Secession Versus Balkanization

Why Secession is the only solution for Liberty

By Russell D. Longcore

I have a fellow traveler on the Liberty Road named Kerodin. He blogs very thoughtfully at Memento Mori and Three Percent Patriots. Recently he wrote about secession and Balkanization and that got my attention.

What is a “Three Percent Patriot”?

(from Sipsey Street Irregulars)

”During the American Revolution, the active forces in the field against the King’s tyranny never amounted to more than 3% of the colonists. They were in turn actively supported by perhaps 10% of the population. In addition to these revolutionaries were perhaps another 20% who favored their cause but did little or nothing to support it. Another one-third of the population sided with the King (by the end of the war there were actually more Americans fighting FOR the King than there were in the field against him) and the final third took no side, blew with the wind and took what came.

Three Percenters today do not claim that we represent 3% of the American people, although we might. That theory has not yet been tested. We DO claim that we represent at least 3% of American gun owners, which is still a healthy number somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million people. History, for good or ill, is made by determined minorities. We are one such minority. So too are the current enemies of the Founders’ Republic. What remains, then, is the test of will and skill to determine who shall shape the future of our nation.

The Three Percent today are gun owners who will not disarm, will not compromise and will no longer back up at the passage of the next gun control act. Three Percenters say quite explicitly that we will not obey any further circumscription of our traditional liberties and will defend ourselves if attacked. We intend to maintain our God-given Unalienable Rights to liberty and property, and that means most especially the right to keep and bear arms. Thus, we are committed to the restoration of the Founders’ Republic, and are willing to fight, die and, if forced by any would-be oppressor, to kill in the defense of ourselves and the Constitution that we all took an oath to uphold against enemies foreign and domestic.

We are the people that the collectivists who now control the government should leave alone if they wish to continue unfettered oxygen consumption. We are the Three Percent. Attempt to further oppress us at your peril. To put it bluntly, leave us the hell alone. Or, if you feel froggy, go ahead AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS.”

Ok, dear readers. Got the context? Kerodin is a fan of restoration of the USA. Kerodin’s post was about the “Balkanization” of CONUS (which is the CONtinental US). He’s against it. So am I. However, secession is not Balkanization. Let’s explore this idea.

Definitions always come first with me, so we all know that we’re using the same terms and not talking past each other.

“Balkanization:” (from Wikipedia) A geopolitical term, originally used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other, and it is considered pejorative… The term refers to the division of the Balkan peninsula, formerly ruled almost entirely by the Ottoman Empire, into a number of smaller states between 1817 and 1912…The term is used to describe…disintegration.

What is happening NOW in America is Balkanization. States are already often hostile and un-cooperative with each other. Washington does not create a climate of cooperation between the states. The present political system is a system of spoils, pitting each state against each other for the Federal largesse. When a Congressman or Senator “brings home the bacon,” they are judged by whether or not they can wheedle more money coming back to their state than the state sent to DC. That is considered success in the Balkanized America of 2011.

Secession will not happen before economic collapse. There is not one statehouse in America that is a hotbed of secessionist thought. You cannot find one state that is even contemplating something as simple as collecting their state taxes in silver and gold, or re-vitalizing a state militia. Sure…you’ll find dozens of states that have passed resolutions against national IDs, or other weak-kneed, limp-dicked resolutions. But there is no state of the fifty where radical liberty is being even considered.

But wait until the US economy collapses, followed by the economies of the rest of the world. All politics will become local again. Only AFTER economic collapse will local and state governments begin to consider secession. I contend that widespread economic devastation, disease and death will almost force some states to launch out to seek their own fortunes without Washington.

So before we start arguing over the color of the drapes in this house, we must go down into the cellar and determine if the foundation for the house can support it.

It is inevitable that the United States of America will collapse as a political entity. The government in Washington is entirely out of control, spending wildly, taxing voraciously, making war indiscriminately, borrowing profligately and destroying the national money supply. In the population of the USA there is discontent but no national mission to repair Washington. Why? There are too many people on the public dole. And DC’s power base will never place itself under anyone’s control again. So fragmentation and dis-integration is unavoidable.

Let’s go back to the First War of Secession in 1776. Thirteen colonies of Great Britain fought and won a war (the Three Percent) so that they could become thirteen sovereign nations. They did not fight to become just another nation with thirteen big counties. The Articles of Confederation were a loosely organized management agreement between sovereigns, something short of a treaty. But men who wanted a stronger central government met in Constitutional Convention and drafted a new Constitution. Most of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence did not sign the Constitution. Thomas Paine hated the new Constitution. Patrick Henry would not sign it either.

But the Constitution is not a contract, nor is it a treaty, nor is it a legal document. It is a pact between the people alive at the time it was drafted and ratified. The Constitution has no force of law to bind any two people to it or to each other. The parties did not sign it…you did not sign it…I did not sign it.

To learn all you need to know about the US Constitution in about 40 pages, go to: Lysander Spooner

There is no foundation whatsoever for a United States of America as presently configured. CONUS should have sovereign nations from sea to shining sea. So I cannot enter into a discussion about restoring America when it should not even exist in its present form.

Kerodin only posted a few sentences. So I will show each sentence and my response following. I will challenge Kerodin’s preconceptions and world view, and hopefully yours also.

There are many who anticipate a Balkanization of CONUS. I anticipate the collapse of the Washington government. But that does not automatically translate into a Balkanization. I believe that most American states will stay in the Union, awaiting their orders from their next set of masters.

For some it is a Strategy for defeating the republic. Smaller pieces of a pie are easier to eat. I know of no one who proffers the idea of “balkanization” to defeat the republic. I’m not even sure why Kerodin wrote this. Most who wish to defeat the republic are using socialism, not the idea of breaking up the Union. And any person or group of persons who are dedicated to secession PRIOR to the economic collapse of the Washington government and the American economy are, in my opinion, providing a very valuable service by educating the American populace ABOUT secession before it occurs. For example, the Texas Nationalist Movement touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of Texans each year with the message that Texas should once again be a sovereign nation. That will not happen before collapse, but Texans will be far more prepared for liberty because of the TNM.

Some in the Patriot Community are actively seeking the same ends, through secession. The result will be the same – tyranny will win. I do not believe that tyranny will win EVERYWHERE. Once the overarching Federal Government is stripped of its power and money, there will be a fight between tyranny and liberty. Please remember what happened to the Soviet Union in 1989 and later. The USSR dissolved, and the 15 republics that comprised the USSR returned to sovereign nation status. The mighty Red Army did not crush secession. Secession won, and won big.

However, every one of those 15 nations that had seceded simply repeated the mistakes of the tyrants, just on a smaller scale. And today, every one of those nations will suffer some form of economic illness when the US Dollar collapses and ceases to be the world reserve currency. So while the concept of secession means potentially greater liberty, it can easily be hijacked and used as a tool for tyrants. Unfortunately, there is no better alternative to secession. And the Three Percenters will be more important to America than ever.

The Right to secede is one thing, and creating the circumstances in which few want to secede is a better goal (such as we had in 1791).

Kerodin is mistaken here. In 1791, there were thirteen sovereign nations on the Eastern coast of CONUS. They had just completed the overthrow of King George and secession from Great Britain a few years earlier. And in the ensuing years after the Articles of Confederation were ratified, and even after the Constitution was ratified, state secession was contemplated and threatened many times by states unhappy with Federal interference (like the Whiskey Rebellion, and the Alien and Sedition Acts).

Humans have an Unalienable Right of free association, the right to have relationships with whomever they choose. And the “right to secede” is simply another Unalienable Right…the Right to Contract. In that right you may enter into contract as well as leave a contract. Diminishing the demand for secession means increasing the supply of personal liberty and property rights. I contend that this cannot be done in a nation of over 300 million diverse souls, especially when most of those souls do not want more personal liberty and increased property rights.

Simple fact of warfare – if this nation breaks up into pieces, she’ll never be whole again and the concept of Liberty will be dead across the entire planet.

I agree that “she’ll never be whole again,” but that is the best outcome possible. I respectfully and vociferously disagree with Kerodin about Liberty. Monopolies always eventually tend toward tyranny, because competition has been suppressed. DC has a monopoly on government and a monopoly on American money. The greatest saturation of personal liberty occurs where the greatest saturation of competition exists…competition of ideas, competition of the free market, competition of money and capital…and that very level of competition always devolves down to smaller and smaller units of human effort.

Several in our community are linking to a man who spent a year in a Balkan city under siege. I’m linking him as well, and already added his site to the blog roll. At the moment his site is still new, so reading through it from the beginning is easy, and I commend it to you. Consider what is offered, keep what works for you, discard the rest. Here is his first post.

Kerodin, I realize that this happened in a Balkan city. But after the economic collapse that WILL happen in America, this will happen in EVERY American city. This is the very reason that all of us keep beating the drum for survival preparedness, PT and resistance. It is precisely because this collapse will occur, taking America back to the 18th Century in many locales, that the concept of secession will blossom like weeds in the cracks of the sidewalks. Hunger and privation tends to focus the mind. The Three Percenters will be more crucial to basic civilization than you presently imagine, and you already think they will be the vanguard of leadership on CONUS.

Conclusion

My friend Kerodin has some very valid concerns about our futures. I shared those same concerns about America back in the ‘90s. But I found that America’s path is away from liberty, and Washington’s path is a bullet train toward tyranny and monopoly. I discovered that the only chance that Liberty has on CONUS is through secession. Friends, stop thinking nationally. Start thinking small government. Then think smaller. That’s were Liberty will live in our futures.

Secession is the Hope for Mankind. Who will be first?

DumpDC. Six Letters That Can Change History.

© Copyright 2011, Russell D. Longcore. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.