Campaign messages

[collaborational]

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.

[collaborational]

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.

[zenturtle]

Terrific.  Dude the part I seized upon is this:

'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.'

This is the actionable item in your post.  This is what we can take and start planning something concrete based around.

So what are the services that we rely on government for that we need to take in to our own hands?

The first things that comes to mind are water, electricity and food for me. 

I have water collection systems, they are in their infancy and supply only water to the garden so far, but it is a step in the right direction. 

Electricity can be covered by solar panels, converters, batteries, wind turbines etc. 

I used to have a VW Bus with a Solar panel and two boat batteries along with an AC/DC converter in the vehicle to plug fans and lights in to.  Unfortunately it was sold a year or so ago and since then I have had no follow up for solar or wind energy set up... yet.

The final thing obviously comes down to growing food, start small.  I''ve gotten decent harvests from a garden set up on my second floor porch out of a 900 square foot apartment.  No matters what your outdoor situation is you can grow something.  Start with one plant, work on from there. 

What suggestions do you have?  What does government provide that we can start taking in to our own hands?  And what are some examples of how to start doing things more locally?

[collaborational]

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.