"Secession Enthusiasts Meet in Middlebury"

Andrew Barker, Montpelier, VT Times Argus

MIDDLEBURY — When political movements entertain ideas as radical as secession, its members are bound to be labeled by outsiders as cranks. At a "Radical Consultation" conference in Middlebury Inn this weekend, though, where participants discussed the fall of the American empire and Vermont's possible secession from the United States, no one seemed to be ashamed of the label.

As author Kirkpatrick Sale, Friday night's keynote speaker, reminded an audience of 35 conference participants, "A crank is a small, safe instrument of appropriate technology that is good for starting revolutions."The conference is a collaboration between the Charlotte-based Second Vermont Republic, and a group based in Swindon, England, called The Fourth World that promotes a 'human scale' in government and industry. Both organizations support the idea of Vermont seceding from the United States and reclaiming its status as an independent republic.

Sale set the tone for the conference with a lively speech based on the idea that the United States is faced with economic, environmental, and military crises. "There is an American empire, that like all empires before it, is inherently fragile," he said. "Sumerian, Roman, Timurid, Inca, Ottoman, Soviet — all these empires fell. That's what empires do, and America will be no exception."

"What confronts us today," Sale told the audience, "is much bigger than what governments do. It is what they are: giant, uncontrollable, unresponsive political and economic behemoths destroying people and places as they

lumber across the world stage."

Later, in an open discussion, conference attendees shared their ideas about alternative political options for the state of Vermont in the face of a doomed American empire. Participants in the conference came from diverse backgrounds and from across the political spectrum, making for a lively conversation that would rival even the best Vermont town meeting.

Thomas Naylor, founder of the Second Vermont Republic, said he believes the current political system in the United States is "corrupt to the core" and that Vermont must break its ties with the United States to begin the process of reform. Naylor is a retired entrepreneur and professor of economics at Duke University.

Donald Livingston, professor of philosophy at Emory University, said traditions of local democracy have withered in the United States in the 20th century as the federal government has strengthened. "As Aristotle said, 'We have to learn civic virtue by practicing civic virtue,' " he said. "But we don't have anything to do anymore."

Three of the youngest participants in the conference brought an anarchist perspective to the proceedings, but ended up mostly listening. Cha-cha, a student from Worcester, Mass., said she had come because she wanted to find out more about the crowd. "I'm surprised everybody's so far to the left," she said.

Ethan Mitchell, a twenty-something from New Haven said, "I'm surprised everybody is so old."

Another participant was a New Hampshire man who described himself as a geoliberal or a left-libertarian. He said he is a member of the Free State Party, whose mission is to bring 20,000 activists to New Hampshire to transform the state government along libertarian lines. Criticizing the current American economy, he said, "We allow people to privatize common benefits such as land, and then socialize all the costs. It should be the other way around. We need to socialize common benefits and privatize the costs."

Other participants pushed for the creation of a new local currency, resistance to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and the repeal of corporate "personhood."

Perhaps the most optimistic of the conference participants was Gus Jaccaci, an author, corporate consultant, and futurist from Thetford. As a founder of the World Future Society, he said he finds much cause for optimism. "This group is really precious," he said, "because we're asking the question, 'What can America be?' This room full of people can transform the American experiment. We can consciously evolve the country to bring about the next civilizational renaissance."

One participant, a computer programmer who came from Virginia for the conference, said he is not a crank at all, but had become convinced that secession is a positive and realistic option for a state like Vermont and had come to lend his support. "I looked at this stuff with a jaundiced eye," he said, "but then, the more I read, I started to say, 'This stuff makes sense.'"