Hello @valued-customer,
Thank you for that impassioned response.
I cannot endorse the bullet. While I agree that by the time people reach the higher echelons of government they are already corrupted (because of compromises they make to get to those positions), I don't have much more faith in 'people' than I do in 'government'.
It is my experience that in the absence of order bullies rise to the top. It is (in my opinion) an unfortunate truth that humans are aggressive. Throughout history they have organized themselves into groups. It's just what they do. Inevitably the strongest (generally the bully) rises to the top. We are a lot like our primate relatives in that regard.
Do I want the government to go away and marauding individuals (armed to the teeth because everybody who wants one has an assault weapon) marching down the street and knocking down my door? Do I want them to seize my vegetables and laser-printed goods? Do I want them to carry off my granddaughter, because they can and there is no one to stop them?
Your idea of a free society is lovely. I do believe in self-sufficiency. However, I also believe in order. We need to have that order imposed, unfortunately, by some sort of organizing authority. We need better government. What we really need is for people to take notice and to rise up, not with bullets but with their voices, with their ballots. We need them to take note of the people who govern them, even on the local level.
We are lazy. We leave it to others to stand up. We leave it to others to run for office, to campaign. Our reward for laziness is that the worst of us rise to the top.
The remedy for bad government is good government, but people have to want it and work for it. That, my friend, is more a fantasy than a realistic goal I am afraid.
First, I'm not endorsing violent uprising. I'm certain it's going to happen, because that's what happens when corruption becomes intolerable. In the 17th Century the Dutch killed, cooked, and ate the liver of their despised Prime Minister. Saying that isn't endorsing cannibalism. Rather I lament that the execrable corrupt rulers we get when we accept rulers indoctrinate and blow smoke up our skirts until we can't agree water is wet. The only time things change is when we are so outraged we cannot tolerate that corruption anymore, and mobs slaughter anyone they think did them dirty.
Something you don't acknowledge is that you are permanently sovereign, and only you can rule you. Only you can will your heavy hand to rise to your weary brow and wipe away the dripping sweat of your hard labor. You, and you alone, will rule you while you live. If the history you know has taught you anything, it will include that institutions created to govern all become corrupted, and all end the same way, collapsing and being replaced by the next mob boss.
I am not propounding my preferred vision of society when I talk about decentralization. I'm talking about physics. The laws of physics determine what technology can be invented, and we clever monkeys tinker and occasionally invent it. You can observe that the laws of physics are today decentralizing production on the battlefields of the world at war today. <$50k drones are defeating >$B weapons platforms, and last month <$100 manpads grannies can print on their kitchen tables, like knitting doilies, advented that enable communities and even individuals to be secure from $50k drones and $B bombers alike. We see this first on the battlefield, but the same thing's happening in every field of industry today.
That's not my preference. It's not my vision. It's what the laws of physics mandate. The last oil we're going to get from the ME has been delivered. A lot of the infrastructure to produce oil has been destroyed, and will take years (years without war) before it can be rebuilt, and the war is still ongoing, the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. The costs of that shortfall haven't begun yet, but they are guaranteed because that shortfall has occurred. 70% of American farmers haven't planted crops because they can't get the fertilizer to grow them. Farmers in OZ have left crops to rot in the field because they can't get diesel to harvest them. The goods and services that are necessary to us to enjoy the blessings of civilization are going to be short this fall.
It doesn't matter that we're lazy. It matters that we eat. Them that will eat are growing food today. We'll either make what we need or we won't get what we need, and we'll die. It doesn't matter what I prefer. It matters that I do what I need to do to live. That's what's coming. If someone comes to harm you, and you haven't prepared to secure yourself from harm, it will be your fault you governed yourself so poorly as to fail to defend you. If they come for your granddaughter and you can't defend her, it will be your fault if she's harmed. It doesn't matter what you like, or don't like, to do with your tools and time. It matters whether or not you secure you, yours, and have people you protect that protect you.
You govern you, whether you want to or not. Anyone that says they govern you is a liar. Because you have the authority to rule you, you are responsible for your rule. As your ruler you are responsible for your security, and nothing anyone says otherwise is true.
The folks that accept their responsibility and rule themselves wisely will secure them and theirs from armed thugs. Folks always do, or they die. Them that do will be those that build society after all the brigands, robbers, and psychopaths have been dealth with, and they will have produced themselves the goods and services that enabled them to live, and secure themselves. Those are just predictable from the coming consequences of shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.
Live and die as you please. I am no prophet, not your master, and neither dependent on what you do. You are. Your grand daughter is. You depend on your sight, your laziness or industry, and so does your granddaughter. I hope you see clearly and act wisely to create your security so that your granddaughter doesn't come to grief, because I think you're a kind person, and I want my sons to have kind people to work with after this.
Please do.