Feeling blue? Tired of the same old bureaucracy? Fed-up of paying taxes? Done with laws, rules and regulations that endlessly govern your life? Then start a micro-nation!
This seems like a farfetched proposition straight out of a cartoon's script, alas, it is not.
A simple Google search for the keywords "start", "micro" and "nation" will allow you to find plenty of webpages, some containing detailed instructions to achieve your goal. If you feel audacious, try "start", "micro" and "state" or the combination "start" and "nation". You will be overwhelmed. Considering that the whole thing began more-or-less in the 70's with Sealand, we have come a very long way indeed.
Estimates indicate that there are currently more than 100 micro-nations underway, most of them quite serious. To this number, we need to add 29 mirco-states and a plethora of Do-It-Yourself crackpot would-be permanent presidents, queens, prime ministers and kings bent over backwards to make the ridiculous even more hilarious.
And there you have it. The full spectrum in its full glory. From the credible startups (micro-nations) to the internationally recognized ones (micro-states) and right down to the improbable, impossible and ridiculous.
An odd bunch, yet they all share one goal: rid themselves of big brother.
Supporting this tiny legion of political entrepreneurs is a much larger legion of people just like you and us who will go to extremes to get a new citizenship. Sure, some of these political tourists are doing so out of fashion. It is fashionable to be the citizen of the Principality of Hutt River (formerly part of Australia) that has 23 actual residents but 14.000 citizens. However, fashion only gets you so far. There is something deeper pushing all these people to share a dream of freedom and this something else is the opposite of freedom; oppression.
Consider this; 14.000 people do not decide suddenly to go for a new passport that nobody recognizes and it is, for any intent and purpose, useless. And this number represents just one micro-nation. Nobody really knows how many citizens of micro-nations exist, but we suspect that they are quite a few.
We have previously spoken about events that constitute road signs in our way to freedom. We know that one of such mark is the slow dis-aggregation of countries from the inside (When Countries Dissolve). We also know of new strange and wondrous organizations currently on the drawing board that will pop-up out of the rotten carcasses of democracies (Austro-Libertarian Territories Of Our Own). These are all signs that things are moving in the right direction. The increasing number of micro-nations is yet another sign. There are many others.
Some of these experiments will fail and you should expect this outcome. Political experimentation is nothing to fear, it is to applaud and to learn from. Political experimentation is progress. On the same token you should not feel disappointed just because these experiments maintain the formalities of democracy. The most important element is that the arrow of freedom is pointing up, not down. Every one of these steps, however discouraging may seem, is a step in the right direction.
Things are moving yet we don't see them. That's OK, don't despair. We are barely seeing the very first tentative baby steps into a brave new world. The speed at which freedom progresses is exponential. In the beginning is so slow that it is impossible to distinguish from background noise.
Freedom is just like any other human endeavor in which people have a keen interest. It is difficult to overcome the point of inertia, but once passed, watch out!
Right about now you may be asking yourself why we are writing this article. Because we want you to know that there is hope, but more importantly, there is reality-based hope. These events are not trivial, they are not unique, individual or isolated and they will not go away. This is so because people anywhere in the world are experiencing the same oppression. They are all having the same thoughts, although they don't know it yet. As things get progressively worse, these signs will accelerate. When this happens, we will be watching and you should too. New, inconceivable events (by today's standards) will take place in the future field of freedom. Most people will not understand them. Most people will be surprised yet they will adapt and continue with their lives… for the better. However, you and us will know. You and us will be there to tell the story about how this all came to be. And that, our friends, will truly be a wondrous day!
Note: please see the Glossary if you are unfamiliar with certain words.
