#66 | Start-up Societies
We, the people, are unhappy with the evaporation of trust from politics, how trains run late, and how our holiday has been cancelled because of covid restrictions.
However, most of us don't head into politics to change the status quo. We vote in elections, but we doubt meaningful outcomes are possible and complain when nothing changes. Such is life! We have lives to lead—we don't want to be elected, ridiculed by the press (or work with other politicians). Â
We, as voters, are becoming more apathetic with the political system. Apathy is caused by alienation and voter fatigue: Don't we all feel exhausted by how out of touch politicians are? The increase in apathy (fall in voter turnout) is demonstrative of the decline of democracy. There are other mega-trends, too: The ascent of capitalism (over alternatives), the decline in the importance of the nation-state and the rise of the individual.Â
It's at this intersection that some are starting new states, perhaps to fix the gripes we have of the ‘old way’. But this is a hard thing to do.Â
https://www.startupsocieties.org/ does talks about these states, and has a list of the most interesting new ones:
Próspera, Honduras - with its eProspera platform, you can get e-Residency for $130 per year and physical residency soon. I'm going through the same process in Kenya and can tell you it's more difficult here.
Celebration, Florida - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebration,_Florida#GovernmentÂ
Songdo, South Korea - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songdo_International_Business_District Â
Ethereum [this is a stretch, although it is a community] - Etherium has a much more democratic governance structure than many other places in this list (not least Celebration, which is majority-owned by the Walt Disney Corp.). As per their website: "No one person owns or controls the Ethereum protocol, but decisions still need to be made about implementing changes to best ensure the longevity and prosperity of the network. This lack of ownership makes traditional organisational governance an incompatible solution."
However, I see two potential problems with building new states.
First: Benjamin Franklin noted "Those who govern, having a great deal enterprise on their hands, do now not usually like to take the trouble of thinking about and sporting into execution new initiative. The high-quality public measures are consequently seldom followed from previous understanding, but forc'd by way of the event." Viz. Even government officials have too much on their plate to alter the status quo, so substantial change comes about because of events (economic collapse, war, etc.). Concerning city or state-building, it seems most likely that crisis will precede change—not vice versa.Â
Second: In the absence of instability, establishing a new state is a real threat to neighbouring states. It's hard for new (truly innovative) states to establish themselves without threatening old ones—not least because most of the world is already taken (which is perhaps why sea-steading has such a conceptual, if unrealised, foothold). For example, in Thailand, a couple set up an innocuous sea-steading project; this was tantamount to an invasion by the couple, the consequence of which could be the death penalty under Thai law. Similarly, but more jokes, Peter Griffin established Petoria in the US and went to war. He begins surrounded…
The start-up societies we've listed above are developed within the realms of existing state legislation and are distinct from 'outlaw societies'. Outlaw societies, which startupsocieties.org distances itself from, are not internationally recognised. For example, many countries fail to identify North Korea as a legitimate state. Many projects, such as Uber and Airbnb, live on the border of legality, but competing with a state head to head is more contentious than restructuring the taxi industry and paying taxes while doing it. I suspect the true innovation in statecraft will come from outside the established system, not from within.
My week in books
Attached: Brilliant read for anyone who has any interpersonal relationships at all. I'm not one for this type of read, but I learned more about myself in 5 hours than in as many months of therapy! Excellent. Link.
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography:Â Having read his biography last week, I piled into this, and it was a little disappointing. He never finished it or, as far as I can tell, edited it, so it's a series of letters that I would find impossible to unpick if I hadn't read a summary of his life just a week before. I'd recommend a biography first. Link.
Live well,
H