In this time of thoughtcrime and hate speech laws, here’s a dangerous question: how did people provide for themselves BEFORE government-supplied cradle-to-grave welfare and “social security”? It’s one of those questions that is so obviously staring us in the face but no one thinks to ask. Why? Because the powers-that-shouldn’t-be are afraid of its two-word answer, of course: mutual aid.
Video player not working? Use these links to watch it somewhere else!
WATCH ON: 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
or DOWNLOAD THE MP4
SHOW NOTES
Mutual Aid: A factor of evolution by Peter Kropotkin
From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Services, 1890-1967 by David T. Beito
Review of Beito’s book by C4SS
David Beito at Libertopia 2010
Wearables, Surveillance & the Medical Control Grid (And How to Opt Out) (Andy Schoonover on John Bush Live Free Now podcast)
You may find this fascinating James I know of a mutual group who pool their money for mutual aide.
It’s called The Corbett Report and is supported by subscriptions for the palliative care of the members mental health. As you can see from a brief description of the importance of Literary Truth as found here, generated by AI from Google.
.
Truth as medicine” in literary history reflects a long-standing, often complex, and historically changing relationship where literature is seen as a healing tool, a source of moral truth, or a means to reveal deeper human realities. This concept spans from ancient philosophical discussions on the therapeutic use of narratives to the modern, interdisciplinary field of “literature and medicine,” which explores how stories improve empathy and clinical care.
Don’t you shy away here , young man . Step up and receive what you have always been destined to receive .A medal for bravery and academic aqueity You offer us a Master of solutions soothing our anxious existential well being.
I sometimes want more than is appropriate in the more sensitive Canadian etiquette, but inquiring minds love dialogues open to truths. Truths animal, mineral and vegetable.
You provide that most of the time at a very generous price .
Well written! I second that.
How do I make a comment without having to reply to someone? I see no field for that.
However, the Dr cost inflation of $2 to today’s $45 I think is not right. The $2 is based on the docter’s income at that period. Today’s Dr incomes are much higher relatively so the fees payable now will be much higher.
How did people run their lives without social care etc? By being ill, diseased, in pain, dying early etc. a lot of the time, no?
“Virtually Free Prescription Drugs” or other potential helpful pathways.
During December 2025, I felt like a badly beaten Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, even after my emergency surgery hospital stay. SEE THIS: https://corbettreport.com/nwnw615/#comment-184387
By New Years week, the hospital had released me and I was given a Pharma-drug prescription printout. I am no fan of prescription drugs or the government influenced conventional-medical system. I have avoided aspects of the system for decades. But…I ain’t gonna risk being a Stay-Puft.
I pulled my legs into the car while in a bathrobe and drove to the pharmacy drive-thru to get my prescription filled.
The pharmacist started asking me questions, and it had to do with “regular” drug pricing.
I asked her if she could print some kind of example of the “regular” pricing. She did. Seeing one drug priced at $700 did not lower my racing heartbeat. Some things were silly, like small pills of Epsom Salts or Potassium Chloride at $12.
I told her that I better do some homework.
So, I made some calls. An “exit” follow-up retired nurse at the hospital told me that many discount coupons for drugs were offered online. The online coupon search was a quagmire.
However, my Doctor’s office had a pharmacist who gave me a call on her day off. I liked her. We joked about “why would they put yellow dye 5 and other crap in aspirin.” She knew her stuff and completely tweaked the prescription. For example: No Epsom Salts or Potassium Chloride, and she toned down the number of days for some drugs.
But it gets much better. Miraculous.
Because I had no history of taking prescription drugs, and because I am poor, I qualified for their Hospital System’s Pharmacy Charity. She explained that donors had established a pharmacy charity for people like me. And they ship same day.
She set me up with a 90-day prescription which cost me a total of $82.
There were some very expensive drugs on the list. The prescription probably has a “normal” value in the thousands of dollars.
One thing that I noticed before and during my hospital stay and follow-up. Many, many people have good intentions and want to help.
Sorry to hear about your recent health struggles – I had also noticed your absence from the comments.
Six years ago I would have thought “at least in the UK we have the NHS”. But since 2020 I have also been avoiding that system. I know that there are many well-intentioned people working in it, but with the likes of Palantir being allowed access to my medical records, I want no more of it. So I try to stay healthy – but if I was to have an accident or get seriously ill, I like to think there might be a way to avoid being a cog in the machine.
We did notice and miss you. Welcome back.
Strangely, I, too went into the hospital over the Christmas holidays with an A fib. Before that I had episodes of not being able to walk or do much some days with weakness and a pounding heart. They put me on IV heparin and metraprobol. When discharged told me I had to go on Eloquist or risk a stroke. I was more than a little freaked. I too am poor. Eloquist is $600 a month! But you can get the first month free! Just don’t quit it because quitting can give you a stroke at a higher risk than before taking it.🤔 i was worried about that and bleeding, so after one day on it, I quit it. 😏
That was a month ago.
I went to the dentist yesterday and told the hygienist about the Afib attack. She said, “ What is up with that? We are having about three patients a week telling us they have Afib.” “That was never the case.”
These are non vaxxed also.
So I don’t know the answer Home Remedy. Maybe the thousands of 5G satellites Musk threw up around the globe a couple of years back? But it is weird.
Smythe511,
I really, really appreciate the anecdote.
I track with you on the drugs mentioned and the Afib scenario.
Once I stabilize, my plan is to wean off the pharma stuff.
We’ll see.
“Shedding” from the Covid Shots is a real thing. You can get it just from being around those that have been vaxxed.
It is interesting to note that the evil bastards turn everything on it’s head. They said that it was the unvaxxed that were a danger to others when in fact it is those that have gotten the Spiked-protein bio-weapon injections that are the real threat to others, and they knew this all along.
I don’t trust any of the big Pharma drugs, yet I just went through some kidney issues because of some antibiotics associated with a tooth implant. I believe this caused an unnecessary weakening of my immune system which led to a urinary track infection where-by I was prescribed another very strong antibiotic which nearly wiped out my immune system. This lead to led to me getting sick as I did when I got the first round of Covid/Flu in March of 2020. I have since been staying away from nearly all drugs and detoxing, which seems to be working.
This episode could not come at a better time – I just finished an Android app for mutual contribution “recognition” in its own “currency”, aimed at encouraging people to contribute to each other and thus to rediscover and encourage this deeply human feature.
It is based on the “self-issued credit” principles, and it is totally decentralized, anonymous, and offline-first through QR code scanning, but still capable of handling distance “payments” through the use of links that can be exchanged via IM apps.
I’m open to offering it to anyone who needs an exchange ledger tool for their community, either as is, a standalone app, or as the source code. The name of the “coin” it proposes is “LiberEu”, which makes sense in Romanian (translated as “FreeMe” – as in “Me manifesting my freedom”). Still, it can definitely be translated into other languages as needed or be named into anything communities want.
I’m currently looking for communities that would like to try it out and see how it could be further developed – in the meanwhile struggling to build one of my own (I know it is like putting the cart before the horse, but people don’t seem to get the concept before they are handed the tools to do it in practice). Currently, the interface displays in Romanian, English, and Hungarian, based on the device language settings, but I can easily add any other language if needed.
I’m also looking for collaborators who could deploy it for iOS. I can be contacted by email at [SNIP – No email addresses in the comments, please. If anyone would like to contact you I can pass the request along. -JC]. Looking forward to exploring this with anyone interested.
Sounds like we are working in parallel community systems and should connect to discuss opportunities to collaborate.
Based on Merseyside, England, we work with communities focused on well-being and social value. We’re about to beta test a digital platform matching offers, needs and projects in local communities.
How would you wish to discuss?
I figured that I’m not the only one in the world cracking my head to figure out things 🙂
It looks like the forum blocks email addresses, so I will kindly ask the administrator to somehow put us both in touch 🙂
Alternatively, you can go directly to our LiberEu test website (test.libereu.ro – I hope the URL will be allowed) – it is in Romanian, but you can translate it using the browser’s translating feature, and you can directly download and install the application. You will need to set your Android device to allow apps to be installed from sources outside GooglePlay. It should display the interface in English.
We can get in touch when the Admin puts us through 🙂 or you can use the contact form on our website.
Looking forward to exploring this 🙂
I have forwarded “p”s email to you, Pacostea. You can be in touch directly now.
Thank you very much 🙂
In Anchorage, AK there is a ‘mutual aid society’ that allows you to visit a Dr. and pay on a sliding scale – I think I paid $0. Dr’s in town, at their offices, funded by themselves (and maybe others?) There was some minor paperwork to qualify. I would think other cities would have likewise.
Aaron Day and his wife are starting up a medical website with Medical Tourism as their main focus, so far. Oasara.com
The deception goes much deeper into ”spiritual fraud” through registration into citizenship that grants jurisdiction (control) under the legislation (corporate rules) passed by corporations called ”government” (mind control).
In effect, we have agreed to a ”status” governed under the god of mammon and not Almighty God. Indeed we are ruled as ”the dead” enslaved under contract.
A vote is a vow, and a vow is a “promise to a god”. When you vote in your country’s elections you make a vow and you attorn, and to attorn is to transfer allegiance, or homage to another lord (which is why it is against the Commandments). You transgressed the law as sinners James 2:9, KJV 1611. So if you registered to vote and or vote in an election, you attorned, and turned your back on God and pledged allegiance to another god. The “Attorney General” is an office dedicated to oversee all of the attorners
See https://capillarywave.com/government-vs-god/ and https://capillarywave.com/how-you-became-the-government/#became_government related to the UK ”country” and much more.
This sounds a lot like the Mutual, Provident and Co-operative societies we used to have many of here in the UK. Some of them still exist, mostly in name only, with their original founding beliefs forgotten.
For decades I worked for the British United Provident Association (aka BUPA). When I was first employed by them they were proud of their Provident stance, thought profit was a dirty word and complained that the US software we used was designed to avoid paying claims while our philosophy was to try to find any way possible to pay claims.
But over the years new people came into the company who didn’t know our history. They openly talked about profit and the name was changed from the upper case acronym BUPA to the mixed case word Bupa.
I’ve noticed the same with many other similar types of companies who at one time were proud to say we are owned by our customers and exist solely for their benefit who at some point “paid” off their customers to “buy” the company from them only to then issue shares and sell it stockholders instead.
Fascinating! I did not know about this. But I well remember the 1990s when “carpetbaggers” were offering savers who voted for demutualisation £100 – people were falling over themselves to join these societies before the deadline so they could vote and get £100. Most of them didn’t even know what mutual meant.
Now there are hardly any mutual building societies, and even credit unions are trying to get people to sign up to their app.
Finally a viable solution! I’ve been saying it for years, you can’t expect to have a community based on trade and monetary exchange. Community is when people need each other, while trade implies: “I paid you, so we’re done, I don’t need you anymore.” As someone else put it, long time ago: “We are failing because we’re willing to do everything for money but not willing to do anything for our people.”
No human community can exist that is not founded on mutual trust. The alternative is the welfare state, а consequence of a monetized life, required to supplement working people who must surrender the fruits of their labor to the owning class. And here we are.
There are many health-cost-sharing organizations. The ones I am familiar with are organized among people of a similar faith. Our family has been members of Samaritan Ministries for about two decades. Unlike the group you featured in this report, we have an assigned payment (payment is expected) amount each month, but similar to what you reported, our payment goes directly to the family with the medical need. Samaritan Ministries provides tools to help get good pricing before a procedure or to negotiate in case of emergencies where the service cannot be pre-negotiated.
This has worked very well for us as a health-insurance replacement, but there are guidelines for what costs can and cannot be submitted. We’ve had childbirths, meniscus repair, emergency room visits, etc. all covered in full. However, since pre-existing conditions are not covered, this is not a solution that works for everyone.
I think that one of the benefits is that by and large the people who participate are like me…trying to eat right and make other healthy lifestyle choices. I want to be as healthy as possible not just to enjoy a full life, but so that some other family doesn’t need to pay for the health consequences of me consuming a standard American diet or smoking a pack of cigarettes daily.
We found Kropotkin’s book on Kindle for 99cents (France) and Libertopia for 4:95 so thanks James! I worked when I was 16, in the early sixties, for a friendly society in Sheffield UK and people payed peanuts and people were able to pay for hospital stays. A healthy 16 year old was not really interested in staying in that job! We love John Bush ect because of the self-sufficient nature of living is very important to us, but it is all about the US in the main. There is a very good talk about Trusts called The Trifecta Effect so that your property remains out of the custody of the State. We have to get out of France because our property regardless of worth, is on our death subject to 60% tax to the French Government and since Brexit our Asperger son can’t stay here!! We feel battered by the hands of the Government – the last home we lived was subject to a great big plan for a giant incinerator in the UK so we got out of there.
The Tartarian System That Threatened Banking – And Why It Was Destroyed ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXrXNozRh_I
Excerpt:
Communities operating under guild provision demonstrate immunity to debt-based capital control. Traditional banking mechanisms fail to penetrate guild organized economies. Then came the directive to recommend aggressive displacement through industrialization mandates and monetary requirement legislation. Priority: highest. Timeline: immediate implementation across all operational territories.
Read that again slowly. They weren’t describing a competitor bank. They weren’t talking about a rival financial system. They were identifying entire communities that didn’t need banks at all. communities that function perfectly well without debt, without interest payments, without the financial mechanisms that made the Rothschild family the most powerful banking dynasty in the world. And their solution wasn’t to offer better services. It was to destroy those communities aggressively, immediately, everywhere they had influence.
I started tracing what happened next, the period between 1865 and 1900, just 35 years. And what I found was systematic, coordinated, continent wide dismantling of every economic structure that didn’t require banking. Laws were passed across Europe requiring all wages to be paid in national currency. No exceptions allowed.
Barter became criminalized in major cities. Alternative exchange systems were reclassified as tax evasion. Guilds were dissolved by government mandate. Their properties were seized. Their records were burned. Their members were forced into factory work where they would receive monetary wages that could be taxed, controlled, and most importantly deposited in banks.
And as the guilds disappeared, something else happened. Something no economic historian wants to discuss openly. Productivity dropped. Building quality declined catastrophically. The incredible craftsmanship that defined the 17 and 1800s became impossible to replicate. As if the banking system that replaced the guilds couldn’t produce what the guilds had created without using money at all.
hello, first post here.
mutual aid, hmm, we have timebanks, originally set up by an American doctor in the UK
we have LETS, local exchange trading schemes:
Do look them up for details:
My experience of these is that it is a challenge to keep them vibrant.
there is an assumption that a parallel organisation of mutual aid is for financially challenged folk. For me; it is a political, small p, choice to live according to human dignity and respect.
I choose not to get shafted 24/7.
The local LETS of which I have been a member for ages, is struggling to stay afloat.
Thank you all for contributions across time and space;forward and onward with blessings
To me it looks like people are too bent on getting as much convenience as possible from the tools they use. I tried suggesting a paper contribution certificate-based exchange system, and did it in several groups of people who seemed interested – no result. Everybody brings up potential problems, including the prospect of fraud, and so on. People expect to be taken care of and are endlessly waiting for the kind ruler-daddy to do it the way they want – very few understand that would never happen. If you feel like your local LETs system could benefit from using a P2P, anonymous, offline-first contribution ledger app, I’m more than happy to share the one I developed. I mentioned it in a previous post above.
I am a member of a Native American tribe that is recognized by the US government as a “Sovereign Nation”. It has set up its own government and services for its citizens including government, food programs, education, medical, dental, legal and security. It is promoting its native language and culture as well. This could be considered mutual aid in one sense but in reality exists at the “pleasure” of the federal government. They have built and manage casinos (with bank loans) as well as have established business entities and have real estate holdings, but also use federal programs and grants for income from which the citizens do really benefit as well as the local area via donations etc..
Is this mutual aid or socialism?
Anna,
You have an inquiring mind. I’d say it’s both. However ,
You might as well have asked is this a chicken or an egg. Tribal history before contact is where an answer may be hiding. I know for a fact anyone sticking their nose into tribal history after contact will get their nose cut off.
Stephan Verstappen did an interview with Grand Theft World about mutual aid and Friendly Societies.
It totally blew my mind. It was peak GTW. Episode 44.
I made a clip from it that I find particularly neat, but I don’t think I can post attachments here.
You could post on odysee or YT then link to the video
I looked at crowd health a long time ago and IIRC (and you should do your own research) they were somewhat selective about who they let in and had a blanket stop on tobacco users. As inefficient and bad as insurance companies are they could certainly charge less money if they could just drop coverage of about 10-50 % of their clients and let them die. Socialized healthcare appears to have the plan of murdering such people via MAID type programs.
The tobacco thing may have changed (dont kniw) but it highlights the very real issue that people not good enough to be Friends in a friendly society must be excluded. As Stephan Molunjew said a long time ago “welfare is charity for assholes” and thus it’s much more attractive to such people to become clients of the Gov and have the Gov steal your money and distribute it without forcing behavioral compliance on them
Friendly societies depend on being able to exclude people who are not your friends and I doubt very much that as long as women can vote they will allow groups of people to just die because of their bad choices….welfare will run until it collapses because no one is willing to say “let them die”
Also I’d point out that it’s not uncommon in nature for individuals to compete- every married guy here had to compete with the men who also wanted their wife (unless u get a very undesirable one, lolol) so they will compete and fight each other even if they also cooperate to survive or prey on other species/ societies. The Romans cooperated with each other vs other powers while also having vicious class and interpersonal conflicts resulting in death…..just as dogs will hunt as a pack and then control who eats what or gets to breed via internal hierarchy and coercion
great segment & even greater comments,,,
Was funny to see that Beito’s very nice talk was at the same Libertopia that had Thiel sounding a bit megalomanic:
https://rumble.com/v72a63g-peter-thiel-is-a-threat-to-democracy.html
Like his talk of overturning the international finance system but not sure I’m too impressed at how that went, or how he went 🙁
Thank you James, Kropotkin’s book. Just the one I needed. It sounds like what I always suggest that it is better to co-operate rather than compete (except in most sports of course).
Coming from an IT background, I think it is hard to ignore various Linux forums which fits the bill of being a mutual aid organisation which has a proven track record of doing extremely well. Admittedly, the services are virtual but nonetheless, I have found them to be a good example of a working ‘mutual aid’ organisation where members give and take freely.
I have tried to sell this concept to a couple of freedom group in my area but no one seems to be able to get their heads around the idea of contributing to the society without expecting a measured reward – this is a big paradigm shift for most people, after having got used to the idea of giving and getting something back which is standardised by an authority.
I think if this obstacle cannot be overcome, the next best thing is to form communities on the basis of something like Qortal where what is given and what is received and can be measured on an mutually agreed way without having to go through the mediation of an authority.
Excellent episode James.
I have been reading the journals from the French military officers and Jesuit priests that were arriving and setting up shop where I live now (Great Lakes and Eastern Woodlands regions, in what is now called “Canada”) from the 1600-s and they provide very similar observations of several communities of local townsfolk to what is observed of the Kabyles people in Mutual Aid.
The Jesuits were trying to convert these Wendat/Huron and Mi’kmaq townsfolk and some of the curious Wendat and Mi’kmaq people would go and visit the European settlements to see how these people lived.
There were even a few of them that were brave enough to go all the way back to Europe on a boat and see how people lived in France, before returning to their homeland.
The observations of the Jesuits were often hilarious and telling (they were convinced that the indigenous women were always trying to seduce them and they chastised the peoples of these communities for their only doing as the Chiefs asked of them if their leaders made a compelling argument as to why people should do something).
The observations of the Wendat and Mi’kmaq townsfolk of the European communities were equally telling. They were appalled by the fact that French left beggars on the street starving while aristocrats led lavish lifestyles along side of them and were overfed. They explained to the Jesuit missionaries how in their community if someone was in need it was a moral duty to provide for them and help them get on their feet again and due to this they had very little crime and need for tribal tribunals nor punishments/reparations.
Here is one of the series of journals that offers records of the travels and explorations of the Jesuit missionaries in New France, 1610-1791 ; the original French, Latin, and Italian texts, with English translations and notes :
https://archive.org/details/jesuitrelationsa10thwa/page/n1/mode/2up
Thanks for the book recommendations and thoughtful commentary.
(continued..)
(..continued from above)
Here is a small sample of some of the types of cross cultural contrasts and observations contained within the journals.
While French assessments of the character of (what they described as) ‘savages’ tended to be decidedly mixed, the indigenous assessment of French character was distinctly less so.
Father Pierre Biard, for example, was a former theology professor assigned in 1608 to evangelize the Algonkian-speaking Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia, who had lived for some time next to a French fort.
Biard did not think much of the Mi’kmaq, but reported that the feeling was mutual:
“They consider themselves better than the French: “For,” they say, “you are always fighting and quarrelling among yourselves; we live peaceably. You are envious and are all the time slandering each other; you are thieves and deceivers; you are covetous, and are neither generous nor kind; as for us, if we have a morsel of bread we share it with our neighbor.” They are saying these and like things continually.’“
What seemed to irritate Biard the most was that the Mi’kmaq would constantly assert that they were, as a result, ‘richer’ than the French. The French had more material possessions, the Mi’kmaq conceded; but they had other, greater assets: ease, comfort and time.
Twenty years later Brother Gabriel Sagard, a Recollect Friar,” wrote similar things of the Wendat nation. Sagard was at first highly critical of Wendat life, which he described as inherently sinful (he was obsessed with the idea that Wendat women were all intent on seducing him), but by the end of his sojourn he had come to the conclusion their social and economic arrangements were in many ways superior to those at home in France.
In the following passages he was clearly echoing Wendat opinion:
“They have no lawsuits and take little pains to acquire the goods of this life, for which we Christians torment ourselves so much, and for our excessive and insatiable greed in acquiring them we are justly and with reason reproved by their quiet life and tranquil dispositions.”
Much like Biard’s Mi’kmaq, the Wendat were particularly offended by the French lack of generosity to one another:
‘They reciprocate hospitality and give such assistance to one another that the necessities of all are provided for without there being any indigent beggar in their towns and villages; and they considered it a very bad thing when they heard it said that there were in France a great many of these needy beggars, and thought that this was for lack of charity in us, and blamed us for it severely.’
This sounds fascinating, and not dissimilar to David Graeber’s argument in Debt: The First 5000 Years. His example was the French in Madagascar.
@minnie
Ah interesting! I found his other book “The Dawn Of Everything” to offer valuable insights about this same time period in the history of the land where I live as well.
I do not have his book on debt yet, so I will get a copy.
Thanks for the comment and recommendation.
I was checking out alternatives to health insurance back when Obama was in office. I was never a fan of health insurance for several reasons. One I was living pay check to pay check after my divorce and could use the savings in premiums by not having insurance. So I went several years without health insurance.
But then during the Obama administration they started to fine (oh, sorry. it wasn’t a fine that’s right. It was just a tax according to the Supreme Court. Yeah, the government can tax you anyway they want. And so now that makes it totally legit) You just define it as something else and bingo now it’s legit.
But I was also boycotting health insurance because they are regulated by the government and so are forbidden to reimburse you for any holistic/natural health remedies. I’m not a fan of Allopathic (western medicine). So that is all they’ll pay for.
So since I was mandated to pay the fines and knowing they were only going to increase as the years went on I started to seek out health insurance alternatives.
I did find a crowd sharing health insurance alternative but it was a religious based organization. Being that I’m atheist I didn’t feel that that was a good fit for me. So I’m interested in learning more about this one for that reason.
Thanks
This is little more than wide-eyed romanticism. To build such systems, you would. Need to start with a high-trust society or group. No such society exists in the west today. These societies are built largely on race, religion and common history. Only a fool would believe this is possible to recreate in the current environment. And no one would be comfortable reintroducing segregation or could agree on religious dogma. Has anyone here ever lived in a 100% consensus community? It only takes one person to gum up the whole operation.
–
I think we would be deluding and discouraging ourselves if we believe this. It was obvious that people can still exercise trust and their ability to help each other, for example, during the pandemic, or the Canadian truckers’ protest, or in the situation of European citizens who found themselves on the sanction lists, who receive help from people around them, but also total strangers who are just sympathetic to their situation. This ability was also successfully manipulated by governments and fraudsters on the occasion of the Ukrainian refugee exodus – people welcomed them with food and clothing at the border, gave them shelters and support, just because the mainstream news was painting all sorts of tragic stories about them. I’m sure that the fundraising started by Oprah and The Rock was also successful in exploiting people’s soft spots for money, but nobody knows where it ended up. These deeply human features are innate in us all; they just need to be rediscovered and exercised, just like a muscle. One can’t expect to just run into a solid, trust-based community, but they can certainly start building one. Simple exchange of goods and services among people should be a great starting point, because people’s ability to trade is so ingrained in our DNA that it works between people who are of different beliefs, political/sexual/whatever orientation, and so on. In a comment above, I mentioned that I developed a very simple ledger system that can help people trade outside the mainstream currency-based system, thus removing the pressure of having access to money – they can generate their own currency when receiving a contribution and earn currency issued by others when contributing. This could be a tool for rediscovering mutual aid in a way that nobody would feel their contributions only mattered at a sentimental level, but those would be accounted for and made equivalent in a more quantifiable way, for better visibility and understanding. The tool is totally anonymous, decentralized, and offline-capable – the people are the nodes, no blockchain crap. I’m open to sharing it with anyone interested.
It’s a fact, not a belief, that ethnicity and shared culture are historical prerequisites for large scale mutual aid systems. Refusing to accept this fact is not a good starting point.
I understand your point, but why do those mutual aid systems have to be large? They can be small and interconnected. There are many working communities that focus on common hobbies or other interests, they don’t have to be strictly based on religion, race or historic background to work. Nobody says we should just transform the entire society into a mutual aid-based one, but it shouldn’t stop us from starting from small communities. If we don’t even try, we’ll be very disappointed to find ourselves alone in front of the government when another wave of abuses start and there will be no community around us to turn to for help…
I have tried a bit. I don’t know where you live but the folks around where I live are largely useless with no practical skills except for the farmers, who don’t want anything I have except money, and lots of it. I have some experience with your idealized groups and it’s not pretty or effective, due largely to the whack jobs and grifters this sort thing attracts. A much better strategy is to reduce your needs as much as possible while preparing for the worst. But you be you.
For starters we must wake up to the fact that we-the-people hold all skills, time and knowledge. So, we already produce all supply and demand.
We only acquiesce to the fraudulent debt, legalities and indoctrination (”education”) of deluded narcissists because we fail to see ”money” as our own lifeforce twisted into lack.
We can, and did for 1000s years, produce our own means of exchange and barter; while turning away from the ”black witch”. In the process we can employ AI as the slave of Actual Intelligence by standing only under God’s Law ”do no harm”.