It seems that every year that passes, more American people are becoming dependent on the government. There are many reasons for this, and a lot of these people have no choice but to look to government for assistance. There are also many people who do have a choice but don’t know it. The one thing they all have in common is, they’re losing a piece of their freedom by being so dependent.
The employment landscape has drastically changed over the past two decades and will continue to do so. With the rise of technology and automation, this problem is about to get much worse. Unless we start to find other ways for people to participate in this ever-changing economy, many more millions will be excluded from it. Too many for even the government to absorb. Fortunately, there are people who recognize this challenge and are finding new ways to overcome it.
While listening to the latest Corbett Report, I learned about new movement called Freedom Cells. Freedom Cells is a new social media network and social movement with a mission to promote freedom through self sufficiency, economic empowerment and peaceful activism. The Freedom Cells initiative is based out of Austin, Texas and was started by social activist and founder of The Conscious Resistance Network, Derrick Broze.
What Is Freedom Cells?
Freedom Cells as described on their website:
“Freedom Cells are peer to peer groups organizing themselves in a decentralized manner with the collective goal of asserting the sovereignty of group members through peaceful resistance and the creation of alternative institutions.”
Freedom Cells Principles
Freedom Cells is based on the principles of the libertarian social philosophy called, Agorism as set forth by philosopher Samual Konklin III. Konklin is the the author of the book, The New Libertarian Manifesto, published in 1980, which advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics or the underground economy. To update those terms for 2016, I would call it the peer to peer or sharing economy.
Octologues
The group has also modeled their concept on the principles of psychologist, Robert Podolsky, and author of the book, Flourish: An Alternative to Government and Other Hierarchies. As a result of 20 years of research, Podolsky puts forth the notion that humans work best in small groups of 8 people. He called these groups Octologues. The idea is that less than 8 people are ineffective, and more than 8 tend to have leadership issues (give or take a few people). Broze states that he will use these concepts as a guide in the Freedom Cells groups.
Decentralization
The term Freedom Cells is a play on the words and inverse of Terror Cells. Freedom Cells is an organized yet decentralized peer to peer movement that intends to develop mutual aid groups through education, skill sharing and peaceful activism.
The octologues are decentralized and have no leaders, hierarchy or bureaucratic friction with the central focus being the task at hand. The idea is to disperse the knowledge within the group or octologue, so that no one person holds all the information. Broze says there will be specialists on any given topic, but the general information is intended to be known by all in the group.
Economic Empowerment
One area of focus Freedom Cells is trying to develop is economic empowerment and self-sufficiency through activities like urban farming and peer to peer commerce. If done correctly, urban agriculture can be a lucrative business model requiring very little startup capital. The group plans on using an urban plot of land to grow vegetables and then sell their product to local restaurants. Urban agriculture initiatives can further decentralize our food supply chain making whole communities more independent and bolster local economies in the process. This model can scaled and replicated by communities all over the world.
Peaceful Activism
Another one of Freedom Cells stated missions is to peacefully intervene and help their fellow citizens if and when they are being persecuted by heavy handed government agencies. We have all seen overzealous police erroneously pursue and viciously attack people only to find out that the offense was so insignificant or they were innocent of any crime all along.
I’m certainly not implying that all police are bad, and in fact, I think most are well meaning who are just trying to do a tough job, however, police misconduct is now a daily occurrence and peoples rights are being egregiously violated. Police the Police is a Facebook page created by The Free Thought Project that chronicles these incidents and they seem to be increasing. With today’s technology and speed of communications, Freedom Cells mutual aid groups can be quickly summoned to the scene and attempt to peacefully diffuse or deescalate the situation.
Free Thinker House
Broze describes the Free Thinker House as a staging area to formally launch and validate the concept of Freedom Cells. The groups version of eating their own dog food, so to speak. He states that the Free Thinker House is to be the tip of the spear, learning through trial and error while developing the urban agricultural aspects of Freedom Cells.
The Free Thinker House can be an important social experiment with a possible new lifestyle which promotes entrepreneurship, self sufficiency, independence, and would probably be far more fulfilling to people than there regular job or even being on welfare. It could also be an effective way to help bring communities closer together for a common cause.
Summary
With an initiative like Freedom Cells, it’s difficult to imagine its impact this early on, but the possibilities are endless. The group behind Freedom Cells have done their homework and seem to be committed to the cause. What’s impressive is that they seem to get it. The first step towards personal freedom is to become economically independent and self-sufficient. By doing so, more options automatically become available. They also get that you will never achieve meaningful change though violence, only awareness and innovation can do that. We wish them the best of luck.
When you type the word Dependent into a thesaurus you will see the following terms:
- weak
- helpless
- defenseless
- poor
- vulnerable
- inferior
When you type in Independent you will see these terms:
- free
- liberated
- sovereign
- self-reliant
“He who feeds you, controls you”. –Thomas Sankara
Please Share
If you like what this organization is doing, please share this article using the social share bars below. These articles are written to create awareness about organizations proposing solutions to the challenges we face, but they are also meant to inspire others by showing real life examples of social entrepreneurs implementing bold visions for a better future.
For more information on The Freedom Cells initiative, please visit their website.
Strong proponent of individual liberty and free speech. My goal is to present information that expands our awareness of crucial issues and exposes the manufactured illusion of freedom that we are sold in America. Question everything because nothing is what it seems.
