I enjoyed this. I've not read Sale, but I'm deeply familiar with the mindset. A couple of years ago I edited a small volume of informal pieces, plus an interview, by Thomas Naylor, an economist and sometime collaborator of Sal. Naylor also founded a movement for Vermont to secede from the USA. I'm deeply attracted to this mode of thinking, for all the reasons you give.
At the same time, I'm not willing to give up on technology and I don't think we can somehow miraculously shed all this bigness and expect to end up in a good place. We're big and we have to learn how to deal with, how to be more flexible. We don't want an inflexibly interconnected financial world like the one that cratered in 2008. We don't want continent-spanning supply chains that are vulnerable to failures at a link or two, etc.
We've got to figure out how to move forward, how to keep our networks flexible, and by all means experiment with other forms of government, seasteading, charter cities, etc. I'd love for someone to write the utopian version of the book.
I enjoyed this. I've not read Sale, but I'm deeply familiar with the mindset. A couple of years ago I edited a small volume of informal pieces, plus an interview, by Thomas Naylor, an economist and sometime collaborator of Sal. Naylor also founded a movement for Vermont to secede from the USA. I'm deeply attracted to this mode of thinking, for all the reasons you give.
At the same time, I'm not willing to give up on technology and I don't think we can somehow miraculously shed all this bigness and expect to end up in a good place. We're big and we have to learn how to deal with, how to be more flexible. We don't want an inflexibly interconnected financial world like the one that cratered in 2008. We don't want continent-spanning supply chains that are vulnerable to failures at a link or two, etc.
We've got to figure out how to move forward, how to keep our networks flexible, and by all means experiment with other forms of government, seasteading, charter cities, etc. I'd love for someone to write the utopian version of the book.
The Naylor book: Small is Necessary, https://tinyurl.com/4z24uu8a
We might finally be able to bring that about now that our tech is more sophisticated. But whether we emphasise doing it is a bit more complex!