The Challenge to Decentralist Ideology

A large contingency of people consider the state/government to be the enforcer and protectorate of a society’s values. This might be the largest obstacle decentralists (like myself) have in espousing and explaining a decentralist ideology and sentiment.

One of the reasons this is so hard is because people don’t even consciously know they are doing it. If I were to say, “screw the US government”, people wouldn’t merely be hearing anti-government sentiments, they would be hearing that I hate baseball, apple pie, liberty and whatever other positive cultural values they subconsciously intertwine within the state (which is most of them).

Not only this, with the more extreme cultural imperialists (progressives, religious/cultural right) my cynicism towards government control/power is a direct challenge to their means of obtaining their future utopia (I would include the alt-right in the sentiment of cultural imperialists, however, they view the current government to be too far away from heir current interests to be overly offended by anti-government rhetoric). All forms of cultural imperialism is merely engaging in Utopianism by means (if necessary, and they would be necessary) of extreme violence.

In order for someone to embrace cultural decentralism someone doesn’t have to give up on the values and culture they have or desire. They merely have to give up on forcing their desires onto others. However, we grow up in the centralized institution of school and graduate into the centralized control of the state. It is hard for people to give up on fighting for central control/power. The level of intellectual sophistication it takes for someone to understand the incentives of a system they don’t exist under is very difficult. On top of this, we evolved from tribes and our brains are inclined to consider the state to be our tribe.

At the end of the day, I don’t believe decentralism wins by changing minds and hearts. It merely succeeds from the collapse of centralism. Resources and people flow to the most prosperous regions, and those will be the ones that are most decentralized.