by Max Barry

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Members of the Confederation, several regions have already proposed exchanging embassies with us, therefore we must now settle our decision-making process.

We have humbly put forward a proposal to utilise the polling tool for reaching decisions, and suggested a two-thirds super-majority, after three days polling, as the standard of agreement.

Please could everyone express their agreement or disagreement with my proposal, or also put forward alternative suggestions.

Libertensi and Non-aligned communes

Libertensi

After giving it some thought, I've decided to move back to Libertarian Socialist Confederation. I decided it was simply too much work for one person to try and build a whole other libertarian socialist region on my own, so here I am...? I know, kinda embarrassing. But I'm back and expect some ideas, if that's okay.

Oh yeah, for those who don't know, District 18g was mine but I decided to stick with this one.

Kassimo wrote:Members of the Confederation, several regions have already proposed exchanging embassies with us, therefore we must now settle our decision-making process.

We have humbly put forward a proposal to utilise the polling tool for reaching decisions, and suggested a two-thirds super-majority, after three days polling, as the standard of agreement.

Please could everyone express their agreement or disagreement with my proposal, or also put forward alternative suggestions.

I feel like there aren't enough people active on NS in general on a regular basis to achieve a significant 2/3 majority vote.

Welcome back Libertensi, we were sad to see you go. Please do put forward your own ideas for this region; it is a collective endeavour, not any one person's dominion.

Libertensi and Vernik

Libertensi

Kassimo wrote:Welcome back Libertensi, we were sad to see you go. Please do put forward your own ideas for this region; it is a collective endeavour, not any one person's dominion.

Oof misread that at first glance and I got a little nervous for a hot second. I thought you said "Please do not put forward your own ideas for this region". XD And okay!

Question, so how should role playing work for the region?

Should we have a forum thread? Post on the RMB? (RMB would get cluttered easily, I think esp. if we're discussing other topics?).

Non-aligned communes

I personally think that something like a Discord server would be nice as a simple text service, unless a lot of you don't use Discord.

Libertensi

Non-aligned communes wrote:I personally think that something like a Discord server would be nice as a simple text service, unless a lot of you don't use Discord.

I think this could be a useful asset. (Or ... Amino? XD I'm only partly joking. In the Leftist Assembly, I pushed for an amino for a little while to no avail.) But yeah, Discord's good.

Libertensi wrote:Question, so how should role playing work for the region?

Should we have a forum thread? Post on the RMB? (RMB would get cluttered easily, I think esp. if we're discussing other topics?).

^^ What do you think of this?

Libertensi wrote:Question, so how should role playing work for the region?

Should we have a forum thread? Post on the RMB? (RMB would get cluttered easily, I think esp. if we're discussing other topics?).

I think a discord server (or other instant messenger) for roleplay would be a good idea, as Non-aligned communes suggests. Who would be willing to set one up?

Libertensi

Libertensi

Kassimo wrote:I think a discord server (or other instant messenger) for roleplay would be a good idea, as Non-aligned communes suggests. Who would be willing to set one up?

I'd be willing to help with that. I think we should come up with a way to democratically organize it though.

UPDATE: DONE! here's the link: https://discord.gg/fhEKrFW

Kassimo

AGENDA

  • Agree on a standard decision making process. page=rmb/postid=35996805

  • Agree on the organisational structure of the Confederation.

  • Add your country to the regional map, and write up a short overview for the index. Dispatch.

  • Join the discord server and help us to begin the roleplay. https://discord.gg/fhEKrFW

  • Share information about answering issues, so that we can build up a guide.

Libertensi

Libertensi

Kassimo wrote:AGENDA

  • Agree on a standard decision making process. page=rmb/postid=35996805

  • Agree on the organisational structure of the Confederation.

  • Add your country to the regional map, and write up a short overview for the index. Dispatch.

  • Join the discord server and help us to begin the roleplay. https://discord.gg/fhEKrFW

  • Share information about answering issues, so that we can build up a guide.

I think we could find a blend of referendum democracy and delegation as articulated through various libertarian schools of thought. So, we could have certain things put up for a regional poll and then directly elect recallable delegates to handle the other day-to-day functions? Although, I know that delegates may seem problematic as it may start to resemble a "state" if one isn't careful.

I don't really know how to do this like the others have done in RMB posts. Could someone explain this to me? Like do I just copy-paste each issue? Or am I selective about it? Or . . . Idk, call me lazy, but this just feels like it'd get really tedious after a while.

I also think it'd be a good idea to establish where our respective timezones are IRL so that we know if it's like 5 AM for someone and they're not able to be online at the moment lol.

Non-aligned communes

[No index link, page does not exist on index]
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/602639898578780160/602663673991004180/unknown.png

Option 1: Post new ambassadors; the candidates listed seem unqualified.
Option 2: Have experience requirements; a solid plan for future expansion.
Option 3: Use ambassadors as covert assassins; the NAC despises Machiavellian operation.
Option 4: Shutter foreign embassies; the NAC believes in peaceful diplomacy.

The NAC selected option two, as it ensures qualified candidates in future, in order to maintain peaceful relations.

Statistical report:
Freedom from Taxation: -12.56 -> -13.22 (-5.3%)
Corruption: .91 ->.81 (-11.0%)

There are some guides online as to how a socialist country can improve its economy without violating its principles. They’re kind of old so they don’t have all the issues in them, but they have the basics

Here is one:

Kassimo, Libertensi, and Non-aligned communes

I also frequently skip issues that present false dichotomies that would hurt my economic or political freedom in the name of socialist values. Then I do a little write up of the issue in my Facebook with a roleplay explanation of what I would do instead.

Tourism Workers Strike:
"Workers across the nation have gone out on indefinite strike over what they claim are substandard wages in the Tourism industry."

See main article: The Economics of Stroznia

Corporations demand political say:
"A well-heeled lobby group is pushing for the elimination of regulations that prevent corporations from donating money to political parties."

(this is no longer a dismiss-on-sight issue)

The options posed by this issue are: allowing unlimited political donations from companies, banning money from politics, and banning elections.

Stroznians form associations and lobby for their interests all the time. So there’s nothing wrong with that.
Stroznians also accept that it’s only natural for a decisionmaker to act in their self-interest, and favor those who favor them in return. This is not an ethical problem, but a very sensible reciprocity.

The problem Stroznians have with the prospect of buying the favor of the powerful is not the act of buying, it’s the existence in the first place of powerful people, whose favor, whether bought or unbought, matters more than that of others.

What is power? Power is when someone uses the threat of force to compel somebody else’s behavior. Power is the use of fear as a motivator - something that Strøznians (who are famously averse to taking any action that isn’t authentic, wholehearted, or playful) find intolerable.

Because of this, Strøznians don’t donate to political parties - because they don’t have political parties; or elected representatives; or a state, for that matter.

Instead, each individual rules themselves, every decision a careful balance between acting on one's own initiative and respecting the boundaries/consent of others (see: do-ocracy with consent).

It wasn't always this way, for a historical narrative of how Strøznians broke free from the statist status quo, read about the Strøznian Philosopher-Kings and the Wuddabee Clan.

Death Penalty On Agenda
"Following a tragic double-murder, capital punishment has surged as an election issue. There now appears a real possibility that right-wing candidate Ariel Jefferson, running on a "Do the Crime, pay the Penalty" platform, will gain power. While society's intelligentsia is outraged, debate rages as to whether the government should intervene."

This issue proposes a conflict between political freedom and human rights. That kind of thing can't happen in Strøznia.

Going Postal
"It has come to your attention that there is some serious debate over whether Stroznia's postal service should be either privatised or nationalised."

We're not going to privatize anything and we're not going to outlaw anything. If you really want to deliver mail to people, then by all means, go deliver mail to people. What a nice, useful thing to do. You're gonna get "paid" the same amount everybody else gets "paid" - all you can eat - so don't worry about your business. Just try to be the best mailman you can be.

A Grave Problem
"As cemeteries across Stroznia are beginning to reach their full capacities, citizens are demanding that the government step in to rectify the situation before the bodies start to pile up."

Everybody is free to have whatever they want done with their body after death. That being said, Strøznians are a creative, ecologically-minded, and minimalist lot, so it's unlikely that they'll experience any problems with the overflow of buried dead. Betweens towers of sorrow, in which the deceased's bones are picked clean, and reliquaries, which are small boxes containing choice bones to be remembered by, Strøznians have a proud tradition of leaving a relatively small footprint when they die.

Truancy on the Rise
"Parents and teachers alike have expressed concern to the Stroznia Board of Education that truancy in schools is reaching alarmingly high levels, claiming that it's to blame for rising vandalism rates."

The way to keep kids in school is by making learning fun, by being good teachers, and by running schools that make children feel loved and supported. You can't police people into learning, you can't let people go without a great education either. In Strøznia we lead children to school by making sure that schools are places kids want to be.

Derailing the Gravy Train
"A national newspaper has uncovered details of a number of politicians' expenses documents, publishing claims from gold-plated toilet seats to elaborate steak dinners for dogs. Following the publication, the general public is clamoring at your door demanding answers."

Strøznia is a very whimsical place, where our artisans and chefs are entirely free to provide golden toilet seats and dog steaks if they want to. The difference is, we'll do it for FREE. In Stroznia, extravagance is not a privilege enjoyed by the rich, it is a wacky right that is available to everyone.

Animal Experimentation Laws Under Scrutiny
"Scientists and animal rights activists have once again brought up the debate over animal experimentation to your attention."

Although Strøznians are compassionate, peaceful, and prefer a diet of fruits and vegetables, we also understand that sacrificing animal and plant life is necessary for the continuation of human life. Without death, there can be no new birth or growth. What is not necessary is capriciousness, cruelty, or the mindless/useless harming of life forms. In Strøznia, we don't ban animal testing, because if the testing is properly performed, it could save many lives. Instead, we instill in our children the deep-seated value of care and gratitude for non-human life forms. Strøznians know to thank the creatures who died so they could live, they know to never reject or waste any element of the animal product or else it would trivialize the sacrifice, they know to refrain from harming other living beings unless there is no other option remaining for us to save a life we love. Strøznians don't use animals to test cosmetics or consumer goods. To us, that would be a gross misuse of our power - crossing an important line for an unimportant reason.

Landfills Filling Up
"After claims of two-headed Mimic octopuses being seen near the numerous landfills of Stroznia, there have been calls for the government to act."

In Strøznia, we pride ourselves on our efficient use of resources and our sustainability. The waste management system in Strøznia was literally the first thing that we figured out. We are a culture that approaches "reduce, reuse, recycle" with obsessive enthusiasm. Any waste product that can't be cleaned and put back to use is repurposed as raw materials for our manufacturers and art supplies for our children. Anything that can't be repurposed is composted for use in agriculture or transmuted via thermal depolymerization into hydrocarbons, which are primarily saved for use in the production of plastics, but occasionally used as an emergency fuel source.
The idea that we have landfills to begin with, let alone that they are "filling up" is laughable. And we would certainly never consider such outlandish plans as selling our garbage, sending it into space, or building theme parks over it.

Wealthy Flee To Tax-Free Havens
"Strøznia’s governmental revenue has been dropping sharply as the super-rich emigrate to nations with very low taxes. Faced with the prospect of massive budget shortfalls, the government must act."

The three options for this issue are to cut social programs (strøznia is already taxless), tax emigration, and ban emigration. None of these are suitable for Strøznia.

Not being a nation per se, Strøznia doesn't have borders and so emigration is a non-issue. Strøznia is a free association of "stateless" individuals, organized around shared principles and a pact of mutual support that can be opted into and out of at any time. If an individual decided to stop identifying as Strøznian, and instead assimilate to some normal, capitalist society, that would be his prerogative. Strøznian culture will neither prevent people from leaving nor bend over backward to accommodate people who disagree with its fundamental virtues, such as generosity, or the ethic of "from each according to ability, to each according to need".

A Taxing Dilemma
"Citizens staged a mass protest against ‘monolithic’ tax rates after the government recently instituted the ‘Anything That’s Purple’ tax."

Look, so we don't have taxes per se in Stroznia, but we also don't have private property.
Instead of having a state apparatus that coerces people to pay for the safety net, the safety net is funded by a donation-based community chest, so to speak. Everybody donates according to what they can afford, and how much they think the service is worth. It's more like an insurance cooperative than a state. A world without taxes is not the same as a world without healthcare, education, etc. What it is is a world where people can prioritize which projects they fund, say by giving a lot to education and none to the military.
Meanwhile, the lack of private property means that a lack of taxes doesn't translate to more pocket money. The dilemma is therefore not particularly applicable to Stroznia.

Cowboys and... Aliens?
"A gang of rough-riders has been policing towns along Stroznia’s border, rounding up illegal aliens and “escorting” them back home."

This issue presents a dichotomy between having police officers patrol the border and having vigilantes do it. Both options assume that somebody would be patrolling the border. Strøznia doesn't have borders, and even if it did, we don't have any interest in preventing people from joining us. All migration is okay in Strøznia. We would rather have cowboy vigilantes than cops, but our cowboy vigilantes would not harass people over their nation of origin.

Possession, Protection or Poppycock?
"After tarot cards and a Ouija-board were found in the dormitory of three teenage girls who committed suicide, paranormal objects and occult rites have become the center of a heated debate on the rising popularity of New Age spirituality."

This issue soils the good cause of mental health by offering one plan for forced religion and two plans for banning religion (one would only ban it for "children"). In Strøznia we understand that any sufficiently advanced psychology is indistinguishable from spirituality, and vice-versa - witchcraft and mental health are very compatible, for those who see it that way. That being said we'd no more enforce spiritual practice than we'd enforce therapy visits - as we know that the act of "enforcing" or "compelling" creates stress, trauma, and fear in people, which makes it counter-productive for improving mental health.

Smokers Cornered

Despite widespread public awareness about the dangers of smoking, the habit still continues among a sizeable portion of the population. Shady looking teenagers, stressed-out office workers, and chatterbox seniors can still be seen puffing away.

This issue deals with our approach to helping people to quit smoking.
Making cigarettes prohibitively expensive with enforced minimum pricing doesn’t work because:
-Without the legitimate use of force, Stroznians don’t have a method for enforcing minimum pricing to begin with.
-Price is only a deterrent for the poor. This wouldn’t help wealthy Stroznians to stop smoking.
-A person addicted to tobacco might be willing to pay the inflated price.
Subsidizing cigarettes to make them as cheap as possible is not in anybody’s best interest.
Banning cigarettes while making other forms of tobacco tax-free is contradictory and also hinges on a coercive apparatus that Stroznia does not have. Not to mention that a ban on women using tobacco is both discriminatory and unenforceable.
Banning tobacco in general is also unworkable.
So how do Stroznians help people stop smoking?
Stroznians are raised to value their health and longevity. The negative impact of habitually smoked tobacco is one of the most well-documented facts of all time. No sufficiently self-interested Strøzniac *wants* to be a smoker, as nobody wants to be addicted to any substance. People become addicted to substances when the things that would make them truly happy are unavailable. People turn to substances because they are cheap substitutes for the real thing. Stroznians are taught from the very beginning how to distinguish between deep happiness and the shallow satisfaction brought on by chemical substitutes.
Meanwhile, stroznians also make a place in their society *for* psychoactive substances. This place is in sacred spiritual and psychological rituals, ceremonies, interventions, etc. Inspired by anti-smoking campaigns run by Native American tribes that say “keep tobacco sacred” due to its historic importance as a ceremonial substance, Stroznians know to set aside all drugs for special rites only, rather than for everyday use or as party aids.
As a result incidence of tobacco addiction is very low among us. And for those of us who fall into the trap, intervention by friends and family to make sure that we have the support we need to return to the healthy lifestyle we would prefer is all we need.

Family Matters

The police report that several organised crime families have set up “neighbourhood tribunals” which offer mediation, judgement and punishment to their local communities in the absence of official courts. Surprisingly, many citizens seem to be in favour of these lawbreakers-turned-lawmakers, and willingly bring their grievances to them for arbitration.

This issue hits the nail on the head. For what is the court system in the first place except arbitration by organized criminals?
A state is a gang that conquers a territory and establishes a protection racket over the people who live there. If the largest, most organized, most brutal gang can prevent the rise of any other gang powerful enough to challenge it for control of its territory; if its interference in people’s lives is such a constant that people get used to its presence; if people begin to forget that it gained its power over them through conquest and begin to believe that it somehow earned it — then it can be called a state.
Stroznians pledge to undermine the machinations of such gangs — to thumb their noses at any and all arbitrators, those who believe they can resolve a conflict of interest through the threat or application of violence. For Stroznians, there is no arbitration, there is no justice, there is only free association or the lack of it. Cooperation or the lack of it. Love or the lack of it.
Stroznians would never be “in favor” of mafia courts any more than we’d be in favor of ”real” courts. They’re interchangeable. We would resist the mafia rule as vehemently as any other rule.
We will not legitimate the mafia court, reinstate state courts, or empower police to act as if they are courts (especially since, while we were abolishing courts, we also abolished police).
If Stroznians arbitrate conflicts amongst themselves at all, they do it without the use of force or coercion - instead, they respect each others’ autonomy. We learn how to articulate, establish, and defend our own *boundaries* - the distance at which we can love ourselves and love each other at the same time. The nomadic structure of Strøznian society helps a great deal with this, as we can avoid people who threaten or even annoy us — We don’t need to destroy a thing to get free from it!

No Need to Beat Yourself Up About It

Now is the Holy Week of the religion of the Tranquility of Yellow. Seven days of divine celebration climax on the last day, when young men and boys self-flagellate in the streets in order to prove their devotion to their god. This display is always a bloody spectacle, and sometimes participants end up in hospital.

Between banning this religion, banning it *in public*, promoting it, and using it in schools, there is no good option here.
Any kind is self-martyrdom religion goes against strøznian culture, for sure. But what are we supposed to do about that? Do we tell these people that if they don’t stop beating themselves up, we’ll beat themselves up for them? An exercise in futility, like criminalizing suicide.
If you want to stop self-harm, you have to get into the psychology of the person doing the self-harm and figure out why they do what they do. Is it because of a moral rigidity that makes them not accept themselves? Is it some kind of cry for help or an attempt to control others? Is it some kind of masochism thing?
Masochists aren’t in much danger since their pursuit of pain is merely instrumental to their interest in pleasure, and life. Properly educated and practiced, they are at a low risk of causing permanent damage to themselves - and Stroznians really only care about the “no permanent damage” principle. If it’s some kind of acting-out behavior it needs to be treated the way we treat other kinds of threats and coercion. If it’s a self-loathing thing we need to restore the individual’s sense of self-love. We need to puncture the inflated morality that floats an abstract principle above the individual. Take the piss out of any concept or scruple to which a person would sacrifice. Strøznia’s religion is a “no sacrifice” religion. When it comes to individuals we "desire mercy, not sacrifice" and "do not judge."

Ban the ‘Boards, Say Pedestrians
The conservative Northern-based parents' group of “Housewives and Convicts for a Safer Stroznia” has put forward a memorandum to ban skateboarding in public.

This issue posits that we either ban/regulate skateboarding or make skateboarding the only way to get around. While it would be very attractive to make skateboarding, a human-powered mode of transport, the only one, Strøznians don't believe in bans.
We will say: Strøznians are both resourceful and whimsical in how they choose to travel, preferring human-powered and green methods over methods that deplete natural resources or exploit other living things. Strøzniacs wouldn't ban cars, but in a fully Strøznian society, you wouldn't expect to find any.
That being said, strøznian caravans in most industrial societies rely heavily on motor homes.

For Whom the Road Tolls
A group of transport analysts have suggested that a charge of five gifts a day for vehicular access to Stroznia’s most congested inner-cities during peak hours is the only way to solve their ever-growing traffic problem.

This issue proposes restricting access to roads (or banning cars, see above) or expanding roads into natural areas.
Strøznians pursue absolutely unrestricted freedom of movement; they also generally don't believe roads are necessary. A sufficiently motivated strøznian will be like an ant - they will find their way anywhere, through the cracks. Flowing like water, spreading like a fungus.

A Family Affair
After a recent initiative to plant vast farms of avocados in the tundra of Northern Stroznia proved to be a massive failure, people have begun questioning the wisdom and competence of the highly influential Organization for Unilaterally Researching Science, Trade, Agriculture, Land, Investments and Nationalization. Functionaries from all levels of the Party have lined up outside your office, demanding action.

This issue is predicated on the idea that Strøznia's socialism is based on a central planning authority and that it is also run by a single family. This is highly inaccurate. Strøznia is socialist/communist in the decentralized sense that every individual has access to their own means of economic production, and also theoretically has access to everyone else's means of production if they either ask to use it nicely (thanks to folkways of demand-sharing) or are sneaky about using it (because they lack a conception of absentee ownership - possession, occupancy and use are the limits/definitions of ownership - otherwise it's "finders, keepers"; adverse possession).
In response to issues like this one, Strøznia removed the state socialism policy.

A Recipe for Success?
Popular coffee chain Moonbucks recently found itself in hot water after its Moonbucks Magic Mocha Machiatto Mixer was found to include ingredients that might lead to an increased risk in cancer, or at least a really upset stomach. Moonbucks had been using these substances despite knowing about their bad press, but as the ingredients list wasn’t visible or published anywhere they had escaped comment until now.

Strøznians agree that this is an issue, and will not buy any food that doesn't have a publicly available list of ingredients for them to peruse, pressuring businesses to provide such a label if they want to stay afloat. But Strøznians don't outsource the responsibility of doing this to a government. Consumers organize themselves into consumer unions of sorts to make this happen, with coordinated boycotts on any businesses with profound negative externalities. If this kind of "market" pressure fails to produce the desired change, Strøznians will use their creativity and resourcefulness to set up their own damn coffee shops, or just make their coffee at home.

Ultimately, Strøznia's anti-exploitation ethics demand an economic supply chain with as little mediation between producer and consumer as possible. The only way to make sure you get coffee ethically is to grow, harvest, and process the coffee beans yourself; be friends with somebody who's doing this; or at least subscribe to a Cropshare (CSA) from a farmer-owned Co-op so you can support coffee growers directly.

Fundamental Rights
The surprise hit of the Every Country In The World Film Festival is Kreator Kids, a controversial documentary featuring Drew Shaffer’s hardline evangelical homeschool curriculum — ‘Curricula of Really Advanced Programmes’ — which critics claim pushed racist, revisionist, sexist rhetoric and told children set theory was the work of the Devil. As you walk to your office building, the furore outside is almost as loud as the award buzz.

This issue poses a false dichotomy between unregulated homeschooling and the rights of a child to determine what they learn and what life they lead. All Strøznian education is driven by the student's curiosity. While it's true that bad teachers will find themselves pushed out of their vocation, it won't be because they failed to meet government standards. It will be because they failed to meet their students' standards and lost those students. Strøznian kids who are bored or unhappy with the grown-ups teaching them are taught that they have a right to walk away and find new mentors the same way that an adult might walk away from any other bad service or relationship. The most shameful thing for a Strøznian adult is to be possessive or controlling towards kids (or anyone else for that matter). Free association will not be coerced.
Big people may be depended-on by little people for important aspects of their physical and emotional safety (because of differences in size, strength, dexterity, impulse control, reaction time, experience, skill, etc.), but any big person who leverages that dependency to stand in the way of the little person's freedom —whether freedom of movement or their curiosity-driven discovery of truth in the world— will immediately attract negative attention to themselves from Strøznians, and can expect those Strøznians to intercede and undermine their supposed authority. True caring action increases freedom: gives the person more power/more skills and more options/more independence. If you're working against that, it's not caring at all. That litmus test doesn't need to be codified in a government rubric anywhere; it's evident in the subjectivity of the student. Do they feel empowered? Are they finding answers to the questions they have? Does the information they get really work, is it consistent with their own observations and experiences? These are what matter, whether the education is coming from the home or a school.
And meanwhile, of course Strøznians do pool their resources and collaborate to create actual schools outside of their homes. But unlike most schools, Strøznian schools are all-voluntary. Volunteers run them, attendance is optional, and funding is voluntary. You don't need to lean on coercive violence to build a thriving communal resource —especially when that resource is designed by its co-creators to be a place of fun, of play, of acceptance for all learners wherever they're at. We don't tell anyone that they have to go to school (or leave school, either) if they don't want to, and so the school attracts and retains people who love to be there. It becomes a place that everyone associates with love, and more and more people choose to go.

Made To Break
After a hectic work week, you were finally due some time off for a nice Sunday brunch with your family. But as you were waiting for your TurboLux 3000 Toaster to toast your bread, it started frantically buzzing and rattling, finally popping out two slices of bread burnt like charcoal. Worse still, your mother purchased the kitchen appliance for you only 366 days ago, and its warranty expired yesterday.

Waste problems, of which planned obsolescence is but one of many, are a problem of commodity production no matter who produces the commodities: private enterprises or states. As long as you're making a set quantity of things in the hopes of selling them, the possibility of waste is there.
Since waste is at the root of pretty much all of the problems that constitute humanity's ecological murder-suicide, Strøznians have developed a thorough set of parallel practices to eliminate it:
1. Strøznian producers offer their goods on a strictly made-to-order basis. If a customer isn't lined up with a pre-order in place, the thing doesn't get made. This cuts down on overproduction.
2. So long as the person who produces a good and the person who consumes a good are different people, the consumer can't be sure that the producer will be thorough in their quality control (or that they won't pull a dirty trick as with planned obsolescence), or that the producer won't pass off negative externalities (e.g. pollution) onto the community, to cut costs. The only way to control how your product is made is to actually be the worker who makes it. Because of this, most production of essential goods is actually performed by the aforementioned consumer associations. The people who want to eat bread take on the responsibility of baking it. The ideal is no mediation (see the Coffee issue). If a consumer can't make the thing for themselves, they will want to, at least, be able to supervise the production process from time to time. While total self-sufficiency is impossible, Strøznian communities are organized in such a way that their economies are so small that a person could pay a visit to observe the production of any product on a given day.
3. Strøznians have no respect whatsoever for intellectual property, making it harder for firms to form the kinds of monopolies that can be exploited for planned-obsolescence-type ruses. If the open-source durable knockoff version of your toaster is coming out next week, you can't afford to make a knowingly inferior product.
Also, I suppose you could argue that the intense community backlash that would come from introducing a broken product would constitute a form of economic sanction. But is it the same as a govt mandate? Strøznians won't come after you with guns if you disobey their mandate.

Bet Your Life
Norman Vonnegut, a usually unremarkable 45-year-old sanitation worker, was recently detained after trying to tight-rope walk naked across the canyon between two financial district skyscrapers. It turns out this was for a bet, or more accurately as the price of a wager in an illegal “extreme casino”, where gamblers are allowed and encouraged to offer non-financial stakes. In these places any wager can be agreed, be it body parts, sexual favours, or binding agreements.

Gambling debt, like all debt, is ultimately a contract enforced by violence. Strøznians categorically reject binding contracts. We don’t make them, don’t enforce them, and don’t honor or obey them. Everything a Strøznian does must be voluntary. We will not be coerced. If you promise to tightrope naked between two buildings, and then change your mind, by no means will any Strøznian come and press you into the performance of your promise. That would amount to slavery.
That being said, if somebody wants to do some ridiculous or risky activity for the sake of a thrill or honor or whatever, that’s their business, and we won’t use violence to stop them from doing anything goofy either. However, in practice, Strøznians don’t tend to believe in honor. We’d rather be safe, comfortable and happy welchers.

Dàguó Takeaway
Dàguó companies with ties to their autocratic government own a wide range of power stations, water processing plants, and railway lines in Stroznia. One such company has expressed interest in buying yet another asset: the Port of Mimic Octopus City.

The issue at hand is whether the authoritarian state-capitalist government of Dàguó should be “allowed” to buy capital from Strøznians.

It should first be explained that Strøznians don’t practice, believe in, or respect absentee ownership. Strøznians believe that only what you actually possess in the present moment is truly yours. That is, you only own whatever is in your factual sphere of control. No control, i.e. no occupancy, no use, etc. means no possession, and therefore no ownership.

From the Strøznian perspective, you give up control of your house every time you go on vacation, potentially leaving it open to be occupied by somebody else (unless they lack the means, opportunity, or motivation to do so - which is something you have the power to influence in various ways). So, a foreign government on the other side of the planet has no chance of convincing Strøznians that it “owns” the water that they drink.

The people who physically occupy, operate, and use utilities are the ones who actually control and therefore “own” them. The staff who could stop work or sabotage the operation, and the customers who could halt payments, the other businesses who could withhold supplies —any individual whose choices can meaningfully alter the course of the work, they “own” the works. Ownership is a factor of power and power is a factor of dependence.

So for the Dàguó government to control a utility, they would have to basically move in and become the community that operates and uses it. That’s the only way it could be truly theirs.

In principle, Strøznians can give things to other people as much as they like, for whatever reason they like. Whether as no-strings-attached gifts, or as part of an exchange or trade, and they may even use a medium of exchange if they decide that it’s convenient to do so. So “blocking the sale of any asset” to somebody from Daguo is neither workable nor desirable.

That doesn’t mean that Strøznians will choose to do that. We’ve already explained how certain assets, being impossible for one individual to “possess” and especially in absentia, are not even ownable and hence not subject to being bought and sold. But even when it comes to property that can easily be possessed —a pencil, a toothbrush, a computer— Strøznians are not keen to dispossess themselves of something essential, especially to give it to somebody who can’t be trusted. By all means, if a Strøznian has already “got theirs” they will happily trade away their surplus, but if doing so will come at the cost of disempowering themselves? Forget about it.

For the same reason that Strøznians would never sell the resources and tools that they rely on to a foreign government, they are also categorically opposed to establishing their own nation-state and delegating ownership to it. Only living, breathing individuals can possess anything. A state is not a person, it has no power to act on its own. Rather, a state is just a cover story that some individuals use to make their actions sound more important and good than others’: if what they want and what you want conflict, you are the one who is “obliged” to defer. It’s “okay” for them to use force, but “not okay” for you. Any such two-tier society is anathema to Strøznians, who believe we are all equally “okay” even though there are differences in what we are all willing and able to do.

Even if there were a group of warriors so powerful that they could effectively coerce everybody’s behavior all the time, and control what people did and did not possess, Strøznians would see them as nothing more than pathetic gangsters to be outwitted. They wouldn’t legitimize them as “law enforcement” or “leaders.” And without their subjects’ quasi-religious faith in their myth of legitimacy, almost no “government” actually possesses the might needed to control their population. This is why Strøznians focus first and foremost on chipping away at people’s faith in such myths (including the core myth of good and evil).

You Cruise, You Lose?
For years, small towns along the nation’s coast have been popular cruise ship destinations. However, with increasingly frequent visits by overwhelming numbers of passengers, one seaside town is attempting to ban all tourist vessels from stopping there.

What exactly is a ban? If by ban we mean a prohibition of something by law, enforced using the threat of “righteous” violence, then Strøznians never ban anything.
But if we’re talking about an economic embargo carried out by communities, such as a boycott or a strike, that’s simply an exercise of one’s freedom not to associate, not to participate in an activity you don’t want to participate in —in this case, we’re talking about non-participation in the cruise-ship tourism economy— then Strøznians are experts in it.
By all means, close up the bars and the hotels when the ship pulls into the harbor.
Offer tours but have the tour guides talk about nothing but the ecological devastation wrought by cruise ships.
Strøznians know they can stop the things that threaten them without becoming threatening themselves.

Inexpert Opinions
Scandalously, a recent TV interview revealed that your Minister for Public Health doesn’t know much about being healthy. He didn’t know the difference between a bacterium and a virus, and thought that Ebola was the name of a Bigtopian princess.

Strøznians do not have a Minister for Public Health. They have no ministers of any kind because they have no government, i.e. there is no entity in charge of making, interpreting, and enforcing laws using threats of violence.

To the extent that Strøznians have "public policy" (including health policy), it is strictly informal and does not carry the weight of law. An opinion may be popular, and there may even be de facto consensus on certain issues, but each Strøznian asserts the power to say no —to disagree and disobey, if they want to; that way they are sure their cooperation is voluntary.

Anybody can have an opinion on how something ought to be done, and even try to convince others to agree with them. However, any use of threats as a persuasion tactic —that is, any communication of intent to inflict harm or loss (physically, financially, emotionally, etc.) if one's demands aren't met— is viewed by Strøznians as intrinsically illegitimate, and assault, no matter who it comes from.

In Strøznian philosophy, a person's de facto realm of control rarely extends farther than their fingertips, plus the range of whatever tools they happen to wield at the moment. By staying out of other people's spheres of control, and staying centered in their own, e.g. by not leaning or depending too heavily on others, Strøznians can know they are safe. This innate sense of safety means they do not view most threats as credible.

If a Strøznian has made a mistake and allowed themselves to wind up in such a position of vulnerability that they can receive a credible and realistic threat, Strøznians might temporarily comply with their assailant to the bare minimum necessary to reestablish their safety, but if it is possible to reestablish safety without compliance (which it almost always is), they will do that instead.

From a position of safety, the threatened Strøznian realizes that it is the person making the desperate, coercive demands who is truly the dependent, powerless party. The assailant is telling us we have something they want, and we can use this knowledge to turn the tables and control the terms of the negotiation ourselves (including whether or not the negotiation continues).

In all, a threat may rarely be something to fear, but it is never something to be "respected." Yet laws are threats that we are asked not just to fear, but also respect.

Strøznians believe that happiness can only be found when we all choose to do things for the fun of it, instead of doing so to avoid punishment or secure extrinsic rewards.

People might choose to hold back their urges in order to make room for the wishes of their loved ones. They may contingently practice some kind of division of labor, or even voluntarily organize themselves into learners and teachers, followers and leaders, etc. However, these roles are never to be set in stone. They must be permeable and temporary. It is not a social "contract" —because there is always a threatened punishment for breach of contract— rather, it is a social game where players may opt-out at any time, for any reason.

There may be "thought leaders" who come up with "policies" that 99.9% of people choose to adopt, but nobody gets to punish you for not doing as you're told. It doesn't matter if it's an individual or a mass, a minority or a majority, qualified or unqualified, elected or unelected. Because of this, Strøznians are not only happier, but also their communities are more resilient, because occasionally, officials, subject-matter experts, and popular opinion get things wrong. Being individually responsible for deciding what's best for oneself based on the available evidence may require significantly more mental effort than relying on somebody else, but it means that mistakes do not become law.

Push Polling
In the aftermath of a recent close election, your government has received a litany of complaints concerning the activities of ‘Bikers for Interest’, a grassroots organization whose intense mass demonstrations in front of polling locations and alleged harassment of opposition voters may have swung the election in your favor.

When a mob of bikers threatens to beat you up if you don't vote for a politician who will enact their will, it's transparently coercive.
But when a "peacefully elected" politician orders the police to beat you up if you don't follow the law he wrote, which enacts the will of the bikers, you're expected to accept this as legitimate.
In both scenarios, the message to you is, "do what the bikers want or get beaten up."
In which case, the bikers could do even better by just bossing you around directly, and leaving the politician out of it, skipping the middleman.

Some will argue that it makes a difference that it's the state, and not the street gang, doing the threatening. When the bikers do it, it's vigilantism, but when the state does it, it's lawful. I don't think your arm cares about who twists it, so why should it matter to us?

Some will argue that what the state does is more legitimate than what the mob does because the state is elected, and hence represents the will of "the people." But the mob is people. If the mob is large enough, then they can win the election and gain the moniker of "The People." Then their will defines what legitimacy is. In a democracy, legitimacy belongs simply to whichever mass is largest. Since there is strength in numbers, democracy is another form of the rule of the strongest.

Some will argue that because of "separation of powers," the will of the majority is restrained. But each separate power ultimately also derives its legitimacy from the will of the majority. The most you can say is that one power derives its legitimacy from a majority that existed at a different time than the current one (e.g. a President elected 3 years ago vetoes legislation from a Congress elected 1 year ago; a Supreme Court uses a constitutional amendment that was ratified by the majority 100 years ago to trump legislation that was passed by the majority 20 years ago). All you have is masses and their "representatives" jockeying for superiority. The individual person is trampled completely.

Strøznians don't bother with any of that.
For Strøznians, no amount of popularity can confer legitimacy to an act of coercion.
Nothing else can, either. Legitimacy simply does not exist.
If Strøznians decide they want to look the other way when they witness an assault, because they like the assailant more than the victim... they have the freedom to do that, it's between them, their conscience, and of course the victim and any friends, relations, or allies of the victim who disagree with that choice (and hurt people hurt people)... they can take the risk of walking that road, but the one thing a Strøznian can't do is pretend that assault isn't assault.

For Strøznians, there's no fairy magic in popularity, or badges, or fancy hats, or inbred parents, or winning wars, that makes assault stop being assault.

She's a Keeper:
A recent top division women’s football match set the lowest all-time attendance record of just five people.

This question is about what to "do" about the fact that Strøznians don't seem to enjoy attending a certain type of sporting event. The solutions include taxing people and pumping that money into the sport, officially "discourage" certain kinds of people from playing the games they want to play, or "force" sports leagues to schedule back-to-back events. All of these are authoritarian solutions.

If a person decides they aren't interested in watching a particular kind of entertainment or game, they're free to do something else. You can do whatever you want with your time. You don't owe anybody your attendance, and accordingly no performer is owed an audience. If people don't find your performance interesting enough to patronize it willingly, your options are to accept that your audience is small, or change your offering to have broader appeal. If broadening your appeal requires fundraising, those funds have to be given willingly. Strøznians don't tax any more than we rob. We ask for donations first. Barring donations, we look for things people have given up, wasted, or abandoned. Barring that, we ask to borrow things from people in our networks. Finally, if none of our friends have what we need, then we trade for it with strangers.

Read factbook

Kassimo, Libertensi, and Non-aligned communes

Also then there is just time. I think industry seems to slowly grow along with population. Additionally, if you answer an issue (say, to ban private property or whatever) to become socialist early on, you can answer questions in a pro-industry way for a long time before the opportunity arises to undo your on-paper shift to socialism.
This is a lot easier now actually, thanks to policy banners. A nation can get itself labeled socialist and then behave like a capitalist for most of its existence without losing the socialist label - just like in real life, lol!

Also everything is course-correctable. My economy and economic freedoms have gone up and down a lot over the years.

Oh and finally the way the game is now there’s one issue that basically just flips you straight from complete nationalization to complete allowance of private ownership.
Ideologically I’m not actually opposed to private (non-state) property ownership, because I conceive socialization/communization as an extending of ownership to people who don’t yet have it rather than taking it away and putting it in the hands of a state. So I answered that question in a way that basically brought all my economic freedom back but kept me basically socialist. I don’t really remember the details though.

Hello LSC, glad to see the new region is already starting off strong :) My main nation is Dawtania in TLA, but I heard there was a roleplay being started here and decided to move a nation in to check it out.

Kassimo and Libertensi

Blivian wrote:Hello LSC, glad to see the new region is already starting off strong :) My main nation is Dawtania in TLA, but I heard there was a roleplay being started here and decided to move a nation in to check it out.

Welcome! I hope you like it here. I'm Greylyn in TLA btw. (That default flag is not looking very flattering just being honest haha)

Blivian

Libertensi wrote:(That default flag is not looking very flattering just being honest haha)

No idea what you're talking about :p

Libertensi

Libertensi

Hi all, just a reminder that we have a discord where we can chat/nation rp. :) You can find the link in the WFE, of course.

Kassimo

I’m gonna borrow this from TLA 🤓.

Discussion topic: Would you ever consider working with the libertarian right to dismantle to state?

My answer: This is a tough one for me. On the one hand, if they can be a useful asset on that front, maybe. But on the other hand, they support economic hegemony and therefore they’re not really to be considered “allies”. Once the state would be gone, the alliance would be defunct as our values diverge so drastically. Idk 🤷🏽‍♂️ 🤔

Kassimo

Post self-deleted by Libertensi.

Libertensi wrote:I’m gonna borrow this from TLA 🤓.

Discussion topic: Would you ever consider working with the libertarian right to dismantle to state?

My answer: This is a tough one for me. On the one hand, if they can be a useful asset on that front, maybe. But on the other hand, they support economic hegemony and therefore they’re not really to be considered “allies”. Once the state would be gone, the alliance would be defunct as our values diverge so drastically. Idk 🤷🏽‍♂️ 🤔

Being generous, I would say it depends on the individual or group in question. Some of them have a genuine anti-authoritarian spirit, but are too deep in the capitalist mindset to question authority outside of central government. Most right-libertarians, however, just seem to be reactionaries dressing up their zeal for corporate exploitation, the war of all against all, and anti-communism, with the rhetoric of freedom.

Theory is one thing, but the real measure of two parties' ability to cooperate is sharing a method. The anarchist method is that of self-organised direct action, resistance to and subversion of all hierarchies. This takes the form of revolutionary syndicalist unions, eco-defence action, antifascism, advocating our ideas in pamphlets and public talks, resisting police authority and immigration raids, sabotaging the infrastructure of capitalism, joining in all uprisings against the state, and so much more. What do right-libertarians do? In the USA, their stronghold, they play the game of electioneering. Take power in local and state governments and cut social welfare while giving tax cuts to the rich. No thank you. And what about so-called "anarcho-capitalists"? It seems their activity is limited to debating and trolling on the internet. I think I will give that a miss.

Libertarian Australia, Libertensi, and Tolstoyan commune

Kassimo wrote:It still needs some work, but I"ve drawn up a map, alongside an index of members of the Confederation. The index is intended to present a short description (in character) of each member.

page=dispatch/id=1236273

If you would like to be added to the map, just tell me where you'd like to be located and write up a short bio.

Idk, I am Australia hahahhahahaha

Kassimo wrote:AGENDA

  • Agree on a standard decision making process. page=rmb/postid=35996805

  • Agree on the organisational structure of the Confederation.

  • Add your country to the regional map, and write up a short overview for the index. Dispatch.

  • Join the discord server and help us to begin the roleplay. https://discord.gg/fhEKrFW

  • Share information about answering issues, so that we can build up a guide.

1. I prefer simple majority for reaching decisions, after debating.

Libertensi wrote:
I think we could find a blend of referendum democracy and delegation as articulated through various libertarian schools of thought. So, we could have certain things put up for a regional poll and then directly elect recallable delegates to handle the other day-to-day functions? Although, I know that delegates may seem problematic as it may start to resemble a "state" if one isn't careful.

I don't really know how to do this like the others have done in RMB posts. Could someone explain this to me? Like do I just copy-paste each issue? Or am I selective about it? Or . . . Idk, call me lazy, but this just feels like it'd get really tedious after a while.

I also think it'd be a good idea to establish where our respective timezones are IRL so that we know if it's like 5 AM for someone and they're not able to be online at the moment lol.

I think we should keep a simple and horizontal structure for now, and create an "Executive Committee" in the future when we are a bigger region.

Libertensi

Hello There!

Kassimo and Libertensi

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