This Is Our Time to Chart a New Course

Introduction: Who, Why, and What

Cover page | Preface | Introduction 1 | Introduction 2 | Introduction 3 |

Introduction 1

The “get in, loser” reference is, of course, from the movie Mean Girls.

I don’t think I’ve even seen the entire movie (it’s not really my thing), but the line, “Get in, loser, we’re going shopping” has become culturally iconic, so it’s hard to miss.

It is also frequently used as a template for memes. As in,

Get in, loser, we’re __insert some cool thing we’re going to go do__.

In the original movie scene, the term “loser” is not meant as an insult. Indeed, there is some discussion among fans of the film that Regina (the character who says the line) isn’t even the villain of the story…or at least not the worst of them. Setting aside any such abstruse literary analysis, however, it is clear that Regina means it as a term of endearment—the kind of playful jibe frequently expressed between friends.

I think it is safe to call you my friends. Some of us are friends in the real world. Lots of us are Substack friends. And most of us are here because we share a profound and passionate love of human sovereignty and freedom.

So no, I am not really calling you losers.

And yes…we are starting our own country.

So buckle up, losers.

---

Okay. So we’re not actually losers. But we have been losing.

Losing our minds…

It certainly feels that way—at least a little bit—since 2020, when Covid-mania was imposed upon the whole of planet Earth.

Losing the plot…

Since that time, whatever clarity many of us had previously felt—about where we were and where we ought to go—has been steadily eroded by a rising tide of corruption, confusion, and conspiracies.

Losing our freedoms…

Clearly we have been losing our freedoms. But when did that actually start?

It wasn’t just since Covid—though things certainly did get worse then.

It wasn’t just since Obama, or whatever other recent figure whose name you want to insert.

It wasn’t even just since the left turn we took in the 1960s. Or the fascist-corporatist turn we took in the 1930s. Or the proto-fascist turn we took during World War I.

We started losing our freedom long before any of that.

It was well before the 1860s, when the notion that the states created (and thus could leave) the Union vanished in a tide of blood, along with at least 650,000 American lives.

It was before the 1780s, when Alexander Hamilton and his rich buddies were concocting a plan to get rid of the Articles of Confederation, and then duped the rest of us by making promises in the Federalist Papers that he never had any intention of keeping.

It wasn’t the Stamp Act or the Intolerable Acts or the machinations of a far-off king and parliament.

In fact, it wasn’t an American thing at all.

We, the human species, lost our freedom thousands of years ago. We lost our freedom the first time that some group of people said that they were in charge of the rest of us, and the rest of us bought it.

We lost our freedom when we agreed that some of us are born to rule, and the rest to be ruled. That we are so rotten that we cannot possible govern our own lives. That we are slaves in need of masters.

That is when we all became losers.

And we will remain losers so long as we continue to believe, and insist, that this is a problem that can be solved by more voting or the latest charismatic leader. Or by gauzy references to the American Founding. Or by pretending that we consented to any of this, when we clearly did not. 

I will briefly reinforce those points in this book. But only briefly.

The time has come for solutions.

Our purpose here is to propose and discuss one possible solution…and maybe even lay the first stones on a path to implementing that solution.

We can no longer afford to wait. We can no longer afford to pretend that what we have now is working, or that it was ever acceptable in any way. We can no longer afford purely academic discussions about what’s wrong, or spend one more precious day scrolling our way into an endless pit of doom-porn.

We need a practical pathway out of the darkness. While we’re busy rearranging deck chairs on this moral Titanic, the masters are laughing.

But they won’t get the last laugh.

People are finally waking up. And if you are here and reading this, you are one of those people.

Still, in spite of your membership in the ranks of the awakened, you probably have doubts about the whole premise of this book. Create our own country? That’s crazy-talk. The obstacles are too high. It’s too big, too ambitious…

You’re right: it is big. Very big.

But then again, the change from monarchy to democracy was big.

The fall of the Iron Curtain was big. And no one saw that coming.

Big things happen. Big things happen because people make them happen.

Take a look around. Are these times not pregnant with the possibility of big changes?

So how do we accomplish this wildly improbable task of creating our own country, in a world filled with states that depend upon us remaining their slaves?

As with any question, the details come down to who, why, what, where, when, and how. And that is how this book will be organized. 

Here, by way of introduction, are the basics:

WHO

Do you want to reclaim your birthright as a free, sovereign being?

Do you want to live in a world where your consent is actually respected?

Do you want to feel hope again? To feel like you are a part of something important? And to feel a sense of togetherness with others like you?

The who is you. The who is us. Not just in the U.S., not just in the West—but anywhere in the world.

WHY 

On one level at least, the why ought to be obvious.

A new sort of totalitarianism has emerged. Government authorities and shadowy power-players seek to reduce us to a condition of modern technocratic servitude. The scope of their ambition is global and boundless. Conditions in each country are unique, of course, but all humans now also face a shared plight.

But our problems go far deeper than some current trend of corruption or oppression. The problem lies with our fundamental assumptions about government itself, and for the last 5,000 years or so, nearly every civilization across the planet has been getting it wrong.

Throughout our history, humanity has languished under the myth that we are unfit to govern ourselves. That we must be ruled. And that some of us have the authority to do things that others do not. These aren’t just myths—they’re lies.

Moving from hereditary rule (monarchy) to majority rule (democracy) was arguably a necessary step in the right direction. But it was just a step. Ultimately, democracy doesn’t solve the fundamental problem. Not even the misty fever dream of a return to some “original” version of the American constitutional republic will solve the problem.

The problem cannot be fixed within the system. The system is the problem.

We will discuss all of this, as concisely as possible, in Part I.

WHAT

Our own country?

Yes. Absolutely.

I do not shy away from that claim one iota. In fact, I will double down: not only will we be working to create a new kind of nation, we are going to help blaze a trail to a whole new world.

The purpose of this book is to describe how all of this will work, so I won’t go too far in depth here. Simply put…

The what is a distributed nation: a worldwide polity of people united by a set of ideals…

Not a complex belief system that alienates as many as it attracts.
Not a set of edicts handed down by a central authority.
Not a culture focused on some ‘great leader.’

Just a small number of simple, fundamental, non-negotiable moral precepts, emanating from natural law, that are already shared and understood by most people.

The degree to which individuals in this new kind of nation may unite for further shared causes, and a broader vision, will be left entirely to the free choice of each individual. As it should be.

As it should always have been.

The modern nation state, as we understand it today, seems like a permanent fixture, but it is actually a comparatively recent invention. And—though it may appear far-fetched at the moment—the modern nation-state model may already be on its way out.

The whole idea of countries is changing. Decentralization is accelerating. New experiments are underway.

New technologies and new ideas (and some of the oldest ideas in the world) are fueling groundbreaking innovations in human social organization. A worldwide trend has begun.

Scores of ships are already setting out on this journey, and many more will follow. Each is charting its own course, but our overall goal is the same: to find new ways to be free. Each will be making new discoveries and reporting what they find, as we learn from and support each other in the years ahead.

These are strange and scary times to be alive, but they are also among the most exciting. We’ve been given an opportunity to chart a new course.

Let us make the most of it.

Next up: Introduction 2: Where, When, and How

---

In order to keep this content free, so everyone can read it and participate, I am asking that you choose to support my work, and the broader purposes of this book, if you can. For those who do, here is a special link with a discount.