Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

“John Brown was tried for treason, murder,
and inciting slaves to insurrection.”
—John Sergeant Wise

Recently a group of freedom enthusiasts began a Twitter group message. The group is called “FreedomCommunities” and people on Twitter can be added to it. There will be other communications media, of course, since Twitter has been destroying individual accounts for a wide variety of largely irrational reasons. Our goal is to find parcels of land in different parts of the USA and work together to buy land. After that, the people near each parcel would work together to form a community.

It is about creating a network or reticulum, so that people who live near one another have a place to go, and people who have none can go in with others on the purchase of a place. None of us are communists and there won't be any “commune” about it. But, if you want a commune, you can form your own reticulum. There is room on Earth for many billions of networked persons to work together and there is no need for there to be only one network.

Thus the title of this essay, reticules. Net works. Works of netting. The purpose is not to sieve up every fish in the ocean, it is to gather together those willing to work together.

Why work together? As Larry Niven points out in his novel Destiny's Road if you don't trust anyone it severely hampers your ability to be effective. At the same time, you won't find everyone is easy to get along with, and that might be okay. You might not be easy to get along with, either.

Networks can bring together different skill sets, allow for division of labour, allow some specialisation, and decentralise a great many functions that have lately been very centralised. Reticules may be formed for all kinds of purposes, and need not be permanent. For example, a mesh network builds itself as needed, and can be disassembled when it is no longer required. With the elements moved to a new location and given power, the mesh network re-assembles itself, finds access to other networks, and links up.

None of this functionality is centralised, and none of it is up to any one person. Thus, the reticules cannot be eliminated by killing off one or a dozen or a few dozen key persons. The people who are in one network and find their friends are all hauled off to prison can apply to join another reticule. Obviously, there has to be some effort made to confirm that the person surviving the destruction of Reticule Alpha is not the agent who sold everyone out, but that's up to the Reticule Beta people to evaluate as they see fit.

Do I know how to do all these things? Somewhat. One of my favourite courses in graduate school was operations research, which involves linear algebra, which you may think of as a set of algebraic equations that are designed to describe a network problem and then solve simultaneously to optimise the network. There are other applications of linear algebra, including Lagrangian mechanics, and there are non-optimal network designs that can be identified for various purposes, but the mathematics is really fun, for me. As well, I've built a lot of organisations, including small businesses, including non-profit groups, and including other kinds of networks.

Why?

The reason for this work is the coming collapse of mainstream culture. Some of that will follow certain natural disasters which can be expected to occur (some faults are way over due for major re-set) and some that are expected for other reasons. Some of that will follow events that may be anticipated based on the deep state power groups wanting to prompt things along—I expect full scale rioting in major cities following the 6 November election this year, due to the things we're seeing in the last two weeks on Capitol Hill. Collapsitarians don't unite, but we do network.

You need to have a home. You need to have a group of people who will come help you defend that home, or help you get away from it. You need clean air, clean water, food, shelter, warmth in winter, and opportunities to be with people you like for fun and accomplishment.

Beyond these needs, you probably want to help others escape slavery. You probably want to free the enslaved, stop the wars, and end the oppression of the state. I say probably, because you have to understand that what John Brown was doing in the 1850s was illegal, and he was executed for doing some of them. Best you be ambiguous about what all you intend, because there are already laws against everything you are doing, including laws against you forming neuro-chemicals in your brain which you cannot avoid doing unless you are dead. Nevertheless, although obeying the law is no longer a workable defence, you may as well not be calling the drone strike down on your head every day.

Leave that part to me. I'm here as a spokesman for a few of these reticules. I'm here as an advocate for the idea of you working with people you know and trust to form a reticulum of your very own. I'm here to share ideas and help people work together, and form an underground railroad for the enslaved to escape slavery. And if you don't want to have anything to do with me and my reticulum, that's completely cool too.

The time has come. Some ideas on how to form resilient communities are on ResilientWays.net already. Others are welcome to post there, let me know if you need help getting access.

America, as Claire Wolfe said in 2004, is no longer at that awkward stage where it is still too early to just shoot the bastards. It has been decades since it was too late to fix the system by working within it, and if you haven't gotten that word yet, wait a few weeks to see if that's really the case. Meanwhile, think about who you trust, who would actually have your back in a fight, and act accordingly.

Good luck to you all, and may God have mercy on our souls.

 

Jim Davidson co-founded HoustonSpaceSociety.net in 1988 and has been working on getting off this rock since he was a child. He is chief financial officer for several start-ups including DeepGreenFutures.com