National Politics is a Psy-Op Trap/Tar Baby - designed to distract you from wielding real power locally by cultivating real relationships with local shot-callers.
I like this. I'm a permaculture based, off-grid homesteader and have found myself complaining about council rates ($3k per year land tax). Even though your admonitions will do nothing to dissuade my life long interest in geo-politics you have given me something to seriously think about. Especially as I am connected with a high percentage of the 'give a shit' crew. The issues we have in our local region are manifold but a great deal of pressure can be brought on the council to retard the usual cancer of large corporate ingress (huge shopping centre now built for example) and the social issues of expensive housing and excessive reulation.
The other thing to do which you haven't mentioned is to simply ignore the local and national power brokers and do what you can successfully get away with. Firewood collection, ad-hoc building, alcohol making are illegal but you know what - I don't care.
Yes - regional power allows you to know who to lean on, or which friendly politician can stonewall/string along developers and frustrate the plans of developers/invaders.
I know plenty of scofflaws who build noncompliant/unregistered guns, hunt without license, skirt other dumb laws on the books. If you are going to be a scofflaw though, it’s helpful to be on friendly terms with the local police (ideally, someone who’s also a fellow scofflaw in some form or another). On the rare occasion if someone from the State or Federal level tries to enforce some law, having a local ally who will stonewall any enforcement action is a nice middle finger to the distant overlords who seek to meddle citizenry to death.
That’s a really good point actually. Yes here in Australia relationships are critically important. Somehow backing onto a giant desert and Antarctica to the south breeds this less than libertarian individualism.
Very good point. I used to know everyone in local politics in Austin, Texas, in the 1990's. Now, the city has changed so much and I don't know anybody. I have to think about how to change that or if I even want to change that.
Election season is a ripe opportunity - existing incumbents are trying to hang on to their positions, while challengers are trying to unseat them. Ballotpedia gives you a good rundown of who’s who in local politics and simply showing up to a few campaign events will be enough for you to get a sense of who’s who and which people you want in office (or which dirtbags you absolutely want to keep far away from power).
I like this. I'm a permaculture based, off-grid homesteader and have found myself complaining about council rates ($3k per year land tax). Even though your admonitions will do nothing to dissuade my life long interest in geo-politics you have given me something to seriously think about. Especially as I am connected with a high percentage of the 'give a shit' crew. The issues we have in our local region are manifold but a great deal of pressure can be brought on the council to retard the usual cancer of large corporate ingress (huge shopping centre now built for example) and the social issues of expensive housing and excessive reulation.
The other thing to do which you haven't mentioned is to simply ignore the local and national power brokers and do what you can successfully get away with. Firewood collection, ad-hoc building, alcohol making are illegal but you know what - I don't care.
Yes - regional power allows you to know who to lean on, or which friendly politician can stonewall/string along developers and frustrate the plans of developers/invaders.
I know plenty of scofflaws who build noncompliant/unregistered guns, hunt without license, skirt other dumb laws on the books. If you are going to be a scofflaw though, it’s helpful to be on friendly terms with the local police (ideally, someone who’s also a fellow scofflaw in some form or another). On the rare occasion if someone from the State or Federal level tries to enforce some law, having a local ally who will stonewall any enforcement action is a nice middle finger to the distant overlords who seek to meddle citizenry to death.
That’s a really good point actually. Yes here in Australia relationships are critically important. Somehow backing onto a giant desert and Antarctica to the south breeds this less than libertarian individualism.
Very good point. I used to know everyone in local politics in Austin, Texas, in the 1990's. Now, the city has changed so much and I don't know anybody. I have to think about how to change that or if I even want to change that.
Election season is a ripe opportunity - existing incumbents are trying to hang on to their positions, while challengers are trying to unseat them. Ballotpedia gives you a good rundown of who’s who in local politics and simply showing up to a few campaign events will be enough for you to get a sense of who’s who and which people you want in office (or which dirtbags you absolutely want to keep far away from power).