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Strategy/Organization/Ideas / New State Secession Movements
« on: November 10, 2016, 03:44:56 AM »
Well, the surprising Trump candidacy and victory has inspired many people to take seriously the idea of California state secession! Not the most ideal circumstances for people to arrive at the idea, but I'll take it!
http://www.yescalifornia.org
(I posted this in the California child board too.)
http://www.yescalifornia.org
(I posted this in the California child board too.)
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California / California Secession
« on: November 10, 2016, 03:38:06 AM »
Well, the surprising Trump victory has inspired many people to take seriously the idea of California state secession! Not the most ideal circumstances for people to arrive at the idea, but I'll take it!
http://www.yescalifornia.org
http://www.yescalifornia.org
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Strategy/Organization/Ideas / Re: Campaign messages
« on: July 08, 2016, 02:41:21 AM »
By the way, I think Adam’s approach (or what I’ve seen myself so far) is great — that is, it’s great that he’s searching for people to specialize in discovering and explaining the best way to dismantle and/or transfer each branch and piece of the federal government. And he’s running to be the person to oversee this process.
This isn’t really at odds with what I was discussing above but complementary to it. Adam and the people on his team can advocate not just the dismantling what they will oversee but also the cooperative efforts from outside the federal government that they may link up with.
The ground-up work that we can all do (which is what you seized upon), will be, to some degree, different for each person. I think for everyone, it means learning skills like Nonviolent Communication (from Marshall Rosenberg) that allow you to communicate more effectively and de-escalate tension between people. At a family-scale, this can also include asserting one’s independence and not getting caught in unhealthy, co-dependent relationships. I don’t think that trying to become extremely self-sufficient (in food, electricity, etc) is necessarily the best option for most people, but it can be helpful for some. In terms of a neighborhood scale or a city scale, I’m thinking of creating policing services and dispute resolution services that out-compete and/or displace local police forces and law services. These are critical services that traditionally serve to exert power from higher in the political hierarchy down to the lowest levels. Also, becoming more community aware and working on charity, social safety nets, educating people on being financially responsible, etc. These are important ways to make government seem less urgently needed.
From the ground up, we can sequentially target the local entities that are serving to exert non-local power and try to displace and replace them. This may even include re-hiring the same people, but putting them into new settings and institutions that incentivize respectful, rational behavior.
This isn’t really at odds with what I was discussing above but complementary to it. Adam and the people on his team can advocate not just the dismantling what they will oversee but also the cooperative efforts from outside the federal government that they may link up with.
The ground-up work that we can all do (which is what you seized upon), will be, to some degree, different for each person. I think for everyone, it means learning skills like Nonviolent Communication (from Marshall Rosenberg) that allow you to communicate more effectively and de-escalate tension between people. At a family-scale, this can also include asserting one’s independence and not getting caught in unhealthy, co-dependent relationships. I don’t think that trying to become extremely self-sufficient (in food, electricity, etc) is necessarily the best option for most people, but it can be helpful for some. In terms of a neighborhood scale or a city scale, I’m thinking of creating policing services and dispute resolution services that out-compete and/or displace local police forces and law services. These are critical services that traditionally serve to exert power from higher in the political hierarchy down to the lowest levels. Also, becoming more community aware and working on charity, social safety nets, educating people on being financially responsible, etc. These are important ways to make government seem less urgently needed.
From the ground up, we can sequentially target the local entities that are serving to exert non-local power and try to displace and replace them. This may even include re-hiring the same people, but putting them into new settings and institutions that incentivize respectful, rational behavior.
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Strategy/Organization/Ideas / Re: Transparty coalition
« on: July 08, 2016, 01:52:20 AM »
I have lots of ideas that I do not implement, due to preferences, priorities, and energy and time constraints. If conditions are right and my higher priorities are met, then I may consider enacting this plan. (Or it might be more worth my time to simply offer more support to Adam than to run as another candidate.)
The point of running in a specific non-libertarian party is that
1) (most) political parties are not based on philosophy, especially the Democratic and Republican parties of the US — they are broad coalitions of very different groups with some overlapping ideas and goals — so one can enter with a different philosophy and try to show how the true goals can (only) be met via different means, and, in doing so, show how to clarify or improve the ideas common to the party;
2) people often see political party more in terms of identity and in-group / out-group than in terms of philosophical foundation, and so using the party label and concerns in a genuine way gives one an “in” to the group, to be taken seriously as a real human, rather than as the enemy or some alien outsider;
3) the US political system is set up in a way that if you use the “D” / “R” labels, you can more easily get on ballots, and more easily get into debates, and so even if Adam is the best proponent out of a set of voluntarists running, it may be one of the other “D” or “R” candidates who finds more electoral success (but that’s not guaranteed).
Disadvantages of running in a standard party:
1) some people will still probably attack you as being an outsider, a poser/poseur, or someone who should be running in a different party;
2) the party may find many ways to subvert you from within the party (but this could still be better than the myriad ways they subvert you outside of the major parties);
3) …?
With respect to the Democratic party:
1) I don’t want to work right now on precisely how I would construct my arguments, but I’m certain I could construct them by teasing out what I think are the fundamental needs that democrats are trying to meet (which lean more toward community, feelings and acknowledgement of connection and understanding, expressions of support and solidarity, certain kinds of safety, etc), and showing how government methods often end up subverting these needs and that there are voluntary methods that can meet these needs *and* other important needs.
2) My campaign’s goals (phrased genuinely in a way that Democrats would pay attention to) would be to create a better world with more compassion, fairness, justice, peace, health, and prosperity.
3) As an individual, I wouldn’t hope to change the Democratic party platform. I’d prefer to dismantle governments and unprincipled political parties.
The point of running in a specific non-libertarian party is that
1) (most) political parties are not based on philosophy, especially the Democratic and Republican parties of the US — they are broad coalitions of very different groups with some overlapping ideas and goals — so one can enter with a different philosophy and try to show how the true goals can (only) be met via different means, and, in doing so, show how to clarify or improve the ideas common to the party;
2) people often see political party more in terms of identity and in-group / out-group than in terms of philosophical foundation, and so using the party label and concerns in a genuine way gives one an “in” to the group, to be taken seriously as a real human, rather than as the enemy or some alien outsider;
3) the US political system is set up in a way that if you use the “D” / “R” labels, you can more easily get on ballots, and more easily get into debates, and so even if Adam is the best proponent out of a set of voluntarists running, it may be one of the other “D” or “R” candidates who finds more electoral success (but that’s not guaranteed).
Disadvantages of running in a standard party:
1) some people will still probably attack you as being an outsider, a poser/poseur, or someone who should be running in a different party;
2) the party may find many ways to subvert you from within the party (but this could still be better than the myriad ways they subvert you outside of the major parties);
3) …?
With respect to the Democratic party:
1) I don’t want to work right now on precisely how I would construct my arguments, but I’m certain I could construct them by teasing out what I think are the fundamental needs that democrats are trying to meet (which lean more toward community, feelings and acknowledgement of connection and understanding, expressions of support and solidarity, certain kinds of safety, etc), and showing how government methods often end up subverting these needs and that there are voluntary methods that can meet these needs *and* other important needs.
2) My campaign’s goals (phrased genuinely in a way that Democrats would pay attention to) would be to create a better world with more compassion, fairness, justice, peace, health, and prosperity.
3) As an individual, I wouldn’t hope to change the Democratic party platform. I’d prefer to dismantle governments and unprincipled political parties.
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Strategy/Organization/Ideas / Re: Campaign messages
« on: June 13, 2016, 02:51:41 AM »
If we can translate this message into how to bring voluntarism and a psychology of freedom into our personal lives (family, education, work, etc), and if people start practicing it in their own lives, then it will become more apparent to them how the rest of the world still operates on a psychology of control and coercion and subverts human flourishing.
The existing system of control and coercion continues due to a general lack of resistance (not due to a presence of true consent). But a general resistance will not grow until people know and are familiar with the kind of world they are missing out on and can see a path for how to get there.
The existing system of control and coercion continues due to a general lack of resistance (not due to a presence of true consent). But a general resistance will not grow until people know and are familiar with the kind of world they are missing out on and can see a path for how to get there.
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Strategy/Organization/Ideas / Campaign messages
« on: June 13, 2016, 02:30:11 AM »
Whether or not people are ready for actual dissolution of the federal government, I believe this message/platform needs to be heard and considered by everyone (even if they laugh at first). National elections are (unfortunately) one of the few contexts in which people consider their political views in a slightly more critical way, so it also makes sense to communicate this platform as a candidate.
But I think people will not be ready to seriously consider this platform until they can see a somewhat continuous path into a post-USA world, where many steps are already being taken outside of the federal government to make it irrelevant and obsolete, to take over at least some of its functions. And some voluntarist institutions could be preparing for the day to take over certain functions, even if they cannot perform them while the federal government still exists.
I think the campaign and platform should emphasize strategies for dissolving government from the outside in this manner as we prepare for the day when we can have a critical mass of people ready to instigate a dissolution from the inside (supposing the federal government lasts that long, which I think is likely since it is such a juggernaut).
And I think one of the best ways to show people this can work is to do it at smaller levels of government -- the smallest levels, in fact. Even starting within our personal lives, by taking responsibility for things that governments (or other illegitimate authorities in our lives) would otherwise handle for us.
If we are truly successful in spreading this message, the dissolution may be more likely to initiate from the ground up, with lower-level governments dissolving by their uselessness / counter-productiveness / coercion becoming more evident, and then the higher-level governments no longer having the lower-level governments to operate as intermediaries. As institutions are developed to truly protect people from coercion and fraud at a more local level, they may become trusted and powerful enough to start protecting people from the more distant criminals (politicians). Then people will be ready to dissolve the federal government.
But I think people will not be ready to seriously consider this platform until they can see a somewhat continuous path into a post-USA world, where many steps are already being taken outside of the federal government to make it irrelevant and obsolete, to take over at least some of its functions. And some voluntarist institutions could be preparing for the day to take over certain functions, even if they cannot perform them while the federal government still exists.
I think the campaign and platform should emphasize strategies for dissolving government from the outside in this manner as we prepare for the day when we can have a critical mass of people ready to instigate a dissolution from the inside (supposing the federal government lasts that long, which I think is likely since it is such a juggernaut).
And I think one of the best ways to show people this can work is to do it at smaller levels of government -- the smallest levels, in fact. Even starting within our personal lives, by taking responsibility for things that governments (or other illegitimate authorities in our lives) would otherwise handle for us.
If we are truly successful in spreading this message, the dissolution may be more likely to initiate from the ground up, with lower-level governments dissolving by their uselessness / counter-productiveness / coercion becoming more evident, and then the higher-level governments no longer having the lower-level governments to operate as intermediaries. As institutions are developed to truly protect people from coercion and fraud at a more local level, they may become trusted and powerful enough to start protecting people from the more distant criminals (politicians). Then people will be ready to dissolve the federal government.
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Strategy/Organization/Ideas / Transparty coalition
« on: June 13, 2016, 01:40:58 AM »
Idea: Multiple people run on this same platform in as many parties as possible, perhaps all in a "Voluntarist coalition".
Each person should have an affinity and sympathy with their chosen party, and would try to use the language and priorities of their chosen party's base to communicate the ideas of freedom and respect in a way they can more easily relate to. Essentially, in the language of Marshall Rosenberg's "nonviolent communication", each would focus mainly on the fundamental human needs that stand out most strongly in each party (as well as focusing on the party's favorite issues). These people could also do events together, trying to show the common ground between the parties.
If I were to run, which is unlikely, perhaps I could run in the Democratic party.
Each person should have an affinity and sympathy with their chosen party, and would try to use the language and priorities of their chosen party's base to communicate the ideas of freedom and respect in a way they can more easily relate to. Essentially, in the language of Marshall Rosenberg's "nonviolent communication", each would focus mainly on the fundamental human needs that stand out most strongly in each party (as well as focusing on the party's favorite issues). These people could also do events together, trying to show the common ground between the parties.
If I were to run, which is unlikely, perhaps I could run in the Democratic party.
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