Local community is great place for all of us to start. There will be much to build horizontally to help one another as we face the upcoming policies of a broken system caused by cuts to the safety net. We can be kind, helping one another and supporting each other through the storm heading our way.
Fascinating to read, thank you for all your time, work and insights. What you write about is: Real. Deep. Thorough. Cohesive. Ethical. Impassioned. Hopeful. All things a functioning society needs in order to thrive. We do in fact see some of what you speak of amongst existing communities in this country. Community farms and co-ops, credit unions, large land purchases that have been guaranteed to remain locally managed and never sold to big business. I grew up in the Hudson Valley / Catskill region of NY and my tiny independent high school was founded by residents of Woodstock, where many people still live a mostly off-grid, community driven, community centric lifestyle. It’s more than a possibility to live, work and thrive in the ways you describe, it exists and has existed in various forms throughout our lifetimes and before. I would love to be part of a community that functions apart from and better than the system that is currently being dismantled. I truly want this to become a reality, a viable alternative for anyone and everyone wanting to participate in a better, brighter, more just society. As my fears of our world becoming ‘The Hunger Games’ meets ‘Squid Games’ meets (insert add’l dystopian film or novel here) feel more and more plausible every day, I cannot overstate the importance of (and how much I personally appreciate) all you’ve been researching, writing about and sharing here. You’re literally outlining a plan for that better, brighter alternative that I hope many will come to embrace and implement. 🙏
This is beautiful and grounding. It’s encouraging to hear real-world examples of these ideas already in motion. Proof that the future isn’t something we wait for; it’s something small communities quietly prototype every day. Curious what part of that local model you think scales best beyond places like Woodstock?
Great question— I’ll sleep on it and see if anything specific comes to mind. I was however only an outsider observer though so I could potentially make some informed guesses, but I’m not qualified to comment on specifics of what has worked out so well for that community over the years. I think the answers lie somewhere in between examples of successful community driven societies (like Woodstock) and the many other alternative “experimental” societies throughout history that were ultimately unsuccessful. I think the key to creating a happy, thriving community might be to somehow isolate and implement as many of those elements which have proven to be beneficial while excluding those which created unsustainable living environments.
I found these PDFs enormously informative. It was very sad and depressing to learn how voting no longer means anything. That system is totally corrupted. It was also exciting to learn about the coop businesses and other community based initiatives that are evolving.
To stay sane i need to focus on what I can do. What resonates most with me is the grassroots actions I can take to help my community and build trust between people. I want to stop giving my money to corporations and feeding the rust. There are many farmer's markets I can shop at and CSAs i can subscribe to. I found one coop matket in my community and i will check them out. I am also interested in volunteering in one of our community gardens.
Ethan, like the concept and the energy. Be advised that the Rust is analyzing you, too. See: https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.91.012801 Rust acts like it is high trust, but in truth, is ultimately low trust. But face to face (P2P, in jargon terms for distributed systems) is slow, costly. For within themselves, it works. That's one reason they play golf - small group P2P time with a price tag that eliminates the hoi polloi.
But they are naturally low trust when it comes to us. So the Rust loves big data analytics. It looks for efforts like yours - disturbances in the force. It will try to crush you. For some years we farmed. A small family farm, raising USDA certified organic chicken and eggs, and naturally raised cattle and sheep. We helped feed some folks - protein, good, healthy protein. We probably didn't even make the slightest scratch on big ag sales in our area. But then we lost our processors. It wasn't an accident. No processor, no saleable product. The Rust does not like competition, and it is very, very good at identifying critical choke points, and ensuring it controls them.
There is a substantial body of practical analytic frameworks useful for analyzing communities. Much of it comes from supporting the special operations community, especially pre-War On Terror Green Beret stuff. Research in that area is potentially useful, as such analytic frameworks are unclassified, and if developed by the government, public property and thus accessible. A more recent example would be this paper: https://jsouapplicationstorage.blob.core.windows.net/press/48/ROC_final_cc.pdf (JSOU publishes a lot of interesting papers.)
As a useful "first look" tool, look for those individuals in your local community who lead multiple organizations. The fellow who is on the county planning commission, and also leads a "non-profit" land investment firm associated with a local university, and sits on the boards of several local "charity" groups and maybe the local realtor association is almost certainly a major player in other aspects as well. (Just for instance, as a possible example.) Look for organizations which don't pay taxes. Rust uses them extensively to achieve local control aims, wrapping themselves in fuzzy feel good visible wrappings while channeling power and influence into money, which in turn becomes more power and influence. One way to find such individuals is to spend some time reading any locally published weekly newspapers. Such folks invariably wind up being mentioned, and sometimes their wider role(s) is/are even partly laid out.
When doing local community analysis, look for the choke points. Look for "must do" activities that are used more for control, than for good. As a general rule of thumb, if you have to stand in line to pay money to someone behind shatter resistant glass or plastic, to do something you need to do or want to do with your own property, you are almost certainly looking at a control structure. The more information about you that entity gathers in order to "allow" you to pay them generally allows one to identify the more dangerous control structure points.
Early on in organizing new systems like the Forge, there is much to be gained in looking at how halawas work. (See: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hawala.asp for a good overview.) There is an example of a high trust system in a low trust world. (Of course, flawed humans are involved, and trust must be built slowly over time. As the saying goes, one "ah, shit" wipes out a lot of "attaboy"s!) But hawalas do work, and as functioning system nodes, have been around for a long time.
You've embarked on a worthy cause. But it's a long road. Carry spare socks, and pack a lunch.
And speaking of faith... Don't overlook preexisting higher trust webs in your neighborhoods. Mennonites, Amish, other faith communities as well, generally are already building or existing in already built horizontal web communities defined by mutual support and interwoven reliance. Mennonites in particular are often already doing community supported agriculture (CSAs) and generally welcome new subscribers and participants.
And if there is no farmer's market in your neighborhood, that's a great way to meet potentially like minded folks. Start one. With many shopping malls filled with empty stores these days, the mall owners may be very open minded about some one starting a farmer's market in their mall parking lot. Brings in potential customers. The average parking spot is wide enough for a 10'X10' popup cover, and often deep enough so that two 10x10 popups can be put in one behind the other to cover a 10X20 space. Use two back to back spots per farmer, so they can back a truck up and unload, with their popup(s) facing the public side. If you can't find a paved lot, sometimes a city or county will have a park they'll let you do a market in. Make friends with the county Agricultural Extension Agent (usually a state employee) because they are generally always looking to expand access to local producers, and can be a huge assist in getting a farmers' market through the local government hoops, as well as identifying vendors. Periodic markets have historically been the way many societies outside major urban areas circulated many types of goods, not just foodstuffs, and make an excellent clear first step in horizontal organizing for a locality.
I don't exactly understand how I can fit in to this scenario. I am poor, old, don't know anyone in my surrounding city. I do currently write to the city council to make suggestions or requests. I believe my city mostly operates on the "good ole boy" mentality, and those who are not property owners are not allowed to vote. I am a hermit, and mostly homebound with my ailing husband.
That being said, is this a safe space (protected from spies) in which I can look for members in my physical community? I have never yet revealed my true location online to anyone I don't know/haven't vetted.
I love this!! If I may… I have been using Etymonline App. I looked up the word rebel and rebellion. As I have been curious why rebellions and revolutions have not created sustained change. It always gets swept back up into corruption. I feel words carry significant power. The word revitalize; put life back in, restore vitality. What you have laid out is amazing and is revitalizing rather than, rebellion. Rebellion: war waged against government. What you are doing isn’t waging war, it is pulling away from and creating new and better. True and sustainable change.
Just my thoughts, I love words and the meaning behind them. So much had been lost in translation and as we can see many words have lost their meaning.
It’s a great ideal to think that everyone in your use ideal society will cooperate. But it won’t happen. Bit by bit it will fall apart. Because somebody will rebel.
Local community is great place for all of us to start. There will be much to build horizontally to help one another as we face the upcoming policies of a broken system caused by cuts to the safety net. We can be kind, helping one another and supporting each other through the storm heading our way.
Fascinating to read, thank you for all your time, work and insights. What you write about is: Real. Deep. Thorough. Cohesive. Ethical. Impassioned. Hopeful. All things a functioning society needs in order to thrive. We do in fact see some of what you speak of amongst existing communities in this country. Community farms and co-ops, credit unions, large land purchases that have been guaranteed to remain locally managed and never sold to big business. I grew up in the Hudson Valley / Catskill region of NY and my tiny independent high school was founded by residents of Woodstock, where many people still live a mostly off-grid, community driven, community centric lifestyle. It’s more than a possibility to live, work and thrive in the ways you describe, it exists and has existed in various forms throughout our lifetimes and before. I would love to be part of a community that functions apart from and better than the system that is currently being dismantled. I truly want this to become a reality, a viable alternative for anyone and everyone wanting to participate in a better, brighter, more just society. As my fears of our world becoming ‘The Hunger Games’ meets ‘Squid Games’ meets (insert add’l dystopian film or novel here) feel more and more plausible every day, I cannot overstate the importance of (and how much I personally appreciate) all you’ve been researching, writing about and sharing here. You’re literally outlining a plan for that better, brighter alternative that I hope many will come to embrace and implement. 🙏
This is beautiful and grounding. It’s encouraging to hear real-world examples of these ideas already in motion. Proof that the future isn’t something we wait for; it’s something small communities quietly prototype every day. Curious what part of that local model you think scales best beyond places like Woodstock?
Great question— I’ll sleep on it and see if anything specific comes to mind. I was however only an outsider observer though so I could potentially make some informed guesses, but I’m not qualified to comment on specifics of what has worked out so well for that community over the years. I think the answers lie somewhere in between examples of successful community driven societies (like Woodstock) and the many other alternative “experimental” societies throughout history that were ultimately unsuccessful. I think the key to creating a happy, thriving community might be to somehow isolate and implement as many of those elements which have proven to be beneficial while excluding those which created unsustainable living environments.
I found these PDFs enormously informative. It was very sad and depressing to learn how voting no longer means anything. That system is totally corrupted. It was also exciting to learn about the coop businesses and other community based initiatives that are evolving.
To stay sane i need to focus on what I can do. What resonates most with me is the grassroots actions I can take to help my community and build trust between people. I want to stop giving my money to corporations and feeding the rust. There are many farmer's markets I can shop at and CSAs i can subscribe to. I found one coop matket in my community and i will check them out. I am also interested in volunteering in one of our community gardens.
I look forward to learning more.
Woo brother! You said a mouth full ✨👏🏼
Whew! That’s some heavy reading right there! I’m heading to the 2nd one now. These folks have done some heavy duty work.
Thanks for getting it out here, Ethan.
Ethan, like the concept and the energy. Be advised that the Rust is analyzing you, too. See: https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.91.012801 Rust acts like it is high trust, but in truth, is ultimately low trust. But face to face (P2P, in jargon terms for distributed systems) is slow, costly. For within themselves, it works. That's one reason they play golf - small group P2P time with a price tag that eliminates the hoi polloi.
But they are naturally low trust when it comes to us. So the Rust loves big data analytics. It looks for efforts like yours - disturbances in the force. It will try to crush you. For some years we farmed. A small family farm, raising USDA certified organic chicken and eggs, and naturally raised cattle and sheep. We helped feed some folks - protein, good, healthy protein. We probably didn't even make the slightest scratch on big ag sales in our area. But then we lost our processors. It wasn't an accident. No processor, no saleable product. The Rust does not like competition, and it is very, very good at identifying critical choke points, and ensuring it controls them.
There is a substantial body of practical analytic frameworks useful for analyzing communities. Much of it comes from supporting the special operations community, especially pre-War On Terror Green Beret stuff. Research in that area is potentially useful, as such analytic frameworks are unclassified, and if developed by the government, public property and thus accessible. A more recent example would be this paper: https://jsouapplicationstorage.blob.core.windows.net/press/48/ROC_final_cc.pdf (JSOU publishes a lot of interesting papers.)
As a useful "first look" tool, look for those individuals in your local community who lead multiple organizations. The fellow who is on the county planning commission, and also leads a "non-profit" land investment firm associated with a local university, and sits on the boards of several local "charity" groups and maybe the local realtor association is almost certainly a major player in other aspects as well. (Just for instance, as a possible example.) Look for organizations which don't pay taxes. Rust uses them extensively to achieve local control aims, wrapping themselves in fuzzy feel good visible wrappings while channeling power and influence into money, which in turn becomes more power and influence. One way to find such individuals is to spend some time reading any locally published weekly newspapers. Such folks invariably wind up being mentioned, and sometimes their wider role(s) is/are even partly laid out.
When doing local community analysis, look for the choke points. Look for "must do" activities that are used more for control, than for good. As a general rule of thumb, if you have to stand in line to pay money to someone behind shatter resistant glass or plastic, to do something you need to do or want to do with your own property, you are almost certainly looking at a control structure. The more information about you that entity gathers in order to "allow" you to pay them generally allows one to identify the more dangerous control structure points.
Early on in organizing new systems like the Forge, there is much to be gained in looking at how halawas work. (See: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/hawala.asp for a good overview.) There is an example of a high trust system in a low trust world. (Of course, flawed humans are involved, and trust must be built slowly over time. As the saying goes, one "ah, shit" wipes out a lot of "attaboy"s!) But hawalas do work, and as functioning system nodes, have been around for a long time.
You've embarked on a worthy cause. But it's a long road. Carry spare socks, and pack a lunch.
Keep the faith, brother, keep the faith.
And speaking of faith... Don't overlook preexisting higher trust webs in your neighborhoods. Mennonites, Amish, other faith communities as well, generally are already building or existing in already built horizontal web communities defined by mutual support and interwoven reliance. Mennonites in particular are often already doing community supported agriculture (CSAs) and generally welcome new subscribers and participants.
And if there is no farmer's market in your neighborhood, that's a great way to meet potentially like minded folks. Start one. With many shopping malls filled with empty stores these days, the mall owners may be very open minded about some one starting a farmer's market in their mall parking lot. Brings in potential customers. The average parking spot is wide enough for a 10'X10' popup cover, and often deep enough so that two 10x10 popups can be put in one behind the other to cover a 10X20 space. Use two back to back spots per farmer, so they can back a truck up and unload, with their popup(s) facing the public side. If you can't find a paved lot, sometimes a city or county will have a park they'll let you do a market in. Make friends with the county Agricultural Extension Agent (usually a state employee) because they are generally always looking to expand access to local producers, and can be a huge assist in getting a farmers' market through the local government hoops, as well as identifying vendors. Periodic markets have historically been the way many societies outside major urban areas circulated many types of goods, not just foodstuffs, and make an excellent clear first step in horizontal organizing for a locality.
Love the sound of this
Have hope. I do. 🤜🏽🤛🏻
I know that your three PDFs are written with a USA focus but, believe me, they apply equally well to Europe, possibly beyond.
I want to give them far more attention than a quick scan-through so I will be leaving them open on my laptop for later.
Right now, 11.11am on the south coast of England, I want to take advantage of the temporarily mild day and work on my garden!
Thanks very much for a prodigious body of work to study. It is a joy to find you.
Ah. Sadly, I am permanently banned from Discord for my articles revealing the extent of totalitarian oppression, The Rust.
I will ask my son to take a look on my behalf. He is active on Discord daily.
I am restricted from all major social media platforms bar Substack and who knows how long it will be before the Rust demands my removal from here.
Another great article! Thank you so very much for sharing everything with us!
I don't exactly understand how I can fit in to this scenario. I am poor, old, don't know anyone in my surrounding city. I do currently write to the city council to make suggestions or requests. I believe my city mostly operates on the "good ole boy" mentality, and those who are not property owners are not allowed to vote. I am a hermit, and mostly homebound with my ailing husband.
That being said, is this a safe space (protected from spies) in which I can look for members in my physical community? I have never yet revealed my true location online to anyone I don't know/haven't vetted.
Don't thinkI disagree with anything so far.
I love this!! If I may… I have been using Etymonline App. I looked up the word rebel and rebellion. As I have been curious why rebellions and revolutions have not created sustained change. It always gets swept back up into corruption. I feel words carry significant power. The word revitalize; put life back in, restore vitality. What you have laid out is amazing and is revitalizing rather than, rebellion. Rebellion: war waged against government. What you are doing isn’t waging war, it is pulling away from and creating new and better. True and sustainable change.
Just my thoughts, I love words and the meaning behind them. So much had been lost in translation and as we can see many words have lost their meaning.
It’s a great idea to have input from employees and listen to eat they say. I don’t think our system isn’t working.
It’s a great ideal to think that everyone in your use ideal society will cooperate. But it won’t happen. Bit by bit it will fall apart. Because somebody will rebel.