Political Dynamics of a Community Alliance

A community is more than an association of individuals, it is a system that transcends those individuals, it has its own unique dimensions, its own social rules and cultural customs that shape and influence its members. Because of that, each community will need to be governed differently, and these dynamics will create different systemic and economic challenges. People move into and leave the community, by birth, death and migration, yet the community itself remains, it's a living, always changing entity.
   Don't hesitate to point out differences within the community, but while ethnic and cultural diversity is a good thing, serious political differences can be the fatal flaw that can undermined community cohesion. Unity through diversity can be achieved through respect for fundamental principles which hold the community together through the political differences. Where there are political factions fighting to impose their agenda on one another with no respect to the fundamental principles of individual rights, a responsible, functioning community is not possible. Of course the most important mission of Libercratic Community organizing is to establish long lasting respect for individual rights, nothing that you do, nothing that the community does, no matter how wealthy it becomes, is worth anything at the cost of individual freedom. So the most important principle to emphasize as an absolute requirement is that everyone within the community and everyone that associates with it or does business with it must respect individual sovereignty. Those that don't are enemies, and there can be no dealings with them. When everyone respects the sovereignty of the individual, then all other political differences are but trivial disputes that can either be resolved or overlooked by people who can work with each other despite their differences. But the goal is not to homogenize the community, unity means all factions are loyal to the community as a whole, in an environment of tolerance and respect. With this, all members understand that to enjoy the opportunity to live like they want and to receive genuine respect, they must respect others and accord them the same opportunity.
   One of the biggest potential obstacles will be political, city planners and local bureaucrats who are fearful of allowing individual property owners autonomy, these are the people whose paternalistic mentality drives them to command and control. Your challenge as a facilitator between the community and local politicians is to convince political leaders and bureaucrats to become facilitators of community self-help and show them how they and City Hall will benefit. One possible approach would be to demonstrate how relaxing zoning ordinances will allow formal community associations to create their own contractual zoning codes through deed restrictions that will provide protection for the character of the community and increase its property values. Community self-help will reduce the tax burden as neighbors work on solving their own problems, that means reducing the case load for social workers, reducing the burden of the police as the community provides for its own security, it means that the community will pay for its own improvements, rather than looking to City Hall, and it will result in positive externalities for the city by building safer, cleaner neighborhoods of more content citizens.
   Politicians like to think of themselves as providers, they like to believe that everything that people have; their homes, their prosperity, their education, their security, is provided by their benevolence. By convincing the public of this illusion, they can garner votes by telling people that they are responsible for improving everyone's standard of living. Politicians can also point to a community center, a public park, a school or a sports stadium as evidence of what they has provided for the community, of course in most cases, all they did was steal the money and award the building contract to a favored political crony. When the community invites politicians to participate in neighborhood projects, they are inviting a mobster, an enemy, into their midst who will exploit the work of the community for his own gain, which in the future will be turned into greater power for him and for City Hall as they seek to take greater control away from the community that first invited them in. Dealing with these parasites is the greatest threat that you will face, so, community leaders need to be very careful in their dealings with political officials.
   It is possible to find some public officials who are actually concerned about actual community self-help, it is with these people that you need work. Problems that they will face will be similar to yours, a caring public official is one person in the midst of a gang of crooks, therefore it will be vitally important to help network between the public officials that respect individual rights and who will be effective in convincing other public officials to maintain a non-interference policy.
   Ultimately politicians only respond to threats, because that's their mentality, they're power hungry, avaricious manipulators, who only back down when faced with an opponent who is more powerful than them. One such opponent is the media and public opinion, therefore it is most important to gain their support, first, the local public, and then the local media. As a community facilitator, you should recruit people who will specifically work on marketing and public relations, put out press releases to the media that speak favorably about your community, explain its goals and how it's success will be beneficial to the larger society. Public relations is a challenging project in itself that requires constant attention and work to keep up public awareness and foster a favorable impression among the general public. Once you have cornered the market on public opinion you can use that power to defend the rights of the community against malicious politicians who seek to infiltrate, command and control, or as you will inevitably discover, the more evil people will seek to create conflict and to destroy that which they cannot control. It is therefore, a responsibility to remain vigilant to any and all political interference within the community or any attempts to distort or spin the message or the goals of the community toward an unfavorable light. In reality, you will face such enemies, not only from public officials, but from special interest groups, hostile media, academics and others who have a vested interest in the regulatory, socialist-state. Simply living in today's political-state is a constant battle to defend your most basic human rights against an array of enemies who are set against you and intend to destroy that which they cannot control to serve their own interests rather than yours. These people do not respond to ideas, because they're not rational, they do not respond to suffering because they do not feel, they do not respond to moral appeals, because they are without a conscience, they don't even respond to the reality of their own failures, apparently, because they lack the intelligence to recognize what actually works and what doesn't. As I said, these types of people respond to only one thing, raw power, in any form you can muster, therefore only use it in defense of individual rights, use that power to create transparency, openness and honesty in all your dealings, because it is this clarifying light that exposes the charlatans for what they are.
   When politicians can claim they provided the community with the anything, they obtain popularity and votes. They therefore have a vested interest in continuing to play the part of a paternalistic provider, which requires creating dependency on the part of those who are their subjects. It is this dependency that is the primary problem and it is independence and community self sufficiency that is the primary goal of community organizing, that goal must always stay within sight and must never be compromised. Nothing that the community does can make up for the loss of it's self-sufficiency.
   While some political officials are hopeless cases, there may be others, as well as potential candidates for office who start out with good intentions and may be receptive to community appeals. By speaking to them honestly and directly about respecting individual rights, particularly property rights, by showing them what is morally right, constitutionally correct and the obligation of every person, by convincing them that they have an interest in becoming an enabling leader rather than a paternalistic leader, they can gain popularity and support from a community who actually respects and trusts them. An enabling leader, looks for ways to help people to help themselves, such a person sees success in the success of others, especially in the general improvement of the community and the city, knowing that genuine improvement can only come through self sufficient, free-market actions. An honest political leader will therefore not claim to have provided what other people have built, but can proudly claim that they have been tireless champions of individual rights and free enterprise and that they have defended the community and its individuals against those forces who would violate their rights and derail their prosperity. Such leaders can also actively join in with the community as an equal, rather than as a master, by participating in community fund-raisers and other projects as they stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow citizens. The "provision" approach is of short benefit only to those who seek to exploit the problems of the community, it is not sustainable, whereas the "enabling" approach leads to genuine development and growth which benefits everyone. Like the old saying goes, you can give a man a fish and feed him for one day, or you can teach him to fish and he can feed himself for a lifetime.
   Every community has its own resources, which may not be identified and used so long as the community is dependant on the state. If the community is to become self-reliant, it must begin by taking responsibility for all of its own needs. If people are continually engaging in self defeatist thinking by believing that the problems they face are too large or too expensive for them to deal with themselves, and they will constantly turn to the state or the city to fix things for them or give them what they desire, then they will always remain slaves, both to their own inadequacies and to those who want to keep them dependent. The most effective way to keep a people dependent is to inculcate in them an attitude of dependence, a belief that they can't get by on their own, that they can't solve their own problems, that they haven't the resources, the knowledge or the ability to be independent. If a people believe that, then they will never be free.
   Some people haven't enough faith in themselves and their neighbors, if they have the courage then they should act on faith by believing in themselves and their neighbors, by simply making up their minds to solve their own problems and provide for themselves, they will discover abilities and resources that they never knew existed, because they have lain dormant. What people don't use atrophies, just like with your muscles, as you use them, they get stronger. So encourage the community to exercise its muscles, physical and mental, by getting to work on their problems with a dedicated heart.

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