Personal Secession

Secession require only two conditions to be met:

1. Tribute is no longer paid upwards in the political hierarchy
2. Money is issued and kept independently

Centrally issued laws and regulations may still be followed, trade may be conducted in currency issued by central banks, and lip-service may still be given to the feudal lords. However, none of this matters as long as the treasury of the independent entity is kept out of reach from third party busybodies.

There's no need for grand declarations of independence or violent rebellion. All that's required is a will to be free. Furthermore, secession is not the same as isolation. The aim of secession is not to be isolated from others, but to be in control of local monetary issues. This means that any political unit can secede, and it doesn't have to be violent or even noted down as a fact. Secession doesn't require any formal petition. No-one sent a formal letter to Rome from North-western Iberia when that part of the Roman empire seceded. None of the mini-states in Germany sent any formal letter to the Kaiser. In fact, lip-service was still given both to Rome and the Kaiser many years after secession was a fact.

The will to secede is all that's required, and the seceding unit can be anything from the state level down to the family. A citizen can secede from the taxman by making an effort to achieve minimal taxation and minimal savings in the state-managed financial system. While it may at first seem close to impossible to achieve independence this way, it's surprising how much can be achieved once we put our mind to it. I've personally severed all ties with the taxman and the banking system, so my personal secession from the state is complete. However, my wife and children are still inside the system out of practical necessity, so I cannot say that our family has achieved complete secession at this point. But things continue to move towards independence.

So far, we've achieved drastic reduction in taxation of our family as a whole. We've reduced our exposure to banks and financial markets, preferring gold and real-estate to fiat money and debt. Our long term aim is to build our wealth around gold, productive land and activities that easily pass under the radar of the taxman. This way, we'll build our independence from the bottom up, with a minimum of confrontation.

Café de Flore

By Arnaud 25 - Own work, Public Domain, Link