Except, the goal is to provide security. Security for property. Security for identities. Security for data.
A successful micro-nation or micro-community could issue it’s own documentation, and negotiate with the statist world to recognize such travel documents.
I considered that when mulling over the trials and tribulations of my friend Mike Gogulski since he renounced his citizenship. In fact, providing documentation for “stateless” individuals could be a very lucrative enterprise if done correctly.
I was also thinking about the statuses of stateless “citizens” when I was mulling over some forums I hadn’t frequented in a while, which involved going through several different “identities” I had amassed (as well as remembering the “credentials”, or the passwords, to the accounts). The IP thread I was reading earlier certainly got the gears turning a bit.
Unofficially, avatars & profiles already sort of represent a non-state exclusive form of nebulous identity / credentials (sans of course, wherever the servers that store the said data are located, but that would be assuming too much stock in the concept of who has rights over Intellectual Property, which itself is an invalid or absurd concept). Flashbacks from Lawarence Lessig’s “CODE & Other Laws of Cyberspace” also helped.
Although specifics are a bit beyond myself, I began to think that maybe an open-source project or system could emerge revolving around a type of documentation or credentials for stateless individuals, utilizing loosely related concepts (such as email, avatars, alias’ etc.) & building upon them. AFAIK, OpenID might’ve been an early attempt at such a credential, & FOAF (Friend of a Friend) vaugley comes to mind as well.
The possibility that a micro-nation may rear it’s head not as an official micro-nation, but as a service, would seem to fit if a sort of data haven were started revolving around the creation, validation, & security of documentation & credentials of the stateless citizen.
If Google get’s their servers aboard ships to take advantage of various states & nations laws (or lack thereof) at the high seas, I’d imagine they would be a good prototype for such an enterprise (assuming micro nations do not pop up before hand).
Nitro, have you read Neal Stephenson’s “Snow Crash”? It is to ancap what Atlas Shrugged is to capitalism.
The story begins and ends in Los Angeles, which is no longer part of what is left of the United States, during the early 21st century. In this hypothetical future reality the federal government of the United States has ceded most of its power to private organizations and entrepreneurs.[1] Franchising, individual sovereignty and automobiles reign supreme (along with drug trafficking, violent crime, and traffic congestion). Mercenary armies compete for national defense contracts while private security guards preserve the peace in gated, sovereign housing developments. Highway companies compete to attract drivers to their roads rather than the competitors’, and all mail delivery is by hired courier. The remnants of government maintain authority only in isolated compounds where they transact business that is, by and large, irrelevant to the booming, dynamic society around them.
Much of the territory ceded by the government has been carved up into sovereign enclaves, each run by its own big business franchise (such as “Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong”) or the various residential burbclaves (suburban enclaves). This arrangement resembles anarcho-capitalism, a theme Stephenson carries over to his next novel The Diamond Age. Hyperinflation has devalued the dollar to the extent that trillion dollar bills — Ed Meeses — are nearly disregarded and the quadrillion dollar note — the Gipper — is the standard ‘small’ bill. For physical transactions people resort to alternative, non-hyperinflated currencies such as yen or “Kongbucks” (the official currency of Mr. Lee’s Greater Hong Kong).
Alas, Stephenson remains on my amazon list, unbought. I’m almost embarassed I haven’t yet bought Snow Crash, let alone The Diamond Age, but then again I have a pretty “bad” habit of hoarding books & only reading about 20% of them :\
The wikipedia excerpt is more surreal than when I first read it a few years ago… I should definitely get these two books for some pro-bono homework, on my part.
The production of documentation goes along well with residency services. If a community accepts someone as a resident, then that implies they will vouch for them in front of other communities. Not only could communities issue passports but they could also contract with a network of such communities with a world-spanning system of shared embassies.
By the way I advise everyone to read The Diamond Age before Snow Crash. Snow Crash is more a parody of cyberpunk then it is a solid look at a future society, which The Diamond Age achieves. Parts of the The Diamond Age seem lifted directly out of Hoppe, such as the dominant, ultra-wealthy Neo-Victorian society with an ownership structure modeled on traditional feudal hierarchy.
If you have loved imdb and rateyourmusic as much as I have, then you may love this website - although its membership base needs to expand before the ratings get very reliable. Anyway, my point is, I went on that website for a rough idea of its critical appreciation and !; it’s #29 of all time. But I’m starting to suspect that this website is a libertarian/capitalist construct - the fountainhead does rather well as well.
I think Snow Crash is good as a general look at ancap. The blurring on the fractal edges of a voluntary and post-state society lurching forward inhibited only by the weight of it’s past.
Diamond Age is fantastic as well. It’s just so much more serious than Snow Crash, and frankly, libertarians really could lighten up a little.
It isn’t. It is a look at the collapse of the nation-state system and how people cope with life in such an event. It is not a post-state society, it is a collapsed-state society. None of the institutions of a security market or civilized society are in place.
Stephenson makes this explicit when he describes the period of the interregnum as the violent childhood memories of his characters in Diamond Age.
Snow Crash serves at best as a society that we hope to avoid.
All the joy and meaning in getting from A to Z, relies on experiencing B thru Y.
I do mostly agree with you. I’m also surprised to find out you have read these books, my perception of you was not as someone who read Scifi. Goes to show how little we really know one another.
So… I’ve been thinking about this lately. Say we get an island. We could probably hire some of those poor Mexicans and Central Americans that hang around Walmart near the border. If we could get 30-50 to travel to our island to start construction, we could be getting somewhere. But there would be three big problems. First, there would be no capital at all. This would require large outside investment from us. Second, there would be no energy. Obviously, we need some form of energy to power all of the things we need for modern life. From what I know, there is no way to build a rather cheap power plant. Third, we would need to have some kind of internet access. Internet access would be vital for an economy that I envision would probably rely mainly on financial services (which require minimal capital) and possibly tourism.
When Nitro and I visited P3X4W on our last mission through the Stargate, we observed the indigenous people using a naquadah generator to create a shield over their city.
Ok, joking aside.
Rather than moving to an island FIRST, shouldn’t we be establishing our services and firms closer to our suppliers of energy and internet? The entreprenuer in me says start small, prove the concept (profit, demand) before investing everything in an all or nothing ideological mission that could turn out like an episode of LOST.
We could establish panarchistic communities right now. We can do data security, right now. We could provide documentation and shadow citizenship now.
Sure, as long as we are all stuck on this dirtball, we’re out of space for all intents and purposes, and states have laid claim individually or collectively (UN) over all of it.
Yeah, so intervention by a state is an issue. So what do we do? Operate out of multiple states? Operate out of minarchist states? Do we start servicing only the highest end clientele that can afford our services, those with the cachet to avoid intereference from states?
I don’t know the exact answer. That would take research, risk, experimentation. Ah… I love the smell of market uncertainty in the morning!
What is stopping you from going even smaller? The Free Home Project or the Free Person Project seems more accessible to the average individual. The biggest concern I have is that many of these activities like Seasteading, Island Settling, and Freeing a state come with a high switching cost. Lots of people have to be organized. Efforts need to be coordinated. Profit, self-defense, marketing, and basic infrastructure need to be sorted out. Creating a free village seems more achievable, but some of the same issues need to be sorted out (just on a smaller scale). If the scale is shrunk to the smallest scale of a single home the issues become more manageable and actionable. The movement is also difficult to crush since anybody anywhere can do it. Governments would need to go house to house everyday to truly eradicate freedom.
Settling an island will take years maybe decades to pull off. Partially seceding your home from the state is a much easier proposition. Just start making a list of what the state provides, and begin to develop or use currently existing alternatives. Services like water, sewer, electric power, security, and mail delivery already have solutions that permit independence. The point is to convert your home into a bastion of freedom. It seems like businesses can grow up around this concept. Personal and home security are the most important. Your home needs to protect you from a state invasion. In some cases this means steel reinforced concrete, electric fences, vaults, dogs, secret rooms, or outbuilding. This can all be done discretely.
The reason that an individual accepts government in the first place is that they cannot defend themselves. All public government / mafia systems are predicated on the existence of irresponsible individuals. An individual that takes responsibility for his own self-defense finds himself asking why he needs to pay for public security services. The same is true of an individual that takes responsibility for his finances. No need to seek out a loan shark named Vinny, or a welfare check from your government.
The true litmus test of any strategy is whether it can be applied at any scale. If the strategy is scale independent, then you do not need to flee your current location. Instead, begin right now to wean yourself off of the state. This doesn’t mean that you stop paying all taxes immediately after adding an extra deadbolt to your door. Crawl before you walk.
Take responsibility for yourself first (put your own oxygen mask on before helping others)
Educate others (form a security business or a financial planning business or create an instructional website)
Franchise liberty (form a construction company that specializes in secure housing communities)
From my own experience living in New Hampshire, there is a fantastic and blossoming activist community of agorists and anarchists living in the town of Keene, New Hampshire and surrounding towns. In a sentence, it’s the place to be if you care about the future of liberty.