I’ve written a draft for a Free State Project adjacent proposal, The Good Neighbors Project (below).
I am seeking your critical feedback on the draft below. Specifically, I would appreciate your thoughts on:
Are the “Bad Neighbor” behaviors defined clearly enough to exclude bad actors without creating a “purity test” that is impossible to meet?
Does the critique of existing “big tent” strategies land as a necessary evolution, or does it feel unnecessarily divisive?
Are there any improvements you would make? Any issues that you think are important to address?
“Good does not always triumph over Evil; and Evil does not always triumph over Good. But the active always triumph over the passive.”
-- The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The Free State Project is a political migration movement with the goal of recruiting 20,000 liberty-minded individuals to move to New Hampshire. The project seeks to concentrate pro-liberty activists in New Hampshire to “[create] a society in which the maximum role of civil government is the protection of individuals’ rights to life, liberty, and property.”
While the FSP has been the most successful libertarian political strategy to date, the FSP’s “big tent” strategy has attracted a significant number of people who behave badly and advocate for authoritarian policies that sharply conflict with FSP’s intent.
Therefore, the Good Neighbors Project seeks to recruit more people to the movement who:
Hew more closely to pro-liberty values.
Consistently exhibit character traits that most people want in their neighbors, such as intellectual honesty, kindness, civility, industriousness, and generosity.
The Good Neighbors Project is devoted to:
Creating libertarian communities (in New Hampshire and a small number of other global strongholds) based on private property rights, mutual consent, and mutual contractual obligations.
Recruiting neighborly libertarians to these communities.
Growing libertarian communities in size, power, and territory sufficient to defend ourselves from attack.
Examples of Good Neighbor behavior:
Helping your elderly neighbors to clear their yards of weeds and snow.
Starting a business that provides a valued service to the community.
Helping newcomers to the community move into their homes.
Defending someone who is being attacked at a train station.
Raising money for private schools / homeschooling.
Promoting politicians / legislation seeking to repeal authoritarian / rent-seeking laws.
Contributing time and money to voluntary alternatives to government services, such as a volunteer fire dept.
Teaching a young person a useful skill, such as auto repair, carpentry, or cooking.
Cleaning parks of trash.
Creating beautiful art / gardens.
Examples of Bad Neighbor behavior:
Promoting statist policies (such as zoning regulations, immigration suppression laws, or censorship) that are intended to create a libertarian state via government coercion.
Threatening violence against our neighbors (assault, expropriation, deportation, censorship, and assassination).
Treating neighbors rudely by making racial/sexual/homophobic slurs, shouting down speakers, or otherwise behaving rudely.
Seeking rent-seeking regulations that privilege oneself at the expense of others.
Colluding with local / state / Federal agents who violate individual liberty / property rights.
Seeking wealth or power via immoral means, such as fraud, extortion, or appealing to common failures of human reasoning (ignorance, stupidity, logical fallacies, appeals to emotion, etc.).
Advocating coercive welfare schemes that depend on state-sponsored violence for financial support.
Refusing to make restitution when one causes harm to others.
Creating pollution (loud noise, litter, sewage) that crosses outside of your property.
Recruiting more Bad Neighbors.
If the values of The Good Neighbors Project appeal to you, and you would like to contribute to the Good Neighbor Project, please sign The Good Neighbors pledge:
I will support individual liberty and equality before the law for all, regardless of race, sex, birthplace, religion, or sexual orientation.
I will support achieving the goals of the Good Neighbor Project via peaceful, voluntary means.
I will support the proactionary principle. (As opposed to the precautionary principle, the proactionary principle emphasizes the moral imperative to explore new technologies—such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and geoengineering—by weighing their potential benefits against the risks of inaction.)
I will help my neighbors who suffer misfortune (such as parental death, mental illness, disability, accidents, or natural disasters).
I will support the enforcement of laws that protect people from real harms (robbery, rape, murder, etc.).
I will model good character at all times.
I will make amends as best as I can if I cause harm to others.
I will share my knowledge freely and generously with all.
I will act with as much energy as I can muster to further the mission of the Good Neighbors.
I will strive to create health, wealth, and beauty for myself and my neighbors.
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