Disappointing article. It hasn't escaped the now defunct right/left, Russia bad/America good paradigm. All that is offered here is an escape from one form of totalitarianism to another form of totalitarianism. There is no help at all with how to escape hierarchical structures and majority tyranny altogether.
You clearly didn't watch or pay attention to the intro. We put out content like this to help people in the contemporary West deal with the type of tyranny other people were forced to deal with in the 20th century.
There are a number of issues that pro-communism people forget, conveniently. At least 1-2% of the population of men are psychopathic and rise to power. The effects of these people, and their useful idiot followers, is well documented especially over the last 3 years. If the planet was full of level-headed idealistic and selfless people then communism might prove to be a noble and workable system, but sadly this is not the case and never will be. I read Utopia decades ago and in my youthful optimism was taken to the idea that a form of socialism would work well when raising our family. It did work a bit until my kids grew up and started thinking for themselves--and therein lies the rub: communism requires people to not think. For those who criticize opponents of communism in absolute terms by boxing them as "pro American" or "pro capitalist" is lazy and unhelpful. Most of us are disillusioned not by the ideas themselves, whether it be communism or some other -ism, but the fact that armchair philosophers believe that those ideas can be implemented despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The truth is that we invariably elect (or become subject to) leaders who promote self interest over the good of the person and so we need a system that will mitigate that as much as possible: communism is simply not that system. Communism is a system that is beautiful and Star Trek: TNG-y, but not practical or possible with the human nature variable. I challenge any pro-communist to write on how they implemented communism themselves in their own lives, their families, and their communes. Also, I would appreciate those who are pro-communist to engage in debate with those that have actually lived in communist countries instead of with those who choose to live here in (my case) the west where we have some freedom (and absolutely no desire to risk a move and 'experiment' with another system). I have met enough immigrant Russians, Romanians, and Chinese to get the picture: they moved here for a reason.
I clearly DID READ the whole thing, which is why I felt let down by the degeneration of the article into Russia = tyranny and America = freedom. Yes, our solution rests in some kind of bottom up "self-organisation", but we have yet to see it - anywhere in the world.
That's interesting. I didn't get that "Russia = tyranny and America = freedom" message from the video/transcript at all. Instead, I understood it to be that the West is on the road to becoming like former Communist Eastern Europe, and the only solution is for us to create an alternative system of parallel structures/institutions that compete with the totalitarian system, so we are prepared for, and which will help further, its inevitable demise.
As for having yet to see any "bottom up self-organization," we've actually been seeing it for several years now; slowly starting in the years before covid, which then kicked into overdrive during. Examples include the creation of decentralized digital currencies (wrt the economy), censorship-free social media and streaming platforms (wrt civil rights), private microschools and homeschool co-ops (wrt to education), increased homesteading and off-grid living (wrt communities), and private vertical farming (wrt to agriculture). Those are off the top of my head, but there are more examples. There is absolutely a paradigm shift happening, and it can't come soon enough!
the paralell society is eastern europe's escaping from the yolk of a soviet union that slaughtered people for a long long time.
i know where you are coming from when you encrouage the idea of 'parralel exit', but you are avoiding the importance of the notion of nationhood and/or tribe.
if a group of people are to defend themselves against a stronger tyrant, they must suffer and wait for a larger nation to help support them while they fight, or to grow large and strong enough to fight on their own. the only other options are run or hide.
NATION-alism is about forming a large tribe, a supra-tribe , and for that a new philsophy is needed, and a new ethos to build strength. you don't need to confront and destroy your enemy, but you must be strong enough to parry their attacks and survive them, that takes a measure of violence.
there is no 'escape' with parralel 'societies' or 'communities' without an embrace of a true narrative that embraces nation and tribe. if you dont' fight in this very human world, you must run away to someone else's land, or you will die on your knees or simply allow evil to persist and condone it until it burns itself out on someone else, if it doesn't burn on you.
your nice video leaves out some crucial details. the nitty gritty is not as pleasant as you'd want people to believe.
This is important and inspiring history. Thank you for writing about it.
FYI, I host a private Substack on this very topic, for people who are serious about building parallel solutions. (It's called: "Building Parallel Solutions"!) There's more info. here for anyone who is interested:
I love this empowering focus on solutions and included it in this piece from July 2022:
• “Letter to My Karass” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-my-karass)
Secede in place.
Disappointing article. It hasn't escaped the now defunct right/left, Russia bad/America good paradigm. All that is offered here is an escape from one form of totalitarianism to another form of totalitarianism. There is no help at all with how to escape hierarchical structures and majority tyranny altogether.
You clearly didn't watch or pay attention to the intro. We put out content like this to help people in the contemporary West deal with the type of tyranny other people were forced to deal with in the 20th century.
There are a number of issues that pro-communism people forget, conveniently. At least 1-2% of the population of men are psychopathic and rise to power. The effects of these people, and their useful idiot followers, is well documented especially over the last 3 years. If the planet was full of level-headed idealistic and selfless people then communism might prove to be a noble and workable system, but sadly this is not the case and never will be. I read Utopia decades ago and in my youthful optimism was taken to the idea that a form of socialism would work well when raising our family. It did work a bit until my kids grew up and started thinking for themselves--and therein lies the rub: communism requires people to not think. For those who criticize opponents of communism in absolute terms by boxing them as "pro American" or "pro capitalist" is lazy and unhelpful. Most of us are disillusioned not by the ideas themselves, whether it be communism or some other -ism, but the fact that armchair philosophers believe that those ideas can be implemented despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The truth is that we invariably elect (or become subject to) leaders who promote self interest over the good of the person and so we need a system that will mitigate that as much as possible: communism is simply not that system. Communism is a system that is beautiful and Star Trek: TNG-y, but not practical or possible with the human nature variable. I challenge any pro-communist to write on how they implemented communism themselves in their own lives, their families, and their communes. Also, I would appreciate those who are pro-communist to engage in debate with those that have actually lived in communist countries instead of with those who choose to live here in (my case) the west where we have some freedom (and absolutely no desire to risk a move and 'experiment' with another system). I have met enough immigrant Russians, Romanians, and Chinese to get the picture: they moved here for a reason.
I clearly DID READ the whole thing, which is why I felt let down by the degeneration of the article into Russia = tyranny and America = freedom. Yes, our solution rests in some kind of bottom up "self-organisation", but we have yet to see it - anywhere in the world.
That's interesting. I didn't get that "Russia = tyranny and America = freedom" message from the video/transcript at all. Instead, I understood it to be that the West is on the road to becoming like former Communist Eastern Europe, and the only solution is for us to create an alternative system of parallel structures/institutions that compete with the totalitarian system, so we are prepared for, and which will help further, its inevitable demise.
As for having yet to see any "bottom up self-organization," we've actually been seeing it for several years now; slowly starting in the years before covid, which then kicked into overdrive during. Examples include the creation of decentralized digital currencies (wrt the economy), censorship-free social media and streaming platforms (wrt civil rights), private microschools and homeschool co-ops (wrt to education), increased homesteading and off-grid living (wrt communities), and private vertical farming (wrt to agriculture). Those are off the top of my head, but there are more examples. There is absolutely a paradigm shift happening, and it can't come soon enough!
the paralell society is eastern europe's escaping from the yolk of a soviet union that slaughtered people for a long long time.
i know where you are coming from when you encrouage the idea of 'parralel exit', but you are avoiding the importance of the notion of nationhood and/or tribe.
if a group of people are to defend themselves against a stronger tyrant, they must suffer and wait for a larger nation to help support them while they fight, or to grow large and strong enough to fight on their own. the only other options are run or hide.
NATION-alism is about forming a large tribe, a supra-tribe , and for that a new philsophy is needed, and a new ethos to build strength. you don't need to confront and destroy your enemy, but you must be strong enough to parry their attacks and survive them, that takes a measure of violence.
there is no 'escape' with parralel 'societies' or 'communities' without an embrace of a true narrative that embraces nation and tribe. if you dont' fight in this very human world, you must run away to someone else's land, or you will die on your knees or simply allow evil to persist and condone it until it burns itself out on someone else, if it doesn't burn on you.
your nice video leaves out some crucial details. the nitty gritty is not as pleasant as you'd want people to believe.
This is important and inspiring history. Thank you for writing about it.
FYI, I host a private Substack on this very topic, for people who are serious about building parallel solutions. (It's called: "Building Parallel Solutions"!) There's more info. here for anyone who is interested:
https://bretigne.substack.com/p/im-starting-a-private-substack-publication?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fparallel&utm_medium=reader2
Do you have something specific in mind?
Yes.
Oh! No, just the opposite. Grounded in private property rights.
Here's a little more: https://bretigne.substack.com/publish/post/45777793