Sensibility colonies are forming. They are not organized but magnetized. They’re purely voluntary. You know when you’re in one. You don’t sell out your fellows. You allow for all sorts of differences & when you can aid one another, you do. No one speaks for all. No other rules.
The sellout part is the failure. Followers are willing to be loyal, but the leaders and influencers who magnetize these groups ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS sell out the followers and seamlessly merge into the power structure. Guaranteed. Every goddamn time.
Some of Kirn’s commenters call this idea racist, but they’re missing an important distinction. Ethnic groups with strong cultures have automatic colonies with the properties Kirn describes. Those groups succeed in a fucked-up chaos like America because they are able to maintain their colonies. We used to have more room to develop voluntary colonies. See hawala and scrip, and also see Mutual Benefit Associations. “Civil” “rights” “laws” prohibited most voluntary associations, whether formal or informal, leaving only the favored ethnicities able to colonize.
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Later and better thought: Hawala and MBAs brought the FEEDBACK LOOP of money and profit into the ‘colony’. MBAs did it best. When everyone in the group was serving and cooperating, everyone gained. Attempts to split the group into warring sub-identities would work against the interest of everyone, so they would be discouraged. As always I point to the best and most durable MBA of all, Trinity House. 500 years without splitting or losing its purpose, because it derived its profit from serving ALL of its users.
Polistra's Mill 