What Now?

GDNB Projects

Good Neighbors' Foundation

The body that will house all of this work. Haven't set up the non-profit yet, but I want to and need help with it. I want to have at least 9 board members, Neighbors of Faith and Neighbors of Science and with diverse backgrounds. We will teach neighbors to Exercise their Conscience, Expand their Neighborhoods and Decolonialize their language through re-constructing our connections to our Selves and to our Neighbors.

I seek to argue a new way of looking at intersectionality. Your identity is important to you, but shouldn't be important to the government. At the Good Neighbors' Foundation, we uplift and validate all Neighbor experience by listening to ALL of our Neighbors. I argue this is not white washing, since no one group, constrained by our foundation, can ever be elevated one over any other. The reason we use the term Neighbor for everyone is that it sidesteps the many gendered language traps set by the Framework. Neighborism is intersectionality from a different angle. It is the point at which intersectionality should converge. 

You can be all the -ists, or none, or a subset, or a subset of a subset; we see you. We accept you. We validate you as our Neighbor who is worthy of respect independent of your action and capable of self-realization. You are our Neighbor and you don't have to do or say anything to be one. You simply are by virtue of being our Neighbor.

Good Neighbor Gateways or Town Halls

Good Neighbor Gateways would be modeled after AA groups, with open membership to all Neighbors. I found value in AA in that it is a Neighbor-based social gathering where Neighbors talk about their issues and work together to understand and address them. The Serenity Prayer, The 4th Step (taking a moral inventory of oneself) and Steps 5 - 12 hold the Neighbor accountable to the Neighborhood. We would have a Good Neighbor Handbook which would reframe the arguments against the Framework through positive reinforcement of Good Neighbor values. Good Neighbors accept all Neighbors for who they are. The Handbook would include topical argumentation about the tools, expressions, rationalizations and complications related to the Framework, but framed as what Good Neighbors do. While deconstructing Western values we simultaneously reconstruct the connections between Neighbors; ours is a positive movement.

They will also serve as Neighborhood hubs for local artisans to sell their wares alongside our GDNB branded merchandise. We must use all tools available to us. Later, we can connect each Gateway with our 3N communications network and establish local music and art studios.

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12 Steps Rewritten without the Framework (as a mental exercise):

Change comes in stages. The first stage is recognizing the artificial partitions that divide us and rejecting them as legitimate foundations for society. The "Sole Survivor" is an expression of a top-down system that uses self-interest as its wedge, thereby creating "The Other". Once we realize the artificiality of our differences, it is easy to see the shared humanity of our Neighbors. In our Fellowship, we abolish "The Other". There is no "Other" when we are simply Neighbors in Fellowship. We strip our identities down to its most important element, that which connects us to one another. We CHOOSE to be Neighbors and by virtue of being Neighbors, validate, listen to and stand with all of our Neighbors, regardless of qualifier. Our identities are important to us, but should not be important to our government.

1. We admitted we were powerless as Sole Survivors, that we--alienated from our Selves and our Neighbors--are stripped of our Agency and Self-Determination.

2. Came to understand that we, as Neighbors, through our Fellowship, can reclaim our Agency by Expressing our Consciences in the same direction.

3. Chose to Trust our Neighbor as our Neighbor Chooses to Trust us.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral account of our own Conscience and its Expressions.

5. Admitted to ourselves and to our Neighbors the damage our alienated Expressions had wrought on our Neighbors.

6. Were entirely ready to commit to the Well-Being of our fellow Neighbors.

7. Humbly asked our Neighbors to hold us accountable in Fellowship for moral crimes both past and present.

8. Made a list of all Neighbors harmed by our alienated Expressions and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them and others.

10. Continue to take moral account of our Conscience and when we express anything other than our Conscience, promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through Fellowship with our Neighbors to improve our conscious understanding of our Conscience and its Expressions.

12. Having had an awakening as a result of these, we carry this message to all Sole Survivors and practice these principles in all our affairs.

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I believe addictions are symptoms of the Framework. As an alcoholic, I chose to drink to regulate my emotions. I shifted blame for my alcoholism onto my family: if only they would do this, that or the other, if only the situation were different, I could be okay. At the time, I thought this was just the cost of doing business. I was justified in acting out because of the sacrifices I had to make to keep our family afloat. I didn't realize that in essence, I was saying, "What's in my self-interest is in your self-interest" (think trickle-down economics, redlining, Citizens United, etc.). Just as the Framework assumes our agreement and makes this choice for each of us to be Sole Survivors, I made the same choice for my family, stripping them of their agency. The pattern repeats itself, starting at the top, down through each level, to the family. This leads to a love that is transactional, a love that is distant, superficial and inconsistent. It turns love into a weapon to wield against loved ones and Neighbors alike.

As such, addiction is just one expression of the failed Sole Survivor. Others include depression, anxiety and PTSD. Conversely, sociopathy, narcissism, paranoia and delusion are expressions of successful Sole Survivors and are legitimized by the Framework since these Neighbors are merely acting in their own self-interest. These neighbors are in agreement with the Framework and their toxic, purely self-interested behaviors are thus rewarded and defended by our justice system. This isn't to say that depression and anxiety don't exist outside the Framework, only that the Framework primes us to be depressed, anxious and addicted when we don't recognize the legitimacy of the Framework by asking questions, by thinking critically. When you are a successful Sole Survivor, your self-interest is framed as ambition over greed and passion over extremism. When you fail, the failure is yours and your alone to figure out how to deal with.

National Conscience Project

If we can create hundreds of tools to measure the success and failure of our economy -- an abstract idea and nothing more -- we can do the same for our aggregated National Conscience. There are already tools developed for use at the individual level. They just need to be scaled up to the local, state and federal level.

Neighbor Narrative Network (3N)

A collaborative collective of likeminded Neighbors all producing media -- writing, music, art, photography, poetry, comedy -- that focus on real American History, Thought & Discourse. These will be published to a website for easy access (think Wikipedia). It will also include advertising our ideas over morning talk radio, on billboards in deep red states (think Anti-abortion ads posted everywhere in the Bible Belt), on socials and cable TV. LeavingMAGA.org is already working on doing some of this (billboards). We will support them in their effort.

I am also creating shortlinks that provide shortcuts to useful information for our Neighbors. For instance:

vote.GDNB.org

district.GDNB.org

wwjd.GDNB.org

actionlist.GDNB.org

profiteers.GDNB.org

I can connect through web redirections any resource to our brand whether I created it or not. We will create partnerships with grassroots organizations to make GDNB a one stop shop for neighborhood resources and assistance. Neighbors helping neighbors. Its as simple as that.

Neighbor Narrative Network (3N-2.0)

In addition to mutual aid, we must construct underground and independent communication networks that are low-cost, low-maintenance and low-tech, easy enough for anyone to set up and use. Our Good Neighbor Gateways serve as the "nodes" in such a communications array. We would build them decentralized, with everyone pulling from (and contributing to) a central knowledge repository. If for some reason we lose our central repository, any one of our "nodes" would be capable of replacing the lost central node. In this way, our knowledge grows with us and everyone has access to the same knowledge base.

This would allow us to communicate with each other across the country with little to no outside visibility (we would be transparent with ourselves of course). It would bring Neighborhoods closer together once we establish our base. We can share resources, plan action more effectively (think coordinated speeches across the country, coordinating General Strikes), establish, strengthen and export mutual aid efforts. We can track what is and isn't working (what works for some Neighborhoods won't work for others) and share that cross-organizationally (We are not here to supplant activist organizations; we are here to support them).

I'm thinking we revive BBS (Bulletin Board System) message boards, popular in the 90s, to construct our communication network. Relatively speaking, they are easy to set up, easy to replace, and will run on any old machine. Additionally, we can install them on TailsOS Linux, an absurdly secure distro used by journalists in war zones.

Lastly, for those on the ground, we would recommend getting a de-googled Android phone with Briar installed for on-the-ground communication, which could then be archived on our BBS network.

Neighbor Narrative Network Academic Export (3NAE)

I also see myself as somewhere in between an academic and a layman (for lack of a better term). Part of the Narrative Network will be to formalize the language into a recognized academic framework with which we export to schools and universities. I have a few neighbors already helping with this, but would love to assemble a team.

We need to retell the story of the entire Western philosophical tradition. These thinkers, although unaware at the time, are responsible for legitimizing the Framework. Social contracts do not allow for choice (but create the illusion of it); they are imposed on us by those already in power, dictating the terms of such a contract to us. There is no choice in the matter. You are born into the Framework and thus become subject to it. Yet, in theory, the assumption of your agreement is foundational to most classical arguments, from Socrates to Freud (psychology is still deeply patriarchal). Even in theory, we are stripped of our Agency in favor of those who "know better" and can act in our self-interest for us. This story must be told. It explains so much over the centuries. I'm starting a Substack to start exploring how to tell this narrative and provide a new Framework that Neighbors can CHOOSE to be part of, compatible with our natural inclination toward connection.

For instance, Hobbes' Leviathan was never the Commonwealth (or State); it was the Patriarchy (Framework). Statesmen come and go as do States, but the structure must remain legitimate, and it largely has. The State is a tool of such men and does not impose violence without the actions of such men. Even those opposed to the State at the time — civil war was rampant in 16th and 17th Century England — approached the issue of power exactly the same way. For all involved, power wasn't the issue; it was who was legitimate in wielding it. Before Hobbes, that legitimacy came from God; after, from the "people". Very little changed on the ground, other than new opportunities to inject a new "liberal" scrap into the Framework every couple hundred years and call it progress. Those in charge of crafting the social contract are rarely interested in the opinions of all who it will affect, instead using it to protect the power they already possess, all the while gaslighting common folk into believing it is the best — and/or only — legitimate path for everyone. They don't care where their legitimacy comes from, as long as those beneath them believe the legitimacy of their power as fully and completely as possible.

We must provide a new framework which addresses this and that will require a new narrative to be told of our past, choosing to move forward in a positive light. By building our Neighborhoods from the ground-up -- standing with all our Neighbors, learning how to emotionally regulate ourselves and teaching this to our children, by promoting critical thinking and all of the Arts, by expanding our Neighborhoods -- we will reconnect with our Selves and Neighbors and choose to trust our Selves and each other. Many potential frameworks already exist in the form of black feminism, early childhood development and the matriarchy, among others. Unfortunately, we are still fighting a Framework which heavily discounts "feminine" expression. As such, I believe our language should remain fully gender-neutral for maximum affect on white Neighbors. Identity as a Neighbor may eventually replace our "economic identity" (ideology), but it will never replace who you are.

Neighborism is intersectionality from a different angle. It is the point at which intersectionality should converge.

I bring this up to say that it must be our job, as Stewards of Knowledge, to reframe the entirety of our Western Philosophical Tradition to match what we see and experience. Bryan Magee wrote, in 1973, "The growth of science consists not in the endless process of adding new certainties to the body of existing ones, but in the elimination of error from existing theories and the replacement of existing theories by better ones." It is time we begin to "eliminate the errors" of Western theories using tools already available to us — Karl Popper's falsifiabilism comes to mind — that have manipulated and colonized all human populations for centuries (we may need to throw A LOT away). Deconstruction isn't a new idea; we just haven't specifically applied it to our sociopolitical framework yet with the hopes of uprooting those patriarchal elements whose purpose is self-legitimization. Our work, up until this point has been topical (misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, etc., all SYMPTOMS of a UNNATURAL SYSTEM) and hasn't been applied to the Framework as a whole, or even to individual theorists like Hobbes, to challenge his body of work based on his erroneous assumptions. (Please correct me if I'm wrong. Quite honestly, I hope I am. I don't wanna do all this work lol) 

No Strings Attached Ministry

Most assistance to our most marginalized Neighbors is conditional on what church they go to or how they believe. I want to remove that element. At No Strings Attached Ministries, Neighbors trust Neighbors until they're given a reason not to trust, not the other way around. It is based on the idea of agape love; you don't need to do anything to earn our love and respect, it is granted by default. We accept our neighbors for who they are and where they're at without them needing to change. Change comes from within and by modeling our behavior. We will never coerce anyone into believing what we do. We will show them and let them make the CHOICE.

We must allow in our budget the flexibility to give until there in NO MORE NEED, not until we run out of resources. For instance, lets say we wanted to give everyone in a marginalized Neighborhood soap, shampoo and a towel. Let neighbors grab as many as they want. If you allow everyone to do it, it removes the incentive to hoard since EVERYONE ALREADY HAS IT. You can't sell it to anyone because no one has a need. There's no reason to steal since you've got what you need too. Our system purposefully creates scarcity to put Neighbors in survival mode so they fight amongst themselves for resources, thereby allowing those in power to dehumanize them and call them animals for "uncivilized behavior". Our institutions MUST take this into account and prioritize meeting ALL of the need or else we're just addressing the symptom instead of the disease and will never make lasting, meaningful change.

Neighborhood Stewardships

Designed to supplant HOAs, Neighborhood Stewardships would be structured legally the same way as HOAs, but would be constrained in the bylaws to promote Neighbor Solidarity. Stewardships would have a rotating Chair once a year (with the ability of other members to recall), Neighbors have the option to join and the money collected could be used as a Neighborhood Rainy Day fund. We could help our Neighbors replace roofs, supplement catastrophic emergency insurance, or hold Neighborhood cookouts and gatherings. If managed properly, these institutions could increase the wealth of everyone in the Neighborhood, by using pooled money to invest in local business, gardens, parks and trails. Instead of creating a set of rules that everyone must follow and penalizing those who can't, won't or are unable, we create boundaries that must be respected. Those who have trouble respecting boundaries will be coached by their Neighbors. We are more interested in the substance of our Neighborhood than its appearance; that isn't to say we don't care about appearance, we just drastically deprioritize it. We believe that respectful Neighbors will find their own balance, leading to happy, healthy Neighborhoods full of happy, healthy Neighbors.

Again, the important bit is CHOICE. Leave the door open to all, but make it a requirement for none. We want to win on our ideas, not on our ability to coerce Neighbors into action. 

Public Option Gigs

We should create a baseline "public option" for services like Uber, Lyft, Door Dash, handyman, etc. As an ex-Uber driver, I know first hand that only about 30% of the fare goes to the driver, who assumes all risk, is responsible for maintenance on the vehicle, paying for gas & tolls, dealing with rowdy & destructive passengers, and in most cases, NOT receiving a tip after all that.

What these services do is not magic. All they do is the simple task of linking drivers with customers. Their overhead is almost non-existent since they don't have physical offices. There is no legitimate reason for them to take as much as they do, so let's establish Public Option Gig Services to compete with them and force them to lower prices. Our cut would be capped at 20%, with at least 80% of the fare going to the driver. We would be fully transparent with where our money goes and what we do with it (it would go back to Foundation to fund other projects). 

Once we get this off the ground, we could partner with senior homes and ADA groups to provide subsidized or donated rides to our marginalized Neighbors, giving customers the option to pay for someone else's ride. We could also partner with local handymen/women to provide house repair services. 

Good Neighbor Ventures

We must use ALL tools available to us to change the system. Capital can be used in good ways and as long as we continue to abolish the Other and recognize the humanity of all our Neighbors, we can establish infrastructure that helps Good Neighbor Business. We must have an arm that can invest in our Neighbors, always remaining aware of the risks that large amounts of money bring to any conversation. It should be "cool" to invest in your own Neighborhood. Let's give our Neighbors that option. Perhaps we keep it local and have each Neighborhood Stewardship administer Venture funds.

Citizens' Lobby

There are a few groups already doing similar things to this. More to come on this later.