by Christopher Cook

Some thoughts:

First the commenters here can serve as alpha readers or editors. You may get some snark from some but overall such could be a valuable tool. For example in my read now I looked for typos, I didn't find any but if I had; for example if you'd written 'For the last 18 months here at the Freedom Snale, ' instead of scale. You'd need only copy the sentence, using 'find' on your manuscript it'd take you right there to correct it.

Second if you decide to self publish instead of offer it to a house, look in to such as https://www.lulu.com/ . Lulu's not the only shop in town either.

Expand full comment
author

Yeah, people are fee to catch any typos they like. I cannot afford a live-in editor, and though I worked as an editor for many years, no one catches everything. Especially when writing daily.

That said, I am showing Scale rather than Snale. That is very weird…

Even more important will be people's ideas. I have a lot of good thoughts in my head, but I cannot think of everything.

Thanks for the lulu recommendation!

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Christopher Cook

"That said, I am showing Scale rather than Snale. That is very weird…"

Not really you didn't read what I said. Grin.

Expand full comment
author

Aha! Yeah, I move too fast sometimes…

Expand full comment
Aug 12Liked by Christopher Cook

Everyone is looking for a solution , without understanding the problem.

“You're either fighting for a better future on all the aspects one can manage or you're submitting yourself to the stagnation of the present.”

Why is the focus on the future? What is a “better” future? Better relative to what? Is there anything wrong with fixing the present? Why is the present fucked up? What did you do to fuck it up? Did you vote for Trump? Did you vote for Biden? We’ve had both and both were fucked up, so it must be that you voted. You keep selecting ne’er-do-wells as your masters and expect the future to be better. As long as there are people who think they know how to make things better, things will only get worse

Some look to the past as a solution for the future. “If we could just get back to the good old days, things would be better.” “If we would just follow the constitution.” To quote Lysander Spooner, “But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain --- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”

I saw an article on Vox saying that if Trump got elected it would mean the end of the 1st amendment. How far up this guy’s ass has he had his head for the last four years? The constitution is useless for protecting rights. As long as the government is the final arbiter of its own behavior, there is no hope of anything getting better.

Expand full comment
author

I think you already know that I agree with pretty much all of that 🤣

Expand full comment

I wonder if we will come to the same conclusion? Look forward to finding out....

Expand full comment
author

Me toooo!

Expand full comment

Starting to see a lot more for sale signs around here....

Expand full comment
author

where is here?

Expand full comment
Aug 12Liked by Christopher Cook

Sorry. I forgot I was on my phone account, under my really, real name 😂 still E TN my friend.

Expand full comment
author

Ahhhhh. I had no idea!

Expand full comment
Aug 12Liked by Christopher Cook

Guess you’re not a fed………..😂 I kid, I kid

Expand full comment
Aug 12Liked by Christopher Cook

When do we get to live in the sunshine? When you get up and walk outside and there is light at the end of the rabbit hole, the jaborwocky of ego must be slayed and our imperious nature as pleasure and comfort seeking skinsacks full of soul and wonder that we keep caged. Our kids deserve to say in the future hey they said enough of this shit.

Expand full comment
author

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜🤎🤍🖤

Expand full comment
author

I may cite this when I get to the appropriate part of Part 1.

Expand full comment

All our children/g-children are counting on you for ways out of this mess- no pressure!!

Expand full comment
author

LOL!

I am already putting a ton of pressure on myself, but I can always stand a little more, to make me move faster. Bring it on!

Expand full comment

Everything runs on Agreements . . .

critical feature of this is how is it that any given agreement is to be enforced?

Expand full comment
author

Good question. A lot of this is gonna get answered coming up. But just so I know, what sort of agreement are you referring to here?

Expand full comment
Sep 17Liked by Christopher Cook

Here we go. Time to go down one more rabbit hole.

Expand full comment
author

I'll try to make it a good one!

Expand full comment
Sep 17Liked by Christopher Cook

You already are! You use such simple, grounded speech. A good dose of optimism. Reminds me of the old Venus Project in spirit. There’s sobering realities, but a potentially exciting future. Again, well-grounded in wording and concept.

Expand full comment
author

Thank you!

We have to stay excited. Despair gets us nowhere.

Expand full comment
Sep 17Liked by Christopher Cook

Facts

Expand full comment

This is a great start! Your writing is terrific. I look forward to reading more.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks! I just dropped the first part of the intro: https://christophercook.substack.com/p/time-chart-new-course-distributed-nation

I will keep cranking as hard as I can!

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Christopher Cook

Thesis a great use of Substack.write here and use the online editorial base!

Expand full comment
author

Substack is an amazing place!

Expand full comment
Aug 13Liked by Christopher Cook

An excellent start.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks—I will try to live up to it. 🤣

Expand full comment
Aug 12Liked by Christopher Cook

💪🏻👏👏

Expand full comment