When it comes to government, small scale is absolutely essential. When government becomes too big, it becomes too remote from the people, too difficult to control, and ultimately, destructive to the interests of the people it is supposed to serve. That truth is becoming ever more evident all around the world, but particularly in 21st century America.
It may seem paradoxical, but as the power of centralized government approaches the absolute, there are also devolutionary trends that are becoming increasingly significant. The secessionist movement is one of these. A recent article in Good Magazine, titled, Most Likely to Secede, tells of citizen efforts that have been ongoing in Vermont for the past few years, and of a recent conference that drew secessionists from 36 states.
Is this a Quixotic effort that will soon fade into obscurity? Only time will tell. But it is clear that the current global challenges require us to organize to find ways of implementing our own life-affirming, freedom-promoting, community-building approaches; reducing our dependence upon the dominant institutions and structures; and making the centralist’s “game” irrelevant. – thg
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