We Are the Grass. We Are the Trees.

Building a new world in the cracks of the old (DN 4.22)

This Chapter (Who) has explored ideas about the kind of people we ought to aspire to be. We could discuss that forever, but it is time to pivot to the all-important How. How will we make this happen? And then finally to the When, in which we will lay out a detailed timetable. (At the end, I will condense everything into a tight summary that we can use as a resource, guide, and founding document.) And so, I will make this the last installment of Chapter 4.

The message here is simple:

Our Who does not need to be everyone. We do not need to convince everyone (or, God forbid, force anyone) to think a particular way. For now, we just need ourselves.

Chapter 4.22

You never change people by fighting their existing reality.

—R. Buckminster Fuller

We have already discussed at length the numerous toxic outcomes of our nature as an ultra-social species.

There are social consequences: Enforced conformity. Chopping down the tall poppy. Not living up to your potential, or being fully you, out of fear of what others will think.

These same tendencies then lead to things that are far worse: collectivism, the forcible imposition of single-solution systems on large groups of people, and all the attendant horrors of both. Banal compliance with the system…no matter how tyrannical it becomes. Asch and Milgram.

Humans suffer from the pervasive presumption that unless everyone is living the same way, we cannot possibly have order. We need to leave this presumption in the dustbin of history where it belongs.

This presumption spills over into another: the belief that a movement cannot succeed unless everyone—or at least a large number—is a part of it.

We have spoken about this before as well: a small group of people can do amazing things. Small groups, meeting by candlelight, have gone on to change the world.

Yet there is a key difference between us and other movements. We are not setting out to change the world. We are setting out to build a new world.

The goal of just about every movement under the sun is to take something over. To impose something. To win the power needed to get everyone in a given area to comply with a particular blueprint. We must not be like that.

There is no need to impose anything on anyone. No need to control the actions and choices of anyone. No need to lobby, campaign, or vote for the next great leader. No ballots, no bullets. Just the truth.

Without a doubt, we will be stronger, and able to accomplish more, with more people. But we can start with one person.

If there is just one person who has come to know the truth…

• That we are free, self-owning beings, each with the inherent right to control himself…and no one else,

• That no one is born with a right to rule, nor may anyone impose their rule by force,

• That our consent actually matters, and no one ever asked our consent,

then our nation has a population of one.

Humans are not rotten. A tiny minority of criminals can’t control themselves, and a tiny minority of psychopaths want to control everything. Why should the rest of us live on our knees because of them?

If you are sick of preemptively surrendering to psychopaths, then our nation has a population of one.

If you have come to realize that we are not slaves in need of masters, then our nation has a population of one.

Even if you do not fully understand all these issues yet, but you know you want to be more free, our nation has a population of one.

We are not a nation in the classic sense. We are individuals who seek greater independence and want to make common cause with others who want the same.

I am done living on my knees. I might not be able to resist the masters fully, but I will be damned if I keep saying that endless slavery is the only condition possible to mankind, forever.

I am ready to plant seeds for a new evolution. I am ready to stop obsessing over the old world and start building the new. I am ready to be free.

I am a population of one. And if you are ready too, then we are a population of two.

Back in June,

Jim in Alaska

said he believed our distributed nation would begin by

“flourishing in the cracks within and twixt existing societies, giving unto Caesar but as grudgingly and as niggardly as absolutely possible.”

Flourishing in the cracks… Jim’s metaphor swam in my head for days, until I realized just how perfect it is.

Our nation is not going to stride onto the world stage and immediately go toe to toe with the powers and potentates of the world. That would be impossible (not to mention suicidal).

We start small. We begin by building in the cracks within and between existing societies.

And what happens when a seed starts growing in a crack? The crack widens. It takes time, but slowly, inexorably, the crack widens. Blades of grass expand a crack. A tree upends it entirely.

And deep beneath, where you do not see, the roots continue to extend. Deeper. Stronger.

We are the grass. We are the trees.

We are not trying to take anything over. We are not trying to control anyone. And we do not need everyone to join in. We just need ourselves.

We are building a new civilization in the cracks of the old.