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The Coming North American Confederation of Anarchies, Mini-Republics, Micro-Nations and Intentional Communities

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An interesting new book by Bill Bishop, The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, explains how Americans are self-separating along cultural, political, religious, ethnic and racial lines. Here’s how the book is described:

This is the untold story of why America is so culturally and politically divided.America may be more diverse than ever coast to coast, but the places where we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote like we do. This social transformation didn’t happen by accident. We’ve built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood and church and news show — most compatible with our lifestyle and beliefs. And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation. Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don’t know and can’t understand those who live just a few miles away. The reason for this situation, and the dire implications for our country, is the subject of this ground-breaking work.

In 2004, journalist Bill Bishop made national news in a series of articles when he first described “the big sort.” Armed with original and startling demographic data, he showed how Americans have been sorting themselves over the past three decades into homogeneous communities — not at the regional level, or the red-state/blue-state level, but at the micro level of city and neighborhood. In The Big Sort Bishop deepens his analysis in a brilliantly reported book that makes its case from the ground up, starting with stories about how we live today, and then drawing on history, economics, and our changing political landscape to create one of the most compelling big-picture accounts of America in recent memory.

The Big Sort will draw comparisons to Robert Putam’s Bowling Alone and Richard Florida’s The Rise of the Creative Class and will redefine the way Americans think about themselves for decades to come.

 

What does this mean for the pan-secessionist cause? It means it’s already happening and that secession may well happen sooner and be less messy than some would expect. What all of these de facto separatists are doing is creating the framework for the anarchies, mini-republics, micro-nations and intentional communities that will be the political framework of a future North America.  Consider some of the political arrangements that have existed in the past. Did you know how many anarchist political systems there have actually been?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anarchist_communities

Are you aware of the Icelandic Commonwealth or the Holy Roman Empire, a federation of three hundred autonomous kingdoms at its peak?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_Commonwealth

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire

Were you aware of the ancient and medieval republics and city-states?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lombard_League

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_Greek_cities

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Republic

And don’t forget contemporary micro-nations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland

This doesn’t include the thriving intentional communities all over the world:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orania,_Northern_Cape

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentional_community

http://www.twinoaks.org/

http://www.ic.org/

There are plans for many more communities underway:

http://www.noi.org/

http://www.ph1landrews.com/tm/

http://oae.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/15/2/131

Indeed, anarchism, separatism and communitarianism are being practiced all over the world:

http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2006/04/04/2/a-conversation-with-anarchist-david-graeber-about-anthropology

What needs to be done is already being done. All that’s left is to get rid of the imperialist police state that is hindering further progress.

 

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