Localism in the 2020s (Part 2) – Facial Recognition, Psilocybin and Beyond

Contrary to popular opinion, I think a loss of faith in Washington D.C. and its institutions is entirely rational and healthy. Maintaining faith in something due to tradition or the fumes of hope won’t lead to anything productive, rather, it’s preferable to honestly assess the reality of whatever situation you’re in and reorient your worldview and priorities accordingly.

Whether the issue relates to above the law criminal bankers, a Federal Reserve which systematically funnels free money to the already wealthy and powerful, the societal dominance of free speech and privacy-despising tech giant monopolies, or the national security state’s undeclared forever wars for empire, there’s no good reason to maintain any faith in the federal government and the oligarchs/special interests who control it.

Philosophically speaking, I’ve come to conclude the only way to truly have self-government where community life reflects the desires and needs of the people who live there is by concentrating decision making at the local level. I’ve become increasingly interested in the general idea of localism not just because I agree with it in theory, but because it seems more and more people will begin to gravitate toward this perspective and life strategy out of necessity and frustration.

Rather than groveling to Washington D.C., grassroots movements should focus more on the local level where community can be built and things can get done to reflect the desires of the people living there. The entire notion of a one-size fits all approach to virtually all aspects of life dictated via laws passed by corrupt egomaniacs in the swamp is certifiably deranged.

Part 1 of this series highlighted the second amendment sanctuary movement, a grassroots effort at the local (municipality and county) level designed to push back against what’s viewed as increasingly oppressive gun control legislation at the state and federal level. While that effort’s centered around more rural and traditionally conservative counties, it’s important not to view localism through an ideologically partisan or geographic lens. Whether you live in the big city or on a ranch, it’s become increasingly important to think about what sort of action you can take at a local level to improve quality of life and empower your community. Localism is for everyone, everywhere.

For example, there are some interesting local initiatives I’ve been following centered in more urban and liberal enclaves. One relates to facial recognition, and 2019 saw four cities passing bans on the practice. It started with San Francisco, followed shortly thereafter by Somerville, MA, Oakland, and Berkeley.

Beyond these local initiatives, a potent grassroots effort to push back against facial recognition at live concerts also emerged. As Evan Greer of Fight for the Future and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello explained last October:

Over the last month, artists and fans waged a grassroots war to stop Orwellian surveillance technology from invading live music events. Today we declare victory. Our campaign pushed more than 40 of the world’s largest music festivals — like Coachella, Bonnaroo, and SXSW — to go on the record and state clearly that they have no plans to use facial recognition technology at their events. Facing backlash, Ticketmaster all but threw Blink Identity under the bus, distancing itself from the surveillance startup it boasted about partnering with just a year ago. This victory is the first major blow to the spread of commercial facial recognition in the United States, and its significance cannot be overstated.

In a few short weeks, using basic grassroots activism tactics like online petitions, social media pressure, and an economic boycott targeting festival sponsors, artists and fans killed the idea of facial recognition at US music festivals. Now we need to do the same for sporting events, transportation, public housing, schools, law enforcement agencies, and all public places. And there’s no time to lose.

While the above isn’t localism, it embodies a similar spirit given its grassroots nature and refusal to wait on politicians and Washington D.C. for solutions. It was driven by fed up people creatively taking matters into their own hands, and we’re going to need a lot more of that going forward.

Another issue still in nascent stages at the local level, and one which holds even more promise than the push against facial recognition, is the movement to decriminalize psilocybin (the naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in a wide variety of “magic” mushrooms) as well as other entheogenic plants. Only two cities have passed such decriminalization resolutions thus far (Denver by popular vote and Oakland via city council), but I expect many more to follow in the years to come. As we saw with cannabis legalization, all it takes is a couple of states to lead the way and then suddenly there’s a flood and the entire paradigm shifts.

Which brings up another key reason to support and encourage localism; it permits for experimentation on a wide variety of issues within the confines of relatively small and willing municipalities. The most ethical and empowering way to try out new things is by allowing communities that want to experiment to do so without forcing the entire nation to go along. In many cases, what works for one community or county just isn’t right for the entire country, and this is perfectly acceptable. We need to learn to live and let live.

The two issues highlighted here are just a couple of examples. A few more to explore would include municipal broadband as well as backyard chickens and the urban agriculture movement in general.

Localism isn’t going to solve all our problems overnight, but there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit right in our own backyards to harvest. This applies to us as individuals as well as our families and communities. If you can’t figure out how to change yourself and your immediate surroundings, what makes you think you can change the world? Focus on what you can control and take it from there.

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16 thoughts on “Localism in the 2020s (Part 2) – Facial Recognition, Psilocybin and Beyond”

  1. I like the idea of localism if only the major issues at the local level, such as the ubiquitous sustainable/no property ownership/development was not imported as a centralizing force at the local level. Just try and talk to a climate alarmist or any other hot button issue extremist and come away with a sensible dialogue. Not possible. Land use and life style control are the regimenting factors and those who like to control others know this very well. The controllers of society figured this one out long ago, ‘act locally think globally’ and have instituted local action teams to bring about their global agenda through such NGO subversives as ICLEI (international council for local environmental initiatives). Most rural and urban planning departments and their associated community plans are all based on sustainable development which is the formal guide to advancing a Technocracy at all levels as “our common future.” Big paradigm shifts are in the works, cashless digitized bank accounting for everyone, which would likely spell the end to dissident viewpoints and challenges to this world order which states that ‘no one will be left behind’…Translation: no dissident voices will be tolerated. Localism is a good answer to preserving human liberties but only if the local population is educated and understands what is at stake and how they are being manipulated into giving up their freedoms for the false vision of a more egalitarian society that actually seeks to lower everyone’s rights under masses of regulations based in the moral relativism of a ruling pyramid cap of “an intellectual elite and world bankers.” Too many are too fat, stupid and lazy, like cattle in a feedlot, standing ankle deep and waiting to be managed with no thought to that management’s designs.

    Reply
  2. I read both parts of your “Localism in the 2020s” series.

    I understand your intention was obviously not to provide a comprehensive treatise or implementation manual.

    And I acknowledge your acknowledgement that the examples you provide are of limited scope.

    Honestly, the entire topic foments a longing for agrarian/pastoral days of yore (that I never personally experienced) where people understood the word “citizen” and self-reliance and personal responsibility to ourselves and our neighbors were expected virtues… simply lovely.

    Yet, the blissful daze of someone else’s nostalgia (that they probably never experienced, either) is corrupted by three nagging questions that I can’t seem to reconcile:

    1.) How does this “Localism” differ from the current democratic republic we supposedly operate, considering the various levels of jurisdiction we already have (municipal/township, county, state, federal) where each level, nominally, enjoy all powers not specifically enumerated to the level above?

    2.) What powers are to be afforded these constituencies of ever-diminutive size and how are the inevitable jurisdictional conflicts to be reconciled?

    3.) What overarching structure would be in place to guarantee enough legal consistency, as it relates to commerce, necessary to reliably attract and retain capital?

    4.) What enforcement authority will each level enjoy?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Can’t speak for Krieger, but my take on localism is that it will be a necessity in the future, post-collapse. After we dig ourselves out of the economic rubble we’ll have to begin anew and the local level is the logical starting point. It would be nice for people to trust their neighbors again, or at least get to know them a little.

      I don’t think we can get a local revival without collapse, at least not here in the US, and with the Fed printing like mad I think the collapse it at least several years away. Until the Iran nonsense this month I figured the game could continue for up to 20 more years, but Trump probably accelerated the timeline a bit with the Soleimani assassination. If Iran falls, Russia and China know they’re next so they have to fight back. Whether that effort leads to de-dollarization or military action or both, it should hasten the inevitable day of reckoning.

    • @Tengen:

      I ask this with intellectual integrity and honest curiosity:
      Do you truly expect an economic collapse of such magnitude that it will require us to “…dig ourselves out of the economic rubble…” and “…begin anew…”?
      To the extent that governance at a national level becomes impossible?
      In the next 20 years?
      Not that it could (or even should), but that it WILL?

      If so, are you actively taking steps to prepare for this post-apocalyptic world?
      Like spending money on it?

    • Even without economic collapse governance at the national level will become impossible. People started predicting an eventual “balkanizing” of the US in the later years of the Bush admin and it’s much easier to imagine today than it was then. Red and blue will come to blows along with all of our other demographic divisions like wealth, culture, age, race, religion, etc. It’s stupid, but that’s clearly what we want as a country.

      The Fed will do nothing to avoid the brick wall ahead of us, instead we’ll crash into it at maximum speed. We’ll print to oblivion and move into NIRP. I don’t know when we hit that wall, it’s still years away, but it’s difficult to see how we keep going like this for more than a few decades. Even if the Fed somehow juggles all the chainsaws with great skill, the social fabric is unraveling anyway.

      I am taking some steps to prepare but I don’t want to go into details. I used to be sympathetic to the standard prepper view but these days I am more focused on being in the best people situation rather than being the most prepped. Teamwork will be the name of the game, which I think is Krieger’s point with articles like this.

    • Community based Anarchy. (OMG, I used the A word ).
      Anarchy = no rulers. It does not mean no rules ! Or, to put it another way, no masters no slaves. Which in our current situation, we live in. (Slavery )

  3. @Tengen …. yes, localism and making a new and functioning society will not be created by individuals. I am doing the same too because I too think that wall will come and will come when all faith is lost in the fiat dollar.

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  4. I gather this is yet another cycle we are in the midst of entering. As faith in government, markets, and money wanes, it’s quiet clear, we as a social being will turn away from that which has deceived us, & destroyed our aspirations.
    This cycle inevitably includes turning away from the gargantuan institution that is “ government “ which will become painfully clear to those who still harbour hope in its promises that they are quite simply that ….a fantasy .
    Moving forward as pensions collapse it will leave many to wonder , what was it all for ? Going forward with the liquidity crises looming ahead & the LIBOR / REPO MARKETS fighting to keep rates ARTIFICIALLY LOW , ….inevitability loosing out to the free market, we will witness interest rates skyrocket beyond our wildest dreams.
    It’s a given society ( individuals) will look to disconnect from the “ rat race “ . Nevertheless take heed , this is not mankind’s first rodeo..in regard to the awful situation facing us , it’s happened many times throughout our disruptive history on this rock
    Take heed this is not our first rodeo .
    Our greed has sewn the seeds of our collapse we have nobody to blame but ourselves. I harken back to idyllic days of the 60’s and see all the hippies of Woodstock preaching peace & love !!
    The irony of it all is that , it’s that generation that has participated in the biggest theft of taxpayer monies in the history of the first world , & the greed of that vile generation and it’s corruption and theft of tax dollars is simply unfathomable .
    Will struggle through as we allways do but when we come out the other side of this we will all have a much more hardened outlook towards the future.

    Reply
    • Zulu, as someone who is old enough to have witnessed the boomer hippies in action back in the 60’s and 70’s as a kid, my distaste for them then, has only increased exponentially over the following years.

      Their generation followed by the Gen X’ers who were all too happy to assist the boomers with their graft, was a match made in hell.

      A hell which is still in the making, but in its final stages. After which they will find out about reaping that which you have sown, the hard way.

      As to localism. The US is headed towards eventual Balkanization.

      But it is going to take Generation Z maturing to get there.

  5. I completely agree, they speak of those years , as sooooo idyllic loving & considerate towards their fellow man . Yet as the decades pass it’s become painfully obvious that they were the spawn of Satan !
    Simply look to the corruption in government, & three executive branches of government….rotten to the core . Can anyone name one politician sent to prison …..EVER ?
    ! Everywhere you look in the public sectors , nothing but striking for more money days off , less contributions to their pensions ( in favour of a private sector top up ) .
    Trump was elected by the disenfranchised, nothing more , & as so will go down in history as one of your best !
    The biggest criminal of all was “ THE CLINTON CRIME SYNDICATE “ if average Joe were to partake in half the graft those two have you’d be facing 100 years looking out of a cage .
    Now it turns out Kerry’s Biden’s , Gore’s and multitude of others have been lining their pockets for DECADES !
    As an outsider looking in I simply ask a basic question WTF is going on ?????
    The motive operandi is simple…. never ending litigations until the crowd becomes exhausted, and finally gives up and turns on “America Has Talent “. The waters have become so muddied you would be more accurate calling it Bitumen .
    I realize my previous post was a downer , but we have no one to blame but the corruption of our once cherished institutions now entirely run by criminals holding aloft ( Ivy league diplomas in law ) .
    Pathetic .
    PS : – One last question how on earth does a public servant albeit a president end up owning a mansion the size of Obama’s ??
    If you buy the explanation “ from books & speaking appearances “ don’t bother responding to this ! Your the problem !!!!!

    Reply
    • I think the last 2 honorable and honest democrats holding congressional and Senate seats were named Trafficant and Wellstone. Obama, Clinton and both Bushes were the opposite of these guys. Their suspicious deaths were a clear signal to future non-sellouts.

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