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Richard Flyer's avatar

Jamie, thank you for this cogent piece. Jefferson actually articulated a concrete vision for America as what he called A Commonwealth of Ward Republics (after the model of the decentralized, New England Township). It was opposed by Madison and Hamilton (argued mostly from Federalist Paper #10 and the fear of factions) who made the case for strong centralized federal government.

The amazing thing about Jefferson's vision is that it was a parallel one (more than 100 years earlier) to Mahatma Gandhi's vision for what he called a Commonwealth of Village Republics, or Sarvodaya. Gandhi's vision has already been implemented in Sri Lanka with the 65 year-old Sarvodaya Shramadana movement who have demonstrated that a horizontal network of 5,000 bioregional ecosystem networks (where ALL people can come together beyond any polarization) is doable.

The thing I have noticed about modern prescriptions for what ails us does not include reference to historical solutions. Many moderns and postmoderns seem to focus on the problems and not acknowledge the historical basis for all inclusive and comprehensive visions AND actual movements that give us a template so that we don't need too reinvent the wheel (no pun intended:_)

Add to this mix of solutions the Parallel Polis movements of Vaclav Benda in Czech in the 1970's and the Albanian parallel society movement in Kosovo in the 1990's that show how people can come together to build parallel society and economy movements.

I have launched a public conversation and campaign about building what I call symbiotic culture and a modern version of parallel society movements that focus on shared virtues in action - building local community networks around shared common needs such as around local food, energy, education, neighborhoods, spiritual and cultural needs, etc.

t seems like it is time for rolling up our sleeves and getting to the work of building such an alternative, beyond the battlefield of politics and religion, creating a new playing field where we can all benefit.

I am sharing that through posts and my recent book release here on Substack.

Would you join me in such a conversation?

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Trey Scott's avatar

It may be Nature that begins to define the outcome here with a bio regionalism that recognizes the “commons” we all share while being “hillbillies” in our own hollers and watersheds. Always appreciate your lucid overviews Jamie, so damn refreshing - thank you. I wonder if our flags - like our Stars and Stripes - could begin to symbolize less about our military and more about our commitment to a reset on our values invited above. A “greening” that acknowledges our reverence above all to future generations. Indigenous people figured some of that out. Making more room to listen…

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