Two Tribes
I suppose if you can't beat 'em, kick 'em in the shin. Or, "if you don't like how they play, take your ball and threaten to go home."
A friend of mine pointed out the wonderful Christian Exodus web site. The idea of the wonderful folks at Christian Exodus is: "ChristianExodus.org is orchestrating the move of 50,000 or more Christians to one of three States for the express purpose of dissolving that State's bond with the union. The three States under consideration are Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina." (Update: It looks like the squirrels have moved over to ChristianExodus.com , and the unfortunate state is going to be South Carolina.)
Why are they taking such a drastic step? "More than fifty-three million people voted for pro-abortion, pro-gay candidates in the 2000 presidential election. That number will undoubtedly grow each year as Hollywood, MTv and universities turn out liberals faster than our churches can produce converts. Redemption of all 50 American States and their general government is totally impossible," is the claim made on the website.
All I can say is I feel sorry for Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina. They have enough problems. I can just see 50,000 religious nuts looking for a meet-and-green with neo-Confederate nuts, swarming into a state. Undoubtedly, these crackpots are looking for some sort of reconstructed Confederate apologist army to rise up against the United States government. No matter how religious you are, you can probably figure out what these people really want and I suspect that this movement is going to end up as 20 guys in a trailer as even the hard-core theofascists turn their noses up. I remember how the whole "Republic of Texas" fiasco ended. When your embassy is an outhouse and you're outgunned by the local county sheriff's department, I think your dreams of playing Napoleon should be left in the same closet where you keep your Risk game.
However, there are more legitimate "let's move somewhere better" movements. The Free State Project has the plan of moving 20,000 Libertarians to New Hampshire so that they can seek out their "freedom", but have no stated plans of dissolving ties with the Federal Government. Their message board seems to be a bit more populated and a bit more reasonable (well, as well as Libertarians are capable of being, anyway) than that of the Christian Exodus people.
There's certainly nothing wrong with pulling up stakes and starting over. However, it looks like both of these groups want to have their cake, and eat it too. They want to move to a "good state", one with either a libertarian leaning or hard-Christian-right leaning bias already built in. And of course, can't give up those good roads, electricity, cable, or Wal-Mart either. If these guys are making a "major" sacrifice, then the players on Survivor are real jungle and desert experts.
I'm not saying that moving isn't hard. But my position is this -- if you want to get away from the United States government, then GET AWAY FROM THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT!
If you want to be a pioneer for freedom, then BE A PIONEER FOR FREEDOM. Don't sponge off the hard work that other people have done (non-Libertarians and non-religio-whackos) in putting together a state infrastructure for your pleasure.
Until these above groups take up one of the following two options, I consider them nothing more than modern-day carpetbaggers:
1. Found your own country: just buy some desert island that no country cares to claim, take it over, and develop it on your own. I point you to the Start Your Own Country page. You can find some desolate scrub of land, and work there. Hey, the Mormons started out with nothing but desert and look what THEY did! Or, you can just buy a boat (or borrow one from your boss re Homer Simpson) and declare yourself free from law of any kind. I will point out to Objectivist Libertarians, however, that Laissez Faire City is no longer active. I guess the free market won out, huh?
2. Go to some country that has no law, no infrastructure, etc. and move there. Like, say, Somalia. Steve Gilliard rightly points out that it should be a libertarian paradise! Or, you can just move to the worst place on earth, a place that really needs the help of freedom loving, God-loving people to show the deluded population what went wrong and how to make things right....
...IRAQ. And I'll even help you pack!
posted by Green Voicemail 6/01/2004 08:12:00 PM
