We Are Our Own Problem

I'm going to use the Koch brothers as an example, because they have money and are supposedly right wing libertarians or whatever. Suppose they gave up on politics. Just stopped sending the checks to D.C.

And then they did a little searching for an ideal place for a city. Doesn't have to be here necessarily. They want low profile- most people who learn about it are already into the stuff the Koch brothers are into. They'd also probably want it to be easily defensible- but they are the Koch brothers, they could probably buy the local government off and have some mercenary outfit providing a defense that's practically invisible.

So they get infrastructure going and get people there. As a practical matter, you need some local economic stuff, to go along with whatever global economic stuff.

My guess is the Koch's could achieve more, far more than they ever did dumping money into D.C. They aren't perfect, but their libertarian mindset would likely mean economic growth- assuming they aren't so vain as to think they can turn a city full of 70IQ people into an economic miracle. So, assuming they pick people who have enough agency to self-govern, it ought to work.

So, I suspect a lot of the types who tell me we need to 'engage society' or whatever are actually people who are propping up the things they claim they don't like. Incidentally, Trump has disproven the Koch brother's power in D.C.- they don't like Trump, but their machinations, at least so far, have been unable to influence anything.

To build a city, even just to start- it takes resources, but it takes more than that. You have to walk away from the old to establish the new. Your assets need to go to the new. How long could you handle having to send tax to two jurisdictions? Even if you don't have tax in the new, still, that's money going away from the new to prop up the old. For the sake of peace, you may go on paying the tax to the old, but one of the goals would be to get strong. You want to be able to stop- preferably peaceably as well, and being obviously able to defend yourself certainly helps.

Anyway, did anyone actually take the Benedict Option? I doubt it. Our comfort is still derived from this society, not the one we haven't made yet.

An interesting possibility is in real estate development. Maybe if it is already there- already looking good, people would take the plunge. I have noticed while looking at permaculture stuff, as well as those who like locally produced products, that there are the people who can actually do those things, and then everybody else with modern jobs and stuff who mostly just dream, like me. Although I like to think I can do, I have been blessed with the ability to doubt myself, as well as plenty of evidence before my eyes that many people can't do. Additionally, I have noticed fewer and fewer people actually want to own anything, given insurance, taxes, possibly legal issues, etc... I think, especially with those interested in locally produced stuff, one could create a development to attract them. Many of them have good jobs and a lot of money, and they appear very interested in driving a local economy- which provides the locality with a bit more resilience than, say, the average American city, which will supposedly be out of food if the trains and trucks stop going for three days.

# Of course, I say 'we' with much ambivalence. Is it no wonder we have such words as cuckservative and churchian to distinguish ourselves from the noisemakers who seem to be making similar noises?