Upcoming: Secession Week Blogging 2010!
By Mike Gibson
There are 203 sovereign states worldwide, 797 short of the 1,000 we would like to see bloom. And revolution doesn’t add up–replacing one government with another keeps us at 203. Which brings us to that holy beast of liberty, July 4th 1776. Last year we inaugurated Secession Week, our attempt to reframe American independence as an act of secession, not revolution. (Because on that day, there was one more country than on the previous day, right?)
Well, here we come again! Starting on June 28th, Let a Thousand Nations Bloom will commemorate this glorious Secesh with a blogging marathon. Each day of that week we will elaborate on different secession-related themes. We’ll also post any links and related articles, and we’re hoping to have some guest authors along the way.
We’re using new themes this year to keep the event fresh and original:
- Monday: Introduction, Independence Is Better Than Revolution
- Tuesday: The size of nations. Is smaller better? What determines size?
- Wednesday: Culture and secession. We usually take an economic approach, but most secession movements base their arguments on group identities.
- Thursday: Economic Secession, from Agorism to tax havens. What are the ways market-based, voluntary institutions can pave the way for incremental secession from political institutions?
- Friday: Is it possible for a state to secede from U.S.? Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has written that, if any constitutional issue was resolved by the Civil War, it’s that there’s no right to secede. Is the U.S. forever to be, as the Pledge of Allegiance has it, “one nation, indivisible”?
- Saturday: Was the American Revolution a Mistake? We’ll don our counterfactual hats to discuss revolution skeptics like Bryan Caplan.
- Sunday: Final Roundup. We’ll circle wagons, round up the action, and launch of few final squibs and fireworks.
We also invite you to post on your blog, spread the word, or, heck, email us your own scintillating philippic. Link to us, tweet us, facebook us, suggest potential contributors, pick sides like fanatics, and argue like philosophers – It’s all good!
You may also be interested in last year’s event, which had these themes:
- Intro to Secession: Good, Bad or Indifferent?
- Current American Secession Movements
- Revolution Vs. Secession: What’s the Difference?
- Robust Federalism
- Non-territorial Secession Or: How to Change Your Government Service Provider Without Even Moving
see Secession Week 2010: Independence is Better Than Revolution
{ 6 comments }
Interestingly enough, I have been thinking on this very idea, and have come up with what would be a great philosophy- ProSecessionism! The catchy slogan, so necessary in today’s sound-bite world, would be ‘Let all Be Free!’ There’s even a couplet to remember it all-
“Let all be free to secede from their society,
And implement decentralism independently!”
The symbol, for those who can’t read, should be a bulls-eye target, representing centralism and the world, with a big red ‘X’ quartering the circles.
A world-wide society in favour of secessionists and separatists would have more success than un-united local groups.
But I think that April the first should be the day of liberty, since it celebrates nonconformity, and the right to be eccentric.
Technically there were 13 additional countries after July 4th, 1776…
Wow! Is that EVER an important point!!Thanks for reminding me! We need to remember that the 13 new nations PRECEDED the Constitution. It is their creation, not the other way around. Especially in a discussion of secession!
Nicholas,
On this issue, I am a supporter of any peaceful secessionist movement, anywhere on earth.
Interesting developments. I’ll be watching.
I will try to keep up with that. Good post. Thanks
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