participant-3927, 3:22 PM, March 31
Sometime I am asked what would be the name of a new country. It’s impossible to know in advance, since it depends on the region and circumstances of where and who we will be the native inhabitants. Harry Binswanger uses “New America” in his analysis. When I began on this project myself, I also wanted to find a name to use instead of saying “the new country” everytime. So here are the names I thought about:
Pax or pacs: a country which brings peace to a torn region in the Meditarenian sea. A citizen would be a paxian.
Anconia: based on character in Atlas Shrugged. A citizen would be an anconian.
Today, another name occurred to me: Axios. A citizen would be an axian, which in English would be pronounced as “action”. Axios is a Greek word which means worthy or valuable. Unfortunately, it would sound bad in Russian: “акшанец» is slag for having sex.
participant-4603, 3:13 PM, April 1
Right, it was more of an emotional attachment to the land. It wasn’t like they were looking for land to practise socialism; it was more they were looking for land, and specific land, to simply exist, or I suppose, or to thrive.
participant-3927, 3:20 PM, April 1
In practise it was about not dying, not thriving.
participant-3927, 4:37 PM, April 1
There was a shortage of food. Arabs burned thousands of trees Jews planted and crop fields. The British administration didn’t prosecute the Arabs, and that way encouraged them further.
participant-4603, 5:09 PM, April 1
I forgot about this. The Brits didn’t administer justice? Why? Was it because they wanted to keep their Arab possessions in line? I’m trying to remember this.
participant-3927, 6:20 PM, April 1
That’s the reason the region was never stable. The British mandate did a lousy job policing and being a good government.
participant-3927, 6:22 PM, April 1
The people
running the British mandate, in palestine, were fed antisemitic literature.
participant-3927, 7:34 PM, April 1
I have created a new Library section on the Anthemism website. It lists all reading resources (books and articles) useful to found a new country.
https://anthemism.org/library/
participant-3927, 5:09 AM, April 2
@participant-4603 Very similar name to “Startup States”. But I guess, it’s Startup SEZs
participant-3927, 5:09 AM, April 2
@participant-4603 I referenced your PDF book on the Anthemism library page.
participant-4603, 8:28 AM, April 2
Thank you.
participant-4603, 8:29 AM, April 2
Yes, no connection and no relation other than that they published an article by someone on my advisory board.
I was thinking of a name that was different than Network States, and I was also thinking about the Startup Nation (Israel). And I’m a little surprised people don’t use more capitalism to create even more capitalism, such as the startup culture, but applying it to statecraft.
Their foundation, Startup Societies, does predate mine by many years, and I think it’s a lot broader, and it includes, you’re right, more subnational entities. I’m also Geneva-based and I think they are in the States.
participant-3927, 3:36 PM, April 2
I am planing to register in Switzerland, like you did, an association. The name will have an abbreviation ANEW, which expands to: Anthemism New Emergence Works association.
participant-3927, 3:38 PM, April 2
To receive American donations, which are tax deductible for donors, it’s better to register in US.
participant-4603, 4:11 PM, April 2
Yes, that’s exactly what the Free Cities Foundation did.
I opted for Switzerland to try and keep it somewhat neutral.
participant-3927, 11:02 PM, April 3
I like geodesic domes
participant-3927, 5:07 AM, April 4
As if right out of Atlas Shrugged, Bernie Sanders:
Billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Ellison are investing enormous sums in AI and robotics not to improve life for working families but to expand their own wealth and power.
How can we rush forward when AI could displace tens of millions of workers?
How can we rush forward when AI is already reshaping how we as human beings relate to one another?
How can we rush forward when AI threatens our privacy as we know it?
How can we rush forward when AI is undermining our democracy?
How can we rush forward when AI is driving up electric bills, diverting scarce water, and damaging the environment?
How can we rush forward when leading scientists warn that AI poses an existential risk to the human race?
So why hasn’t Congress taken any meaningful action to regulate artificial intelligence? The answer isn’t complicated. The AI industry has already spent more than $185 million to make sure government does nothing to protect the American people.
Congress must act. That is why I have introduced legislation, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to impose a federal moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers until strong national safeguards are in place.
participant-3927, 3:39 AM, April 5
HBL member Garret Garcia writes this interesting idea in 2024, with respect of creaitng a new sovereign laissez-faire state (HBL #151638):
If one could convince the people of American Samoa, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico to petition for independence from the United States, I have no doubt that it would be granted without war. This is because of of the widely-held moral and political beliefs of the people of the United States about colonialism and racism. It would not be difficult to frame the independence movement as a pro-freedom anti-racist anti-colonial movement and gain popular support amongst US voters.
participant-3927, 4:01 AM, April 5
From the Vice article:
After paying attorneys and investigators to perform a background check on Johnson and make sure GGC held the title to the land, Kirley bought land in the Gulch that included a 25-acre lemon farm for $200,000, and he gave the project an $800,000 interest-free loan. He wasn’t the only one putting down serious money: In December 2013 the Economist published a mostly positive write-up of GGC that claimed Johnson had brought in $1.5 million in sales in Bitcoin alone.
participant-3927, 11:06 PM, April 5
From the Vice article:
“A con of this magnitude could only have existed in the libertarian community because [Johnson] used their paranoia and distrust of the government to say, ‘Put everything in a trust, I won’t tell anybody who you are, don’t let anyone find out you’re investing, and I prefer you use precious metal or Bitcoins so it can’t be traced,’” Kirley said. “It really worked out well, whether it was intentional or just the perfect storm.”
participant-3927, 11:58 PM, April 5
This should give pause to any anarchist libertarian.
