The Shire Society Declaration - Hand penned by author
On June 26th 2010 the seeds of a voluntary society were sown in Lancaster New Hampshire. Participants in the annual Porcupine Freedom Festival held a signing ceremony to inaugurate their founding document, The Shire Society Declaration, which some have called a new declaration of independence.
PorcFest is the annual summer festival of the Free State Project, which is a movement of like-minded liberty loving individuals moving to New Hampshire to consolidate their efforts toward establishing a free society. To date over 10,000 have pledged to move (myself included) and an estimated 800 have already moved. Many have taken the political route, running for elected offices, and organizing in political advocacy groups, but the greater victories have been achieved by those who have adopted the strategy of civil disobedience and non cooperation. These early movers and New Hampshire natives are proving to be the true gladiators of liberty activism in America today.
The outside the system activism is focused in Keene New Hampshire, which has been dubbed the liberty media capital of the world. The Genesis of the Shire Society occurred November 19, 2009 on the local message board FreeKeene.com where Ian Freeman, host of the nationally syndicated radio show Free Talk Live posted:
If signing declarations and constitutions hundreds of years ago gave “them” legitimacy, perhaps we should consider doing the same? Than way we can claim to have our own society - “see, here’s our piece of paper with signatures on it!”
At the signing ceremony Freeman added:
People who work inside the system say things to me like, “well you’re part of our society and we’ve got a social contract.” Well no, I’m not part of your society. I don’t want to be part of your society. You’re society is a violent one, and societies are supposed to be voluntary by definition.
The Shire Society is a voluntary association of sovereign individuals committed to the ideals peace and liberty. The Shire Society Declaration is intended to announce their non violent withdrawal of consent from the coercive state society.
On the forum there is also discussion of establishing private ID cards, passports and vehicle plates. There are also templates for an official “Notice of Non-Consent” and what they call a “Peace Ticket” which is given in response to traffic citations. The ticket reads:
It is possible your agent incorrectly presumed that I was a part of your state society. Your own society’s US Declaration of Independence claims correctly that your society requires the consent of its members, as do all societies. Consider this notice that this Shire Society member does not consent to your society and its statutes, acts, and ordinances. Members of the Shire Society are at harmony with natural law and will not aggress against others. As you are not alleging an act of aggression against another human or their property, we have no business. Shire Society members are forgiving, peaceful people and we offer you these options.
The ticket goes on to give the officer and the court the opportunity to drop the complaint and informs them that if they don’t the activist will not cooperate with the legal process, which may cost the agency additional funds forcing a non cooperative through their system and/or holding them in a jail cell. It also informs them that the proceedings will be publicized through all the liberty media channels, resulting in more people moving and joining the Shire Society.
I had the honor of hand writing the Shire Society Declaration, which was done with a classic dip pen on large hemp paper. As the artist I had the unique privilege of being the first to place my name on this historic document amongst the now hundreds of liberty luminaries who have signed.
Sam Dodson, one of the initial signers, has shown himself to be one of the true champions of liberty activism in New Hampshire. He is the host of the Obscured Truth Network, a media company which produces documentaries of real life interaction with law enforcement and bureaucracy exposing their violence, hypocrisy and ignorance of their own system. At the signing ceremony Sam described the Shire Society Declaration:
It’s really about acknowledging that man has tried one form of government after another after another, but we’ve recognized that it’s time we evolved past the need for one group of people to force their will, force their ideas and force their solutions on everybody else by using coercion and violence.
He goes on:
It’s about choosing voluntary interaction over government force or government solutions. We’ve come up with some words to explicitly state that as simply and as clearly as we can. Anybody can read this and understand it. It’s not geographically bound. It’s just a personal choice that people make. Basically, by signing they are affirming their commitment to a voluntary society. To work towards that. To move towards that. To stay in that state of mind.
Information about the Shire Society can be found at www.ShireSociety.com which leads to a subforum of FreeKeene.com about the Shire Society. Soon that address will lead to a homepage dedicated exclusively to the Shire Society where the Declaration, complete with signatures can be viewed, and web signatures can be added. So you may, if your heart bears witness to the Truth of it, shake the shackles of the world and sign.
Comments
Someone read the Covenant of Unanimous Consent!
Wow! Clearly they were inspired by that document. There's some subtle changes in language, but I think the primary difference is that the Shire Society declaration is not tied to geographic area and the Covenant of Unanimous Consent seems to be.
But good catch! Thanks for that.
I am SO on the verge of being a fan of this concept. But aren't there some glaring missing pieces here? Like dispute resolution procedures? And really, how do you define "political governance" anyway? Depending on that answer, I may or may not be able to support this document.
Remember, I am fan just looking for answers here...
Thanks!
-Ray
Ray. I'm standing on the same precipice, but I have one foot over the edge. Dispute resolution is a major discussion happening on the forums all the time. That's an article I need to write. Third party arbitration is the short answer, but the infrastructure of common law courts only exists in Alaska right now. I look at it this way. 99% of the disputes I want resolved are with the state. What are the procedures now? Instead, to resolve any dispute I'm forced to go to the very institution I have the most dispute with. Where's the third party?
I had that same thought about the definition of "political governance." I presumed from context that it meant something like "centralized socialized coercive authority". I don't have an objection to voluntary political government. But I that would meet these stipulations.
I don't have all the answers either. I'm just a fan who doesn't want someone else's answers forced on me against my will.
Here's a really good video on the private courts in Alaska http: //vimeo(dot)com/9968399
I'm an FSP member/mover currently on walkabout in TX. Last year's porcfest was great, and sources tell me this one was even better w/ ~1k people there.
However, the declaration has several contradicting clauses, which I'll leave to you to figure out. Also, I don't want to live in a "shire", and with apologies to Russ and Kat Kanning, can't y'all grow up and create something that is not a hack reference to a kids' book? What are ya - hobbits? Is the mascot going to be SpongeBob?
Sometimes I wonder if the freedom to smoke pot is being embraced a little too vigorously.
I am SO on the verge of being a fan of this concept. But aren't there some glaring missing pieces here? Like dispute resolution procedures? And really, how do you define "political governance" anyway? Depending on that answer, I may or may not be able to support this document.
Remember, I am fan just looking for answers here...
Thanks!
-Ray
memefilter, I don't think "The Shire" is a reverence to Hobbiton, I think the idea is that the "shire" in New Hampshire is in the English sense of the term, which is also where Tolkien got the term. Like a Canton in Switzerland. It's a way of referencing the land without referencing the political designation.
The mascot remains, as far I know, the porcupine.
I'm not sure what the contradictory clauses are. It's probably a difference of definitions.
Ultimately, the Shire Society is not directly affiliated with the Free State Project. There's just tremendous overlap in membership. If it's not your thing, great! There needs to be a diversity of strategies. While I agree, the pot smoking isn't my preference, I never wonder if freedom is embraced too vigorously.
Read The Gallatin Divergence by L. Neil Smith
Please read this article:
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle587-20100912-04.html
Thanks but I've stomached as much mischaracterization of that particular controversy as I care to. If Mr Smith still feels that he has suffered damages my invitation for him to describe the value of those damages, and if an agreement cannot be reached, for a private arbiter to resolve the issue remains open.
I know that this is sort of a dead blog now, but I am currently sitting at work... and I work for the court system as a technician. I sometimes get to listen to the training sessions for Magesterial Distrct Judges and today they are talking about Taxes and how they will be used to help collect taxes... One tax in particular being discusses is a tax called USE tax. I think it is specifically for businesses but if you purchase something say online and the online store doesn't charge taxes you the buyer still owe the state taxes... and most people don't know this and my broke state is trying to find anyway to make money and it threatens to shut down businesses for these frivolous things. And i though about how you were talking about how the government acts with the threat of violence but violent threats aren't necessarily just bodily harm but can also come like threatening to hurt your livelihood which the way they were talking about this really stressed me out... I just find it a shame that more "citizens" don't find it distressing..... and that we allow our government to harass us and we think that it is right, and the government has done an excellent job of making sure that americans feel as if the government has some sort of God given right to take as much money from us as possible involuntarily , without our permission just based off of birth location....
ok rant done figured this a good place to rant
Good rant. They talked about this on Free Talk Live just recently. I think one of the major reasons this worries me is that internet transactions are the primary place all agorist activity takes place. It's literally the last bastion of any kind of free market.
What do you mean it's a dead blog? There are at least a dozen posts after this one. Are you not seeing them for some reason? Examiner.com transitioned into some new publishing tool that's been very buggy, but that would be a serious problem.
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