“It took just about a month for the mainstream media to catch up to a story on the disintegration of the United States. The story, by Russian Professor Igor Panarin, first broke on November 25, 2008 . I refer, of course, to the WSJ article which ran on December 29: As if Things Weren’t Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S.“The WSJ article is getting a lot of play in the blogosphere. The original Izvestia story, as was covered by Global Futures, was touched on with a post in [the Novacadia Alliance] blog and can be jumped to here (link to the original Global Futures article inclusive).
“The motives for such an esteemed gatekeeper as the WSJ to run with this story is left to individual imaginations. It is safe to say that the determination of motive will vary with the degree of one’s political smarts and where one sits within the conspiracy cosmos, i.e. alternative interpretation of “the news.” The acknowledged role of the corporate media within such “conspiracy cosmos” goes without saying.
“More to the point, the issue for the NAmerican secessionist movement (NASM) around this story is not if Professor Panarin is a nut job or to the degree, if any, that his theories on the break-up of the United States serve Russian propaganda purposes. The issue for the NASM here is the degree to which it has been caught with its pants down.* By all rights, a representative body of the NASM should have been all over this story and the wide public attention it received like a dirty shirt; it should have been collecting PR premiums hand-over-fist via the positioning of the NASM in the public psyche.“Unfortunately, the NASM is asleep-at-the-wheel because it is currently structured to be asleep-at-the-wheel, i.e. there is no structure; there is no representative body. Within a context of political organization, the movement is straddled and limited by an uncoordinated gaggle of state/provincial and regional secessionist initiatives ranging from the politically astute and professional (Quebec, Vermont, The South, Texas, Alaska), to fledgling start-ups, to the ongoing competition amongst Cascadian organizations as to who can design the prettiest web site.
“The Middlebury Institute, widely recognized as being the clearing house for secessionist news and information, makes no mention of the Panarin story. The American Secession Project is likewise out of the loop, which stands to reason as it seems that activity there has been dormant since 2007.
“Perhaps the current state of the NASM is no better reflected than with the dismal flop of the recent Third North American Secessionist Convention. After the major international media breakthroughs accomplished at the Second NAmerican Secessionist Convention held in Chattanooga, TN in 2007, the NASM took a step backwards with the Third NAmerican Secessionist Convention held this past November in Manchester, NH. For the media the convention was a non-event, possibly due to a combination of Obamamania, lack of interest (choreographed media boycotting of the convention possibly inclusive), and/or poorly executed press releases. Based on the haphazard organization, a majority no-show of secessionist organizations, lack of parliamentary procedure and decorum, and the tired parading of the usual secessionist “assets” and ringers, one convention delegate opined that maybe it was just as well that the media were a no-show…
“If, indeed, the NASM has in its collective mind the intent to harness a revolution of perception and consequent action amongst its autonomous, regional satellites for the full benefit of a Post-Peak Oil public, then the current organizational non-structure and general invisibility of the NASM will not suffice.“It is put forward for strong and serious consideration that the NASM must evolve in tandem with the historical condition. If not, then we may as well all grab our marbles and go home. To work towards the bankrupt political status of [Canadian] Green Party [or U.S. third party] lobbying is not an option. Actually, as a responsible political force and voice, the NASM should be ahead of the unfolding condition; it should be able to pre-empt the condition in order to most effectively ensure its political positioning. As is, the condition, e.g. the entry onto the Post-Peak Oil slope, financial and economic meltdown, imperial over-reach, NWO geopolitics, etc., is outpacing the isolated managerial and political capacities of the NASM in leaps and bounds.
“The onus falls on NAmerican autonomous secessionist organizations to make the democratic, coordinated and organizational efforts to catch up to the condition in order to reap full public relations benefits, to position the NASM in the NAmerican political psyche. The garnering of support and call for the creation of an organizational, coordinating and legally incorporated and registered body such as a North American Secessionist Congress may be the route to go. The necessity to do so would seem to be obvious and crucial. The will to do so, unfortunately, is another thing altogether."
His analysis of the North American secessionist movement is right on target. Of all the secessionist bloggers out there, Mr. Ronin seems to have the firmest grip on reality. Since the best-known secessionists (Kirkpatrick Sale and Thomas Naylor) are academics, it will be difficult to make the transition that he suggests. While the statements of the Middlebury Institute have been useful, they can do little more than set a tone. We are at a point now where we need to understand and apply practical political action.
Secessionism is, by its very nature, splintered. While a (future) movement in Ohio could be nurtured and given some technical support from a North American secessionist organization, Ohio's independence will have to be built by Ohioans, rooted in Ohio's customs, developed in the environment of Ohio's politics, and deal with Ohio's issues. The same is true of any other state or region desiring independence.
One promising approach for local secessionists is to hook up with political action groups that support personal liberty, such as those spawned by Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty. The Ohio Republic joined one such group in supporting the successful effort to persuade the last Ohio General Assembly to prevent it from supporting a call for a U.S. Constitutional Convention; which is likely to replace our existing Constitution with a new one far less friendly to personal liberty. The advantage for the secessionist movement is that members of such groups are apt to consider secession as a viable option. An idea currently under consideration is to take to the Ohio General Assembly a proposal for a joint resolution, or even a "secession trigger" in our State Constitution; in the event that a Constitutional Convention attempts to replace the U.S. Constitution, or ratifies the North American Union. This is a logical next step following last year’s assertion of State sovereignty by the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and the statement by 39 elected officials in Montana threatening secession if Heller v. D.C., a gun-rights case then pending in the Supreme Court, had been determined against the rights of gun owners.
Independence will not come all at once. We have to take baby steps to warm people up to the idea. We have been fortunate to have favorable or neutral media coverage; but the media could, and probably will, turn very hostile when corporate interests realize that the dissolution of the United States and Canada will generally work against the interests of multinational corporations. If we are to secede, we must develop person-to-person contacts and hold discussions at the local level; not just with each other, but with local politicians -- most of whom will pooh-pooh us at first; but as we organize and make ourselves heard, the derision will give way to serious thought, and then to serious action.
It would certainly help if we had a cohesive North American Secessionist Congress with alert leadership and sharp PR people, to inform the public on issues common to all of us; but if the battle is to be won, it has to be won in each State and each region on its own terms.
* The Ohio Republic was on it.
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