This will be brief. I have company this week. Though my guest and I have brainstormed through a world of perils and generated vast amounts of blog fodder, I planned to wait until next week, then begin a new multi-part series on bringing down totalitarianism.
A moment has come up this afternoon, so here’s a beginning.
First, please take a cruise though these links that I’ve been collecting in preparation for the upcoming series, most especially the last in the list.
- Adaptive Curmudgeon sums up everything that needs saying about the obnoxious, unconscionable, cruel, inciting, totalitarian, and exceedingly dangerous speech our Puppet-in-Chief mumbled through last Thursday. You know the one. Losing patience with “those who block the public health,” indeed.
- “COVID’s Willing Executioners” by Todd Hayden. Yet another thoughtful article about the dangers all freedomistas (vaxxed and unvaxxed) face from the irrational mobs the current regime is deliberately stirring up.
- The new plan to track every transaction of even the smallest bank account holders.
- Rural Colorado parents create their own public school featuring hardcore education, character building, and no-politics. (There’s a waiting list to get in, too.)
- “How to Tell What the Government Fears Most.” And very much related, “Us, at the Gate,” by Thomas Kendall.
- “That Facebook Thing,” by Commander Zero. Once again, “being too prepared” makes us suspects.
- Eisenhower was right once again.
- On the lighter side: Are your teenagers experimenting with philosophy?
- “What I learned about Democrats from the Inside.” (And inside is almost an understatement.)
- Finally, and most important, here’s The Academy of Ideas on How to Escape a Sick Society. It’s a 13-minute video and although it does not quite deliver on its “how to” promise, it lays out the entire background in calm philosophical tones.
If you skip all the other links, please watch that video, even if (like me) you usually can’t abide getting your information fed to you by YouTube.
—–
Last week, I wrote that freedomistas had just two jobs to do in our new totalitarian society: live with the ugly reality and plan to outlive it.
The catch, of course, is that neither of the two jobs is simple or easy.
Part of those jobs involves developing parallel systems, or even parallel societies as described in “How to Escape a Sick Society.” We need, as human beings and as a culture, to “route around” the damage of totalitarianism. By routing around, we accomplish multiple good things, from weakening the power of the oligarchy to giving dissidents a way to live and thrive to (potentially) replacing the oligarchy without bloodshed when the day comes.
Really we won’t end up with one, or even two or three, parallel societies, but thousands of them.
Many kinds of parallel systems are needed. But every newborn freedomista society, large or small, will need methods to replace existing (and completely corrupted):
- Education systems
- Financial systems
- Justice systems
- Medical systems
- Transportation systems
- Communication systems
And that’s what my upcoming series will be about.
Some of those are relatively easy and already underway. The government schooling system, for instance, is crumbling before our eyes and being replaced by outstanding options.
Other systems are much harder. How do we replace government-dominated banking and medical care when the oligarchy’s grip is so tight and punishments are so potentially huge? How do we form truly just justice systems and not end up creating little mafias or warlord fiefdoms instead?
But of course, even in those most difficult areas, we already see opportunities opening. You can probably name a dozen ways that new financial systems and medical systems are developing by chance or by design. Government systems are so broken and have become so unpleasant to use that millions will be driven to abandon them and create alternatives, even under threat of horrible punishment for stepping out of the (former) mainstream.
So. That’s where we’ll go next week, and probably for several weeks beyond that.
I hope to have you with me.
Glorious!
Now there’s a challenge!
Meanwhile, watching the attempt to slide us all into an ever-more totalitarian regime, I’m reading The Power of the Powerless, by Vaclav Havel. Some good stuff there.
Depending upon the nature / scope / size of a new community, I would be thinking about power / water / sewage too. Should opportunity to live with a new tribe come about, I’d hope for something a little nicer than Slab City. (Though some residents surely consider that to be quite nice indeed.)
I accept!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAYhNHhxN0A
maybe if we try hard & smart enough it becomes possible!!!!!!!!
(I will not awkwardly hang around the blog waiting for a new post, I will not hang awkwardly hang around the blog waiting for a new post….New Post!)
It makes me feel good that I had read almost all of those previously. And they are all all worthy of being written. I would second the recommendation The Academy of Idea’s video on How To Escape A Sick Society. I do not typically enjoy video lectures, but this one is interesting enough (and of not terrible length) to be engaging.
I like the concept of “routing around” systems. It is actually a very useful visual that I think most people can grasp. How do I move an immovable object? By finding a way to go over, around, under or even through the object, not by continually battering my fist against it in the vain hope that I can break it.
The important thing (which Claire has always emphasized, at least in my time here) is the importance of building community and connections. Ultimately, this all only works if we can build bridges, connections, and communities with people in many ways may not be like us, but have underlying principles of freedom and liberty (or as the wisdom of the ages has put it, the enemy of my enemy is my friend).
The larger the cracks in government systems become, the more possibilities for people to work within the cracks exist.
I do like the Experimenting With Philosophy meme. If people do experiment, I try not to show too much interest lest I drive them away from it by showing interest. Nothing kills a nascent interest more than having an “uncool parent” interested in it…
Fiat Federal cryptocurrency is 1984 on steroids and, IMO, the end of any pretense to freedom in America. Anyone who votes for it is guilty of treason and deserves what those guilty of treason receive. That, of course, will probably be all of Congress. One hope is that someone will bring the issue to the conservative Scotus, maybe under violating the First or Fourth Amendments or something else a smart lawyer could figure.
I hadn’t really thought much about parallel societies/systems until I watched “How to Escape a Sick Society”. It’s a fuzzy concept for me and hard for me to define and pin down. It’s not necessarily the case, but I can more easily envision parallel societies that engage in agorism or ones that are cliquish, like certain religious-based subcultures. I suppose there might be sci-fi writings that flesh out the concept, but I’m not aware of them. Two notable proponents of parallel systems/societies are Andrew Torba (founder of Gab) and Paul Rosenberg (founder of Cryptohippie VPN).
Some of the systems that Claire listed are easier for me to envision than others. Crypto, for example, makes at least some parallel financial systems possible. But others like justice, depending on exactly what it encompasses, would be in direct competition with the government, and being harder to decentralize, would be quickly shut down.
At least to the extent that I understand it, I love the concept of parallel systems, but as Claire said, it’s not easy. As opposed to the mainstream, parallel societies and economies have to overcome some big obstacles. They still have to contribute to mainstream programs like schools, leaving them fewer resources available to establish their own alternatives, like home or community schools. Some of the “services” they are forced to contribute to, were created specifically to make it difficult to route around them. As soon as you become successful, you pop up on their radar, and they will want to impose their licenses and regulations.
Some of the emerging competitors to big tech are operating in plain view and have seen remarkable growth in spite of not playing on a level playing field. But a lot of other types of parallel systems, will need to be decentralized in order to make it more costly to shut them down.
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ― Buckminster Fuller
“How do we form truly just justice systems and not end up creating little mafias or warlord fiefdoms instead?”
This one is of particular interest to me, and I am sure to everyone who has been victimized or abused by our current corrupt legal systems, both civil and criminal. I am looking forward to Claire’s ideas on this subject.
I think creating the other parallel systems mentioned will be cake compared to this one.
So grateful for these links, thank you.
Not sure if this link has been shared or not, but it’s a plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction by American’s Frontline Doctors vs. Dept. of Health and Human Services this past July. Incredible overview in my opinion and well worth the read. Page 20 touches on something I have not seen talked about much and that is blood donations.
https://greatmountainpublishing.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/AFLD-v-Becerra-Injunctive-Relief.pdf
Excellent.
Remember, Rome died at the edges as people just walked away.
Claire, I just wanted to add this, in advance of your detailing of systems ideas: although Andrew Breitbart is usually cited in one way or another for his observation that “politics is downstream from culture” he’s certainly not the first to notice the relationship. So I wanted to suggest that you consider the cultural systems – the foundations, by this logic – first. This may be somewhat messier than what you had in mind…
HOO-AH! I’m IN 100% at 80 Summers young.
Will give it all I got–and then some!
Born ‘n bred a peaceful soul, BUT–never ran from a fight started by another.
I’m half-horse, half-alligator and a little attached with snapping turtle. I’ve got the fastest horse, the prettiest sister, the surest rifle and the ugliest dog in Texas. My father can lick any man in Kentucky… and I can lick my father. I can hug a bear too close for comfort and eat any man alive opposed to FREEDOM!
Claire, This sounds suspiciously like what happened in Ireland one hundred years ago , a parallel society (Sinn Féin) through “Irish Democracy” and perseverance Ireland Became a Republic when it became too costly to maintain the status quo . lots of parallels , oppressive occupation government that used auxiliaries , Black and Tans (like antifa etc) recruited out of the prison system to enforce Royal Edict, Returning troops conscripted to fight in the fields of France ( think GWOT vets ) created their own self defense force, They set up their own parallel system including Legal and banking. The Blueprints there we just have to have the will to follow it with an american twist. It is not going to be an easy road to travel but beats the alternative. “The longest road out is the shortest road home.”
I am with you!
This is workable. Great ideas. Keep up the good work, Claire. OG
In other words, network with your family, friends, and neighbors, setting up local groups based upon existing relationships and connections. Example: most people interested in “this stuff” are already armed, so don’t try to organize a “militia,” just get together for “Amish” type activities. Mobilize to paint a widow’s house. Have quarterly Car Repair Festivals, where everyone brings knowledge, food and tools and the parts needed to repair everyone’s cars and truck.
Monthly or ongoing gardening clubs and vegetable swaps, including plants and seeds.
Home Schooling groups with families also recruiting (and vetting) “Monitors” and “Mentors.”
Etc.
The important thing is that at such activities, all such “activists” may get “paid” (receive value) in some way, so it won’t be just another useless, virtue signaling cluster-muck like the now converged L.P.
How about local groups with all who join “recording” serial numbers of 100 or 50 dollar Fran’s, which will, so long as y’all keep circulating them within the community, be assigned “value added” of some percent each year. Use a Blockchain database and STAMP or emboss each FRN with a nifty seal.
Circulate the above to facilitate purchase and offers of goods and services among community members.
Etc!
It’s all do-able. Let’s get started. Begin collecting how-2 methods, ideas, and interested parties today! Maybe a brief pamphlet would be in order.
Great comments, Ms! Here’s to “We The People’s Parallel America! (!)
Building Community is where you will have the best chance of surviving what is coming at us…
Adaptive Curmudgeon – Don’t use the phrase “Potato in Chief”! It’s not fair to potatoes!
Claire – Out.Standing.Links. Recently re-read part of “Don’t Shoot The Bastards (Yet)”. Damn! It was freakin’ optimistic by comparison!
How do we form truly just justice systems and not end up creating little mafias or warlord fiefdoms instead?
Science fiction author and libertarian Poul Anderson considered this, long ago:
“You wanted to re-establish the centralized state, didn’t you? Did you ever stop to think that maybe feudalism is what suits man? Some one place to call our own, and belong to, and be part of; a community with traditions and honor; a chance for the individual to make decisions that count; a bulwark of liberty against the central overlords, who’ll always want more and more power; a thousand different ways to live. We’ve always built supercountries, here on Earth, and we’ve always knocked them apart again. I think the whole idea is wrong. And maybe this time we’ll try something better. Why not a world of little states, too well rooted to dissolve in a nation, too small to do much harm – slowly rising above petty jealousies and spite, but keeping their identities – a thousand separate approached to our problems. Maybe then we can solve a few of them… for ourselves!”
– No Truce with Kings
Not bad for a novella written in… 1963. “John Mosby” of Mountain Guerrilla fame also wrote about this at length in Forging the Hero.
Food for thought and perhaps starting points for Whatever Comes Next.
They will not let us form parallel societies. Forcing us to put up with that which we do not want isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. Eventually they will be coming for all of us. A great example is the town of Orania in South Africa. Whites were sick of society, and created a town from scratch in the middle of the desert. Almost immediately leftists made it a cause celebre, of how evil white neon nazis wanted to be left alone and this couldn’t be allowed.
If we cede power, they will inevitably outlaw homeschooling, among other things, and then freedom even as an idea will be dead within a generation. Leftists never stop pushing and wheedling until they win, even if it takes decades.
The only solution is getting control of local and state governments, preferably contiguous states, and fighting off federal overreach by any means.
To No One You Know
I don’t think the problems are necessarily ones of structure (one large state versus many smaller ones), A thousand little tyrannies might be even harder to deal with than just one big one. I think the problems are rooted in power freaks getting actual power, and non-power freaks allowing them to do so. The people in the system are the problem, not the structure of the system itself.
[…] Wolf has been posting a lot lately about ‘whats next’ and ‘tween now n then’. […]
NightBreaker and Claire – In the movie “Michael Collins”, the title character, Collins, (Liam Neeson) makes a stirring speech about “Bowing to no institution but our own” as NightBreaker stated the Sinn Fein Irish did. Its a film I think every freedomista should see if for no other reason (though there are others), it shows us what NOT to do once you’ve achieved freedom, as Claire pointed out.
The video you linked is available on LBRY / Odysee:
https://odysee.com/@academyofideas:3/how-to-escape-from-a-sick-society:7?r=2nXtWgRRSGMKm8ididRkDca6xd2gRq7L
as is all (much?) of the content from that channel, Academy of Ideas.
LBRY / Odysee is a content-sharing platform for video, audio, etc. that is uncensorable. By using a blockchain for indexing the content (permanence, proof of authorship), content cannot be hidden, delisted, or shadowbanned. By storing the content in small chunks and many copies across thousands of computers in a globally distributed peer-to-peer network (kinda like BitTorrent) it’s practically impossible for the content to be completely deleted. And, the CEO of LBRY is a publicly declared friend of liberty who has appeared on the Anarchast podcast and similar outlets.
Claire, would you please add the Odysee link into the article above to give later readers the option to watch the video on a better platform than Eww!Tube.
Nelson — DONE, and gladly so. Thanks for the link and the word about this far superior alternative to YouTube. This is exactly the kind of decentralized, censorship-resistant resource we need in this mad world of censorship.