These suggestions grew out of the ending paragraph of a previous article, "Integrity, Resentment & Liberty" – to wit:
"Without the tangible example of a politically free country – without an 'America' or an 'Atlantis' or a 'Galt's Gulch' or whatever allusion you prefer in tangible and unconflicted form – these people won't have nearly enough cause to be resentful nor to be inspired. In other words, nothing will get done until somebody does something. Now, to all of Saul's witless libertarian idealists dabbling in 'party politics' in North America and elsewhere: wake up, stop being diverted from the achievement of liberty in your lifetime on this planet, dust yourselves off, and found a politically free land. I know there are more than enough people to do this once we remove Saul's blinders and arguments from our eyes and minds. Go for it."
Suggestion:
Advertise for it:
People committed to political liberty sought to found new country. No equivocations, please.
Vote for liberty now – must be willing to relocate.
Want Liberty, Will Travel
Give me liberty ... or I'll leave.
Needed: large vacant habitat for endangered species: homo sapiens liberalis autonomous
Death to Domination – Life to Liberty
Born Free – stay that way; vacancies available.
Looking for more responsibility? Try Liberty.
Damn the government! Full speed away!
Want to do whatever you please and take full responsibility for it? Emigrate.
Freedom lovers unite – enroll – embark.
Suggestion:
Start as a Net country preliminary to a landed country, but only accept people who are willing to physically emigrate. Require "useful skills" and consider that you are populating an "island" (as Greece did a few years back) and need a variety of practical skills – lawyering doesn't count (except negatively) – carpenters, farmers, plumbers, electricians, glaziers, tailors, doctors, chemists, engineers, architects, and such. Believe me, you don't want anyone who is a lawyer, stockbroker, professor, clergy, government bureaucrat, or freemason – no Sauls to divert and sabotage.
Suggestion:
Be on the look-out for other Net countries of similar intent. Do not merge or diversify or federate. Instead become like cities of the same loosely defined country. Decide how big a population you want to work with (maybe 800 to 1200 – district size), then cap it and refer applications to the other Net countries/cities. Initiate discussion lists with parameters for a constitutional convention. Refer to online sources for libertarian constitutions such as Texas Constitution 2000 or Reciprocia Constitution. (Note that both of these bar incorporation and recognize only individuals as legal entities.) (Note that Reciprocia - the book - is one half discussion, building a philosophy of liberty from the ground up, and one half constitutional document and code of law – a blueprint; possibly a starting point for your own design.) Solicit donations; plan fundraisers.
Suggestion:
Do not trade online amongst the membership – do not "make-do" with cyber reality – this isn't the place for that. We are starting a country, of which free trade is one aspect. If that is all you're looking for and you can forego the condition of political liberty – or make-do with the illusion of it – stick with libertarian or free-market web sites that focus on active, online trade and free enterprise. Many of these are very good at what they do, but that's not what we're doing here. Don't buy into the "means to an end" line used on some of these sites – liberty ain't easy, but it's dirt cheap.
Note:
You will need to do sufficient research on political liberty to set up parameters for membership ... agreement to the fundamental principles of political liberty, including equality before the law of all persons (isonomia), participation by all persons (democracy), individual rights (sovereignty), security of rights by granting recognition of same from person to person (reciprocity), primacy of contract/constitution not state (rule of law). But do not nail it down structurally – establish guidelines and let a convention of members fashion a structure. If possible electronically publish your constitution so that other Net countries/cities can compare. Hold semiannual conventions to revise for first few years based upon such comparisons – move toward an agreeable common structure with other Net city/countries if possible.
Suggestion:
Compare notes with other Net countries/cities. Allow for structural disparity initially, but not compromises of principle. Affiliate with like-minded groups with the same objective (as cities under something general like "Freeland"). Together, solicit and search for politically secure territory. Offer political takeovers of failing countries perhaps on terms of guaranteed prosperity within 100 years (or all investments cheerfully removed!). Only take-on such projects where you are confident you can educate and convert (or relocate) the resident population. Geographic size is not necessarily important, but you will need 100% occupation to gain independence from whatever government now claims it. Practically speaking, every man, woman and child must be proficient with firearms and munitions, but fait d'accomplis will work even better. (See military chapter in Reciprocia for a different approach).
Note:
You don't need to target territory to set this up. You don't need a target territory until you've enrolled members, designed a constitution, and affiliated with other Net countries/cities. You will probably end up with a larger population than anticipated with the other Net countries/cities are added up and from more international areas than anticipated – not merely from pampered Americans who are dabbling half-heartedly with liberty (or trying to subvert it altogether in neo-utopian schemes of genetic engineering), but from Ugandans and Zimbabweans, Cambodians and Burmese, Columbians and Brazilians, Kurds and Palestinians, Tibetans and Indians – who are fighting for their very lives. This is not a game; it is a desperate enterprise for desperate times; a veritable Noah's ark offering sanity and hope. Don't underestimate the response. Make sure the principles of liberty are clearly understood by all members, then design a structure via convention.
Suggestion:
Countries/cities should be linguistically homogenous to begin with. Allow for more than one language choice of participants and keep a running count of citizens who would prefer Spanish or Chinese or whatever. When there are sufficient numbers of these from among the various cities, give them the option of forming their own country – or if they prefer, their own city which is still part of the freedom network "country". As these members depart, advertise for new citizens.
Suggestion:
Do not cluster by group affiliation of any sort aside from linguistic (for smooth communication). The prime unit in a free land is the individual – all types. Avoid other classifications such as religion, nationality, race or income. Advertise for freedom loving individuals; don't try to set up an exclusionary group – that's not what freedom is about. It would be a good idea to have no place for such categories on your application form. Nor should you solicit such information conversationally. On the other hand, I suspect you will be wanting postal addresses at some point, but perhaps these could be put in a mailing list file that only the webmaster has access to.
Suggestion:
Each Net county/city should be practically self-sufficient with a broad spectrum of professional, skilled and unskilled persons – so that they can "do it all themselves" if need be as an isolated colony. Try to avoid cities/countries composed primarily of one group or another, clustered by race, religion or skill or professional level. We want to avoid creating an elite or a special group (as a city/country) who thinks they are "more equal" than the others. The individual is the primary political unit and all individuals are politically equal in terms of protection and obligations (participation). Polity is a cooperative, not competitive, endeavor. Protecting individual rights is not like vying for special interests of one group at the expense of another; we all have the same rights and a political structure designed to protect those rights is to the benefit of each person. Politically no one is more qualified or more sovereign or more equal than anyone else. There is no elite ruling group. Of, by and for.
Suggestion:
If you read sci-fi, you've read dozens of accounts of colonizing the moon or Mars. This isn't sci-fi, but – yes – you can approach it that way if you like: liberty is colonizing planet Earth – with this caveat: liberty has no respect for the native culture of domination on this planet. We don't necessarily go out of our way to attack it beyond our borders, but we repudiate its right to exist, we hold it in contempt (even as we sympathize with its victims) and we hope that it will eventually be exterminated, peacefully but thoroughly. We will certainly hope to influence its demise by our example, but we exist in our own right and not as an "example" – we are aware and informed and ready to educate others, but not given to meddling. We are not a "rescue" team for favored victim states (or countries left "behind").
Suggestion:
Each city/country should effect participation and hold elections as soon as the population has reached its goal and probably after you've held your constitutional convention and decided on a real-world government structure. Recommend that all elected positions be nominated by lottery. Recommend that whoever starts the web site remain as webmaster of the site and follow the directions and needs of the senate or congress or consensus or whatever structure of organization you devise to make the transition from Net to Landed community. Main point: the person who starts the site defines certain initial parameters for membership, but does not continue as leader/dictator/fuehrer once underway – obviously, right?
Suggestion:
It would help enormously if you have traveled and lived in other countries and can let go of your own cultural presumption (programming) that there is only one "right" way to doing anything – from eating to using the toilet to family values to religion – different cultures have different approaches and none are correct or incorrect. But the principles of political liberty are natural principles, like gravity, and do not depend on or defer to culture – not yours, not anyone else's. Liberty is not truly valued by any group existing. But for individuals who do value it, it has a priority that crosses all cultural divides. You may agree on nothing else, but if you agree to the natural parameters of political liberty, no other agreement is needed. Once you have secured your rights, then perhaps you can start learning about one another and from one another.
Suggestion:
Be prepared to go offline. Government snoops and infiltration can play havoc with this plan. Keep membership confidential. Maintain membership information offline (not on the website). Require password login past informational pages. We don't want to be secretive and paranoid, but we do want to be realistic. Governments around the world are making inroads against Internet freedom and anonymity every day. Our approach is inherently peaceable – we do not intend to overthrow any existing government by force or violence (regardless of how they may deserve it), but we do intend to establish a free land – and this is a tangible threat to every existing government on the planet. Political liberty is a very big no-no to the powers that be. So, practice safe cyber communication and use whatever protection is available while remaining as open as possible to people all over the world at all levels of society. And be prepared to go offline with the webmaster becoming postmaster.
Note:
Exercise realistic paranoia and be aware that, with such an open plan, you will undoubtedly gather members who are plants of contrary groups – whether governmental, religious, corporate or ideological – intent on a degree of sabotage or perhaps as informers who will not actively sabotage but merely monitor and report to a contrary group that plans to derail you at some point. This is inevitable and going offline won't erase the threat. But the goal is a free and open society and you don't want to alienate people with a lot of secret handshake b.s., so learn to be aware of it at all stages and live with it. For the most part, our goal itself is open to worldwide inspection – we have nothing to be ashamed of, indeed, we be proud. But not dumb, reckless or foolish. Go for it, but keep your eyes open. It is possible that, as Net cities/countries for landed liberty proliferate, we will find greater bulk security in the openness and transparency of our enterprise (but don't violate membership confidentiality or make other naive blunders in the name of transparency).
Suggestion:
Be prepared to issue passports at some point prior to emigration, but don't make a big brouhaha over it. You might recommend that members obtain World Service Authority generic passports as an interim or alternative solution.
Note:
This article is open to amendment/updates from/by interested parties. Feel free to email suggestions to me at
Liberty101@reciprocia.com . For other support (and an auto-pilot forum board), check out Kelly's Pages. I envision several hundred, possibly thousands of Net-city/countries with a population of about 1000 each. So anybody who wants to webmaster it can start their own country.
Go for it!
Suggestion:
Regarding Freedonia and similar online projects (New Utopia, New Atlantis, Sealand), whereas these are attempting either to secure land and/or build land over water and/or already have land, they are weakest in their constitutions and political principles. Some of them are principalities, requiring an oath of allegiance to the prince as a condition of citizenship. As noted in Ethics for Earthlings, the trappings of royalty – and all of these presumably freedom-loving projects have many such trappings – contain and spawn political and cultural domination. They are obviously popular with Europeans, but Europeans have never had a very comprehensive grasp of the concept of liberty and have a great preference for royalty and other domination trinkets. On the other hand, the web sites of these projects are worth looking at to see how they are approaching various requirements. Very few parallel any of the suggestions above. But once it becomes clear that their political ambitions are fairly shallow/vague, then one does not expect much practicality from them in other respects either. They are, perhaps, interesting Internet clubs and – hey, I'm easy – they look like a lot of fun. But if you want landed liberty, don't mistake them for role models.
Suggestion:
Other online projects that may offer some ideas to mull are David A. Bean's World-Oasis league of small nations, Frederick Mann's Build Freedom, Sunni Maravillosa's Doing Freedom!, also of interest may be The Simple Society, and – perhaps most ambitious/disturbing – there's the World Transformation & New Civilization Network. In all of these, there are a lot of great ideas. In some, the great ideas are mixed in with a fair amount of muddled ego-driven premises and foggy world-building goals. You have to open your mind, but not let go of it.
Suggestion:
In an earlier suggestion, I mentioned letting go of your cultural preconceptions vis a vis other cultures and learning from one another. One more suggestion, in line with that and on top of that, try to let go of your concepts of property, courts, marriage, military, law, government, politics, economics. I'm not saying not to have such concepts, but realize that your present understanding of them is grounded in a domination, hierarchic framework (both politically and philosophically). Start not with structure or with these or similarly loaded concepts, but with principles. The basis of liberty is the sovereignty of the individual. (Sovereignty, reciprocity, isonomia, democracy.) Apply the principles freshly. Don't think, "well, I know what thus-and-such is or means or should be." You probably only know what your culture, your experience and your history has taught you. Liberty is not the same-old, same-old. We don't want the same-old, we want liberty. Assume nothing.
