Patriot Blogosphere Catches Fire in Flame War

Apparently some guy has decided to create an armed patriot compound in Idaho and he's looking for followers, funding, etc. Some other guys (big names with blogs) have verbally attacked him and his idea.

I don't know the truth of it as I don't really expend a lot of cycles in those sorts of debates, but I'll enter a few thoughts on the nature of such an endeavor.

1. First and foremost, anyone who has the wherewithal to organize and run such a community, would probably have enough money in the world today to foot the bill and initiate it. For that matter, I know a lot of folks who have between 100-1000 acres who would be capable of starting it. Some guy who hatched this idea in his garage and doesn't have the resources to invest his own money in 20 acres in Idaho isn't committed enough to the effort for me.

2. Some people in the patriot movement are not freedom loving individuals. I don't know the individuals concerned, so I can't speak as to their motives, but be wary when getting hooked up with any folks in general. For them, "freedom" is a buzzword used to gain personal power. They would be just as bad of a tyrant as those they wish to overthrow, but for whatever reason they have not been able to get into the traditional halls of power (political or corporate). So they find fringe movements and try to elevate themselves there.

3. Assuming this is all on the up and up, what is the shelf life of such a community? A group of people bound only by the loose mantra of "freedom" doesn't seem very stable. Freedom means different things to different people. I've seen Christian communities come apart at the seams over differences in leadership approaches, clothing, or land use. How does a community with individual freedom as its basis for group identity actually manage to get anything done?

Ok, that's enough. I could go on and on but I think most of the other bloggers have already chewed all the meat off of this bone. Here in the last cold hour before dawn, there's better topics for me to dwell on and it's hard to type with this darned cat climbing all over me.