If you've not read it, please read Eric Hoffer's The True Believer. It outlines the making of a mass movement requires great inertia from a tireless cadre of True Believers who tap the human religious impulse to motivate. Even with this cadre, it can take ten years to generate enough inertia to start mass change. These are factors to consider in making a parallel society.
As far as the abuse people will take, consider the British Royal Navy in the 18th century. The crews had to be sooooo horribly abused that when they finally did mutiny, the Admiralty had a policy of automatically putting the captain on trial (assuming he was still alive.) They knew for a captain to lose his ship, he must have been such a monster as to drive the crew to rebellion. This didn't stop the Admiralty from hanging every mutineer, however.
There is also a vague analogy in a dog's body that is useful to consider. It takes a lot of dog to have a small bite; consider the proportions of the size of the dog to the jaws. The rest of the dog never rebels against the head, drawing its ire and being bitten. The rest is not disorganized or disinterested; the rest of the dog is simply organized in such a way, it doesn't rebel. A vaguely similar organic phenomenon is present in human societies: they are organized to support the whole of the body, not to become teeth and brains and nerves. Human beans are the 'cells' if you will; some rebel, going cancerous, and have to be policed. Most human beans are going to go along, Royal Navy style, with the body even unto death. The value of the dog analogy is in understanding what gives birth to another dog. For us to create a parallel society, we need the body of the society to birth us into being a new dog.
Here is a fundamentalist sect of Christians that are highly successful in metropolises across the South East USA. They are brick masons by trade, McGee Brick Co., and are the best that I worked with. Before local govt shut down this practice, male youth began masonry at age 13 or so. Some of their earnings were put in a savings account. At age 18, every male with the funds would have a house free of mortgage. The church land was donated, the funds bought materials, members gathered and built the house with free labor. The male then could marry at age 18 with zero debt slavery.
The workers were cleancut Boyscout-types. Clean uniform with shirt tucked in, no cursing, and Old South polite.
Economics also plays a major role which allows tyrannical behavior of governments in the West.
Here in America the majority of the population has too much to loose thus they go along to get along.
Personal debt is around 19 trillion dollars and rising. Americans in general live a lifestyle they can’t afford. Thus they are slaves to the lender. Living a lifestyle like this makes individuals also dependent on their employment and they will do just about anything to avoid loosing their job. Without this income stream they risk loosing their homes, cars, luxury items etc.
Tyrannical governments understand this dilemma and put the pressure on private businesses to ensure everyone complies with their oppressive dictates.
Mandatory covid vaccinations is a example of this tyranny. Government unable to force individuals to comply worked through large corporations of all sorts to force compliance.
Individuals most who are burdened with debt had no choice but to comply or be terminated. Attempting to find other employment was a risk too great so many against their will complied.
This economic factor will prohibit Americans or make them unwilling to unite and just say no tyranny.
Mass peaceful non compliance is the answer. Just say “no”.
I have been studying collapse since 2007. There are a few people that I still follow. Dmitry Orlov is one. A Russian that left the Soviet Union in the 1980’s and visited Russia during the Soviet collapse, Orlov has tried and written about separatist communities while also analyzing geopolitics. Several books worth reading:
1) Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects Revised edition https://a.co/d/2TZHk5L
Our biggest problem, regardless if you are a Parallelist, an Activist, or advocate for any other strategy is that the market for the action you wish to occur is nonexistent, too small, or too low in demand beyond superficial consumption. You want to build a community of tight knit men striving for greater political destiny? Well you have their other friends, their family, and their leisure tastes to compete with. If you wonder why cult leaders steal members away from their old lives, this is why. And I wouldn’t hold your breath for the perfect inescapable crisis that coincidentally suites your agenda the best to arrive in these people’s lives, it is not likely to happen and if a crisis does occur it can be too far or escapable in some form. If you are lucky you can get a few dedicated acolytes to help you, but they are few and their fervor is always fleeting, as Netflix and Slacktivism are always options tempting them back. Or perhaps “growing out” of this political phase in their life can happen. Every voluntary human action exists as a market, a market for desire. If your cause can garner donations, voluntary hours, and other support that means there is a market for it. If they can’t get any of that then there is no market for your cause or organization.
Great read. There are certainty many red flags regarding western civilization right now, and your call to recognize and respond to said flags before the major cataclysm is timely. If you are not familiar with Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option” I encourage you to check it out, as it explores this theme of creating a parallel society to endure the coming storm.
I salute you for this lucid and realistic treatment of a need that from this point in time will only grow more urgent. All too often, voices online that are discussing it seem to have watched too many Hollywood movies. The reality of such resistance invariably involves incalcuable risk.
The foundational political question is 'What do I want?' Only when one can effectively communicate one's expectations can one find out whether others are of the same expectations.
This brought to mind Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The hidden message is an escape from ignorance.
Reality is merely a mental construction. The world is only as big as we can imagine it. If we open our minds to new ideas and belief systems, we can expand our universe. And when we don't, we will no longer be able to step back into the darkness so easily.
I am pretty sure the game masters are making sure no cataclysm will come from their hands as the red vs blue game and slow frog boil seem to be working well for them. Great article, I was struck by the need for commonality and community, that's me scuppered then.
As I was reading this I thought of the CHAZ-CHOP 'breakaway' in Seattle only for the reason that it was a small cataclysm that happened recently. And they were successful in breakaway, but not in sustaining anything as they were lawless and had no ideology to bind them other than to deligitimize the police. It ended in violence IMHO because it had no common purpose and wasn't pro...it was anti. One lesson there is that if you're just anti, it won't last. We can't just 'be against' government. We have to be 'for freedom'. Another thought is to take these ideas and put them in practical terms that will tell everyone what they can do specifically to be a part of this movement.
It's true - things are tolerable for most and even good for some of the people that you'd need to start building a real competitor. Shocking people out of the system as-is - the eternal present - and bringing them into the future.
Very good, very apposite. I wonder if there is a class forming that will break away not only from the derangements and oppressions of our current political authority, but formalised political authority in general. By this my meaning is not anarchism or some flavour of libertarianism, but a pattern which models organisation and authority without the old apparatus. If only because explicit power is impossible to cultivate against the powers and principalities for now, perhaps necessity will breed in us an ultimately healthier and more durable model than civil obedience, the necessary moral structures and disciplines being interior to man and culture, with only the more prosaic expedients being officiated. Where Paul talks of the movement from law and into grace (without rejecting law), an aspect of that is the natural integration of the essence of law into the pattern of our minds; a removal of the scaffolding. Could this become true for some part of Christendom as in a single man? Already there is a significant segment of the population of the population upholding what remains of competency and goodness by living much better that the strictures of law demand, and even living well in defiance of law.
If you've not read it, please read Eric Hoffer's The True Believer. It outlines the making of a mass movement requires great inertia from a tireless cadre of True Believers who tap the human religious impulse to motivate. Even with this cadre, it can take ten years to generate enough inertia to start mass change. These are factors to consider in making a parallel society.
As far as the abuse people will take, consider the British Royal Navy in the 18th century. The crews had to be sooooo horribly abused that when they finally did mutiny, the Admiralty had a policy of automatically putting the captain on trial (assuming he was still alive.) They knew for a captain to lose his ship, he must have been such a monster as to drive the crew to rebellion. This didn't stop the Admiralty from hanging every mutineer, however.
There is also a vague analogy in a dog's body that is useful to consider. It takes a lot of dog to have a small bite; consider the proportions of the size of the dog to the jaws. The rest of the dog never rebels against the head, drawing its ire and being bitten. The rest is not disorganized or disinterested; the rest of the dog is simply organized in such a way, it doesn't rebel. A vaguely similar organic phenomenon is present in human societies: they are organized to support the whole of the body, not to become teeth and brains and nerves. Human beans are the 'cells' if you will; some rebel, going cancerous, and have to be policed. Most human beans are going to go along, Royal Navy style, with the body even unto death. The value of the dog analogy is in understanding what gives birth to another dog. For us to create a parallel society, we need the body of the society to birth us into being a new dog.
Here is a fundamentalist sect of Christians that are highly successful in metropolises across the South East USA. They are brick masons by trade, McGee Brick Co., and are the best that I worked with. Before local govt shut down this practice, male youth began masonry at age 13 or so. Some of their earnings were put in a savings account. At age 18, every male with the funds would have a house free of mortgage. The church land was donated, the funds bought materials, members gathered and built the house with free labor. The male then could marry at age 18 with zero debt slavery.
The workers were cleancut Boyscout-types. Clean uniform with shirt tucked in, no cursing, and Old South polite.
https://www.truelightfellowship.org/whatwebelieve
https://www.mcgeebrick.com/
Economics also plays a major role which allows tyrannical behavior of governments in the West.
Here in America the majority of the population has too much to loose thus they go along to get along.
Personal debt is around 19 trillion dollars and rising. Americans in general live a lifestyle they can’t afford. Thus they are slaves to the lender. Living a lifestyle like this makes individuals also dependent on their employment and they will do just about anything to avoid loosing their job. Without this income stream they risk loosing their homes, cars, luxury items etc.
Tyrannical governments understand this dilemma and put the pressure on private businesses to ensure everyone complies with their oppressive dictates.
Mandatory covid vaccinations is a example of this tyranny. Government unable to force individuals to comply worked through large corporations of all sorts to force compliance.
Individuals most who are burdened with debt had no choice but to comply or be terminated. Attempting to find other employment was a risk too great so many against their will complied.
This economic factor will prohibit Americans or make them unwilling to unite and just say no tyranny.
Mass peaceful non compliance is the answer. Just say “no”.
I have been studying collapse since 2007. There are a few people that I still follow. Dmitry Orlov is one. A Russian that left the Soviet Union in the 1980’s and visited Russia during the Soviet collapse, Orlov has tried and written about separatist communities while also analyzing geopolitics. Several books worth reading:
1) Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects Revised edition https://a.co/d/2TZHk5L
2) Communities that Abide
3) The Five Stages of Collapse
Our biggest problem, regardless if you are a Parallelist, an Activist, or advocate for any other strategy is that the market for the action you wish to occur is nonexistent, too small, or too low in demand beyond superficial consumption. You want to build a community of tight knit men striving for greater political destiny? Well you have their other friends, their family, and their leisure tastes to compete with. If you wonder why cult leaders steal members away from their old lives, this is why. And I wouldn’t hold your breath for the perfect inescapable crisis that coincidentally suites your agenda the best to arrive in these people’s lives, it is not likely to happen and if a crisis does occur it can be too far or escapable in some form. If you are lucky you can get a few dedicated acolytes to help you, but they are few and their fervor is always fleeting, as Netflix and Slacktivism are always options tempting them back. Or perhaps “growing out” of this political phase in their life can happen. Every voluntary human action exists as a market, a market for desire. If your cause can garner donations, voluntary hours, and other support that means there is a market for it. If they can’t get any of that then there is no market for your cause or organization.
Great read. There are certainty many red flags regarding western civilization right now, and your call to recognize and respond to said flags before the major cataclysm is timely. If you are not familiar with Rod Dreher’s “The Benedict Option” I encourage you to check it out, as it explores this theme of creating a parallel society to endure the coming storm.
I salute you for this lucid and realistic treatment of a need that from this point in time will only grow more urgent. All too often, voices online that are discussing it seem to have watched too many Hollywood movies. The reality of such resistance invariably involves incalcuable risk.
The foundational political question is 'What do I want?' Only when one can effectively communicate one's expectations can one find out whether others are of the same expectations.
Excellent as always Johann. Much to consider in your thoughtful writings.
This brought to mind Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The hidden message is an escape from ignorance.
Reality is merely a mental construction. The world is only as big as we can imagine it. If we open our minds to new ideas and belief systems, we can expand our universe. And when we don't, we will no longer be able to step back into the darkness so easily.
Not sure if you have heard of this group but your piece sparked my memory of this group.
https://sealandgov.org/en-us/pages/the-story
The assassination of Donald Trump: catalyst, cataclysm?
I am pretty sure the game masters are making sure no cataclysm will come from their hands as the red vs blue game and slow frog boil seem to be working well for them. Great article, I was struck by the need for commonality and community, that's me scuppered then.
As I was reading this I thought of the CHAZ-CHOP 'breakaway' in Seattle only for the reason that it was a small cataclysm that happened recently. And they were successful in breakaway, but not in sustaining anything as they were lawless and had no ideology to bind them other than to deligitimize the police. It ended in violence IMHO because it had no common purpose and wasn't pro...it was anti. One lesson there is that if you're just anti, it won't last. We can't just 'be against' government. We have to be 'for freedom'. Another thought is to take these ideas and put them in practical terms that will tell everyone what they can do specifically to be a part of this movement.
It's true - things are tolerable for most and even good for some of the people that you'd need to start building a real competitor. Shocking people out of the system as-is - the eternal present - and bringing them into the future.
https://open.substack.com/pub/argomend/p/the-eternal-present?r=28g8km&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The most dangerous phase is the part where multiple nascent parallel societies exist - too divided to coordinate effectively, too large to ignore.
Very good, very apposite. I wonder if there is a class forming that will break away not only from the derangements and oppressions of our current political authority, but formalised political authority in general. By this my meaning is not anarchism or some flavour of libertarianism, but a pattern which models organisation and authority without the old apparatus. If only because explicit power is impossible to cultivate against the powers and principalities for now, perhaps necessity will breed in us an ultimately healthier and more durable model than civil obedience, the necessary moral structures and disciplines being interior to man and culture, with only the more prosaic expedients being officiated. Where Paul talks of the movement from law and into grace (without rejecting law), an aspect of that is the natural integration of the essence of law into the pattern of our minds; a removal of the scaffolding. Could this become true for some part of Christendom as in a single man? Already there is a significant segment of the population of the population upholding what remains of competency and goodness by living much better that the strictures of law demand, and even living well in defiance of law.