Where would a real Gultch be?
Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 9 months ago to Government
Is a real Gulch likely to be secret or publicly known?
Where will it be?
I say it will have to be publicly known.
Here are some locations, starting with the most plausible:
1. A ship or steadstead off the coast of California.
2. An island in the Mediterranean
3. A remote arctic island or peninsula
4. Some where in Antarctica near the Southern Ocean
5. A rural location east of the Andes in South America
6. An African location south of the Sahara and north of South Africa.
7. A habitat orbiting the earth
8. An underwater habitat
Ideally, I imagine some of each form springing up around the same time and entering an agreement to work together to maintain their independence.
Wherever one springs up, I'm eager to see one on vacation.
Where will it be?
I say it will have to be publicly known.
Here are some locations, starting with the most plausible:
1. A ship or steadstead off the coast of California.
2. An island in the Mediterranean
3. A remote arctic island or peninsula
4. Some where in Antarctica near the Southern Ocean
5. A rural location east of the Andes in South America
6. An African location south of the Sahara and north of South Africa.
7. A habitat orbiting the earth
8. An underwater habitat
Ideally, I imagine some of each form springing up around the same time and entering an agreement to work together to maintain their independence.
Wherever one springs up, I'm eager to see one on vacation.
Maybe the real first step is to form a group of serious members and outline the goals of such a community.
.....
I like your notion of a libertarian "church" operating in the open.
Here are some locations, starting with the most plausible:
1. A ship or steadstead off the coast of California.
2. An island in the Mediterranean
3. A remote arctic island or peninsula
4. Some where in Antarctica near the Southern Ocean
5. A rural location east of the Andes in South America
6. An African location south of the Sahara and north of South Africa.
7. A habitat orbiting the earth
8. An underwater habitat
I find number five not only the most plausible, I find it the only plausible one on the list. I won't go into detail here, but I would be happy to provide my thoughts on the other seven in future posts.
Google "Galt's Gulch Chile" to find one that is making a serious attempt to establish a gulch with Rand's philosophy in mind.
Also search for "La Estancia Cafayate" that Doug Casey started, referring to it as "a bit of a gulch" (though it is a relatively expensive development with an 18 hole golf course, polo fields, Olympic size swimming pool, a Grace Hotel, and monthly maintenance fees in excess of $300 USD).
Any "secret:" location, barring the presumption of a deus ex machina technology suddenly being invented that would effectively shield the Gulch's presence from the Orwellian voyeurs at No Such Agency, would quickly lose its secret status; any known location would be obliterated by the first thug regime that decided it wanted to...obliterate it.
Which means the only possible location would have to be somewhere in space - a return to what used to be the natural barrier to predatory attack: Physical inaccessibility.
Since that too would depend on some serious technological breakthroughs - though none as pie-in-the-sky as shielding from our Intel agencies' gadgets would require - a Gulch will not be possible until there is significant private infrastructure in space. Unfortunately, given America's slide into collectivist totalitarianism, that isn't likely to come about in time to provide anyone a safe haven in time to be useful.
I don't like to be a pessimist, but our best option is still: Yanking back our country from the clutches of the vestigial collectivists who're trying to drive it into the dirt.
If they crop up in several places, maybe they would form a loose confederation standing up to state power and other use of force.
It would be tricky because powerful interests in the old world would try to turn them against one another, as a way to get a little more control without risking institutional investments in the industries there. The other Caribbean states say you're draining off their best and brightest, and banishing anyone who's criminal or can't support himself. Several financial institutions might approach the seastead east of San Francisco with $100 billion USD over ten years for shares with favorable terms to build another platform/superstructure for nanotech research, but they can have no trade with the Caribbean island, the underwater coop serving as a base for oil exploration, or those funny-talking software guys in Greenland. The seastead board would be scared companies would leave if they alienate financial institutions. The Caribbean islanders might need to offer them some cheap IP licensing arrangement. The happy ending would be if being persona non grata in Washington and the EU forced businesses their to run lean and look for alternative funding, and that caused them to be more productive than places that are connected. People move the Valley b/c that's where the VC money is. It takes audacity and/or desperation to locate somewhere investors are leery of and where there's no "eco-system" in place. The fishshirts, boiled peanuts, iced tea, and key lime pie belie the fact that the Carribean island people are hard-charging mavericks.
And you are definitely right about how the
fish shirts, boiled peanuts, iced tea, and key lime pie belie the fact that the Caribbean island people are hard-charging mavericks.
Investors would fund the initial construction, thinking of it as a startup incubator. If one or two startups go to IPO, some of the founders and employees might invest the profits in expanding the incubator. As it expands, a bunch of other industries crop up. You have the beginnings of a real micronation.
Create a membership blog with two faces...public and private.
1. Conceptualize:
Gather together a team.
Create a mission statement with the goals and visions identified.
Identify the vulnerabilities and threats.
This is only the first step....
So who is interested?
I want to know if there is big tent that would fit most people's views on the six issues I brought up.