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"and for sure they won't have any good stuff like doctors with a surgery room."

Depends how big the project/village is.

Also the basic idea is to be as self sufficient as possible. Not as a dogma.

And the benefit once it runs is, you don't have to go make war around the globe, because your economy is threatened. You can just stay at home minding your own buisness.



Isolationism doesn’t work as a policy, that is proven by history. Or if it works it needs some radically different ideas. The aspect about ignoring defense is also naive, what happens when your neighbours that do have a military decide your land and self sufficiency are something they want? The best thing to prevent that, and the first step, is to have established trade with them, which in your plan you don't want or need.

Also you will breed a population of "nationalists" (at whatever size this is applied to) after a few generations if nobody is involved in trade.


"Isolationism doesn’t work as a policy, that is proven by history."

Of course it does. Many remote mountain villages preserved their culture this way.

"Also you will breed a population of "nationalists" "

I think you have never been to such a self sustainable project?

They are usually living a culture of internationalists and there are frequent guests from all around the world.

What you means are cults. They also exist, true. But those operating in the open are mostly .. open.

Also the basic idea is to establish a network of trading and sharing in general. Specialisation is useful after all. But for the basic needs, I like the idea to be independent here.

And yes, ideally also have a competent doctor you can just wake up from next door in the middle of the night in a case of emergency and not hope a ambulance is avaiable in time.


> I think you have never been to such a self sustainable project?

They are usually living a culture of internationalists and there are frequent guests from all around the world.

You're taking about who thinks it's cool to try to do this kind of thing. The post your replying to is trying to predict how things might evolve over a (very) long time in case of actual success.


Isolationism only works for remote mountain villages because they don't have any resources worth taking. That solution doesn't scale.


Did you intentionally cut off "after generations" to respond to a point I didn't make? I said nothing about the 0th or 1st generation.


It seems we are not talking about the same thing. You seem to be talking about strict isolationists. Those are usually of the cult type and no doubt they will all create their version of nationalism likely within the 1. Generation.

But all the other self sustainable projects that I know, are far from the idea of wanting to shut themself of the world.

The main idea is just to not be so dependent on the crazyness of this world. But still be connected to the world. Trade, travel, exchange, ..


How many of those projects have been going for more than 3 generations? Why do you think all the last times it was attempted it turns to that? Most of the undisturbed tribes kill intruders on sight. Most countries that ever turned to isolationism have their population suffer vs their neighbours when enough time passes. I said nothing about the intentions of who starts these communities, that barely matters, what matters is the system they put in place after a few generations. If the system is flawed good intentions go nowhere because after a few generations you don't have a group of idealists anymore, you have random people operating in an isolationist system and they'll act according to their incentives.

We should maximize cooperation between communities, not restrict it. It's the best way to avoid war long term.


Interestingly, it's the exact opposite view that laid the foundation of the EU [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuman_Declaration


I do enjoy the freedom of movement in the EU, but don't enjoy the regulation of cucumbers. (At least they relaxed those by now, but they still move the parliament every month, because they cannot agree on one place, I rather mind my own buisness than dealing with that)




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