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Dear Employer,

Are you tired of bureaucracy muddling up your lifestyle? Are you overwhelmed with your “comfortable” paycheck? Is your lack of “actual labor” in the workplace at all morally concerning? Does the employer above you do less “actual labor” make more money than you? Wouldn’t you rather leave in a digital society that encourages free exchange of goods and ideas in an anarchist yet socialist environment? Don’t worry, this aint some hippy commune, this is the Black Flag Nation!

As an Anarcho Socialist Digital Community, Black Flag Nation is completely separate from normal societal norms. Such norms include: going to elementary school, going to middle school, going to highschool, going to college, getting a job, starting “a life.” Although you can enjoy all these things and still be apart of our society, there are simply no rules!

We only have a few foundations that keep the society afloat:

Mutual Aid- By becoming part of this, you receive help from others and vow to help others as well. This is NOT a mandatory program.

Also, you can expect a few other things from Black Flag Nation:

Like Minded Youths, with aspirations for “Revolution”

Generally Peaceful lifestyle, nothing like this crazy dude above!

Generally peaceful (yet pessimistic) lifestyles, rather, like this!

Accepting communities, where you can get away with outfits like this!

A free commerce society in which a multitude of information or technologies are free at your disposal. Take this Design oriented font above, normally you would have to pay for it at a design firm, but why not download it for free in the Black Flag Free Commerce Market? Up to you, buddy!

Although it might begin small, we here at Black Flag Nation are ding just this. Jump out of your comfy upper employment chair and join us, before your building burns to the ground in the actual revolution! Thanks for listening

Day in the life part deux

I wake up by jolting out of bed and taking notes on the latest idea that pops into my head. This time, it was art subsidies - necessary or unnecessary? As long as there's a welfare state, I'd rather fund art than bombs, so my thinking goes at around 6 AM. I go back to sleep and get up in an hour and a half. I want to keep working on the post, but I'm out of things to say and I don't feel like it's up to par with the rest of my work, so I let it go and instead decide to look at some videos online. There are many movies on my to watch list, but my attention span is minimal, so I throw on a documentary I've seen several times while I do some household chores - laundry, tidying up my perpetually messy room, etc. I send some texts to friends and make plans for lunch. Lunch in Black Flag usually includes coffee and talk of revolution. That's how we like it.

A Day in a Life 2

Today in Blackflag I went to the cell phone store and bought myself a Blackberry. It is suppose to be one of the best phones on the market. It can even be considered kind of a mini-computer. When I first started to play around with it I felt like I was way over my head. There were so many different applications and I had no idea how to use any of them. They include Facebook, Pandora, a Calender, Blackberry Messenger, and many more. Also it is really cool that the phone links to your e-mail address so you can receive all of your e-mails immediately. After trying to work my phone for hours, and getting nowhere I decided to update my status on facebook to “New Blackberry…..HELP!!!” My friend Celine responded and told me if I needed help then I should go to her house. She ended up teaching me everything that I needed to know to be able to work my new addiction. My favorite application ended up being the Blackberry Messenger. It is better than texting because you can upload a picture of yourself and even have status updates. All you do is add your friends that also have blackberrys and you can instant message with them for free, even if they live in another country!! The best part is next to the message a little R appears if the recipient reads the message; so if they don’t respond then you know your being ignored. I then went back to my house and when I got there I added my friend daisy as one of my contacts on Blackberry Messanger. We ended up bbming for an hour talking about our opinions on how we feel like the government tries to filter content being shown/said on different mediums like the radio and television. After my conversation with Daisy I decided I had a very accomplishing day and that it was time to go to sleep.

Invitation

What’s up Dr. Lathan? How’s the Florida weather? It’s great over here by the Mountain side. I had never seen mountains till I moved here. It’s really an amazing sight. It looks like the mountains in my Sundholm photo except the grass is green instead of brown and the mountains are huge. I’m writing to you so you can have a chance to experience what I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of; Black Flag Nation. Let me start by saying we are located in Europe so it would require you to move but the opportunities for you would be endless once settled in your new home. At Black Flag Nation we are a completely free digital society, it’s great. Everyone here has their own time schedule and agenda but share a common urge to help learn as much as possible and positively change the world. Everyone here is a free thinker and socializes with eachother to learn, like my “Squeeze The Ideas” picture. It’s also kind of like my Bart Simpson picture that reads “I Will Use Google Before Asking Dumb Questions” all over the chalk board. Only people that want to learn and interested in self knowledge are able to become members, people such as you. There are millions of reasons why you should come here. I already stated that we all have our own schedules, I can’t begin to describe how much better my healthy has gotten because of it. There is also the whole “saving the world” thing.  We all are here for the main purpose to make a positive change while we can. Most people here think outside the box so there is always room for learning when socializing. People here are able to see things most can’t, like my “graffiti staircase” picture, we’re special. We need to use that to our advantage. You’ll be having new ideas, words, and thoughts in your head once you have a chance to live the way we are, similar to my “words” poster.  It’s not all learning either. We like to have fun too. Every night we have socials and you’d be surprised by the number of citizens there are.  At the social we have alcohol, music and a hotub….uh oh haha. The social goes on until there is no one left, but most people goto sleep at a reasonable hour because they have individual duties the next day. The thing with being a free society  is everyone is pretty much able to do what they want, when they want. So now I ask you Dr. Lathan, will you come? I now you remember my “success and failure” picture. This is your fork in the road. You could be aprt of a huge success or stay in the society that’s a huge failure. Do you want to go left or right? I have the idea that you have good judgment and can make the decision. Hope I see you soon.

Day In The Life 2

Tonight is the social. The event everyone looks forward to all day while working or at school. My favorite part of the social is the fact that it goes on all night long. Also, the fact that there is no wake up call the next morning so I can sleep in the next day. I love it. Usually people start heading to the social around ten o clocks. When you first get there foods laid out all over the tables and there’s and endless amount of it. We also have gallons of water and Gatorade. After a few hours at the social you are going to need to replenish those electrolytes. Around eleven o clock is when the party really starts. We bring in alcohol and turn of all the lights and only use lights that we have hanging from trees. The lights are all cool, bright, and colorful. Around eleven is also when the fist DJ starts performing. Because we are such a famously liked society we tend to get some big names come through to perform for us…for free I might add. Once the music starts everyone lets loose.  Every night is a different genre of music. Because its Saturday we have dub step tonight, pretty much a bunch of techno also. Once we all jump around and dance for a little the Gatorade is needed.  Around three o clock is when things really start going. The main DJ comes on and really gets everyone energized. During the social you don’t just have to dance. We have hotubs and other areas where people can just socialze and talk. I tend to dance though. The social pretty much ends when everyone leaves. After the social there is more food and Gatorade for everyone.  Everyone tends to just sit around and talk about how much fun they had and how their ears are muffled. I usually hang around till the end then go home and take a shower. When im home and done cleaning up I usually watch TV until I go to sleep. Its truly one of my favorite things to do. The fact that it happens everynight is awesome.

Dear FSU Student,
I know that you are a student in school as I am too. Do you feel stressed out a lot being a normal student, cause I do. I dread having to wake up early in the morning and drag my low energized body into class, where most of the time I sit like a zombie and zone the teacher out. I hate having to worry about how many absences I have because most teachers penalize you if you have too many. And sometimes I wish that I could just change the time of some of my classes because them being at the same time every day interferes with other things I could be doing. If you dislike all of these things too then you should come check out this digital society that I am a co-founder of. It is called Blackflag Nation and we are considered a socialist and anarchist society. We do not believe in telling you what to do and when you have to do it. You create your own daily routine and do your tasks at the time you please. You can go to school any day of the week and at any time you feel like going. As long as you get the work that needs to be done then absences do not apply. And when I talk about work I don’t mean stressing yourself out over papers with pointless topics, and pulling all nighters studying for a test. Our work is just attending meetings and discussing the topics you enjoy the most. Each person takes turns talking at the meetings so they can speak their own mind; so having a speech prepared is usually a given. And sometimes you will be given exercises just to help you expand your knowledge. You interact with other people who have your same interests and gain knowledge from one another. There of course is a “teacher” who knows almost everything you need to know about a specific subject. So if you have any specific questions you can always confide in the teacher. There are no online servers like blackboard because we feel like all work should be handed in to an actual person. The “teacher” should give you feedback in person to motivate you to do better. Schooling isn’t the only thing that we have different standards for. A few other things include having little rules, free ideas, and we encourage you to publically express your opinions. Everyone is trustworthy, because no one would have the desire to inflict any harm on you. You would really love being a member of our society and encourage you to come check us out.

Here are some things you get to enjoy being a Blackflag member. ..





Are zebras are black with white strips or white with black strips? Here in Blackflag we don’t care.








Time doesn’t matter because you a free to do what you want, when you want.





We encourage you to dream big, your dreams are easily turned into a reality with the right amount of effort and motivation.

Our nation is somewhere “offgrid” in the eastern European mountains so you get to enjoy scenery like this.

We have no capital punishment we follow the three strike rule and your out. But don’t worry most of our members don’t even get to strict one.

We encourage social interaction so just get out there and mingle with others. No one in our nation is going to judge you on looks, ideas, opinions, material possessions, or what your “worth.”

Proclamation

The Black Flag Nation was needed as far as I’m concerned. Before the Black Flag Nation I was stuck with the normal digital society that I hated. I have completely lost faith in our digital society thus why I moved to Black Flag Nation. Our society is founded on several principles, one of which being mutual aid. While we don’t want to endorse a policy where people are dying in the streets from hunger, we also wouldn’t want to endorse one where people are forced to give through the nose to everyone else, and have no incentives to make themselves better. We tried to create the “perfect society” that upholds freedom to the maximum extent. We have a policy in Black Flag, three strikes and you’re out. We do not have institutionalized capital punishment, because that is an egregious assault on individual rights and, as human animals, we are all prone to mistakes. As for religion we do not believe in organized religion. We feel to each their own so whatever your beliefs are, you have to right to preach them. We uphold different standards of digital information. I’ve heard countless stories of people who are victims of identity theft because they have their information taken from the computer. Whether it be credit card information or information on someone’s name and address. I’m sick of it. At Black Flag Nation we don’t worry about any of that because if someone would to proceed in such acts they be kicked out. We also uphold different standards of digital commerce. There is no such thing as online banking; everyone just keeps their money in the safety of their home. No one in our society is going to break into your house and rob you blind. I could not even begin how many times I have overdrawn m account because my bank will have transactions pending for a week or so. Then they have the audacity to charge me 35 dollars because I spent money I “technically” did not have. And when it comes to things that your suppose to do on a daily routine, like school, you choose when you want to do them. And when you actually do go to school everything is done in the classroom. School is never on online servers like Blackboard, we feel like all work and feedback is to be done inside the classroom, not through e-mails and just posting grades. This Black Flag Nation plans on creating a society “off-the-grid” so to speak, in which a society can flourish with a socialist and anarchist approach. This means, little rules, equality for all work, and an encouragement of free knowledge and – most importantly – free ideas. All in all I definitely like it here more than where I used to live. Its calmer and simple to adjust. I suggest you come check it out.

Letter to a Young EWM Major

Letter to a Young EWM Major

Submitted by Katherine

Hello there!

If you’re like me, you made the tragic mistake of going to college and majoring in English. Of course, that’s the only way one could really get ahead nowadays, so we’ll just have to suck it up. I started as a Philosophy major, then switched to Literature, and then to EWM. Whatever your feelings are on the major, you may very well be sick and tired of deadlines, responsibilities and being told what to do. Who wouldn’t?

I wrote this letter to try and tell you about a fun new alternative, Black Flag, a digital nation that I co-founded. Why is Black Flag better? Well, I wouldn’t want to tell you how to think or what kind of nation to be a part of- that would be ethically presumptuous. What I can say, is that if you’re in need of a place where you can be yourself, follow your own rules and not anyone elses – no matter if they were written in an ancient holy book or on a scroll and signed at the bottom, you'll find a place in Black Flag.

Below is our list of policies, i.e – Stuff we stand by.

Creative Commons- The usefulness of this venture is two-fold. First, it allows individuals to share their creative and non-creative content for others to add or substract to, but also, it allows for individuals to register their information in the public domain, free of charge and without having to pay royalties or submit to an umbrella organization.

Free Association- Individuals may come and go as they please, and share the same way.

· Mutual Aid- By becoming part of this, you receive help from others and vow to help others as well. This is NOT a mandatory program.

Ostracism – We do not believe in capital punishment, instead, we have a three strike rule and after three strikes, you are ostracized/expelled from Black Flag.

Agorism – A fancy word for voluntary interaction and exchanges.

Black Market Trade- With no corporations, everyone is free to compete with everyone and expect no subsidies. We also have no fiat money system, rendering the concept of inflation obsolete.

In addition, here are six things you will enjoy as a member:

No one asking you this, because we honestly couldn't care less.

Orderly lawns.

Nice architecture

Access to hilarious memes.

Cool conceptual art like this.

Nice graffiti murals. And anyone can make them, or destroy them for that matter, so make sure you take pictures.

The one reason to join Black Flag? We’re unlike any other.

GROUP ITINERARY - BFN

DAILY ITINERARY FOR THE BLACK FLAG NATION

David J. Dodd - Dj - djd09c

1. Morning: Wake up at a reasonable hour. Most individuals might be tired from late nights of intellectual discussion, open-minded dialogue, and peer2peer music exchanges. Most bands traded would be heavily influenced by counter-culture revolutions of years past.

2. Mid-day: Contribute to the digital organic garden and co-op. Although the society is a digital anarchist network, there is a safe-haven hidden in an isolated, yet digitally connected, location where participants of the society can gather and live in a self-sustaining society.

3. Afternoon: Because the nature of an anarchist society is based on abolishing the state, the majority of a digital members afternoon might be spent trying to overthrow the current system, or simply work against the standards already in place. That is to say that illegal peer2peer operations may occur, as well as exposing of information and literature that might be copyright protected, simply in response to the fact that they part of the established system. The later half of the afternoon may involve covering their digital footprints after making such actions.

4. Evening time: Exchange healthy, pro-local and co-op style food recipes with an emphasis on simple natural and anti-mass consumerist food shops. Supporting outlets like “Walmart” is not encouraged. In fact, it is outright forbidden. Props are awarded to individuals who pilfer from these establishments.

5. Night: Get ready for bed, begin idea exchanges on virtual forums. Fall asleep to some ambient random band no one knows about.

A Day in a Life

I wake up to a pretty nice day in Black Flag. I start my day off with submerging myself in some social networking. I log onto facebook to post on my friends walls, comment on some pictures, and instant message. After getting my fill of that I download some torrents from multiple websites and my roommates and I watch movies for most of the day. We decide it is time to make some dinner but do not know what to cook. So we google “delicious homemade recipes” to see what we can find. We decide to make homemade greenbean casserole. During dinner we talk amongst ourselves but we also are bbming (blackberry messenger) on our phones. After dinner I slip myself into my bed and read on my kindle for the next hour or so. Once I am done reading I stream videos through the internet and catch up on my weeds episodes, at the same time I slowly fall asleep.

A Day in the Life of an Anarcho Social(ist) Punk

A Day in the Life of an Anarcho Social(ist) Punk

It had been seven months since James moved onto the Anarchist Compound known as the Black Flag Nation: location – northern Oregon or Remote Mountain area in Europe, the specifics are still unknown to mainstream society. He had been involved in the Anarcho Socialist internet forum for a few years, and had finally made the commitment to move out to their secret compound to live “off-the-grid” as he so put it to his family seven months ago. The Black Flag Nation was still wholeheartedly attached to this grid, because the Internet connection is its only weapon. He walked out of his modest hand-constructed home, and took in a huge whiff of morning air.

“Good morning, world,” James exhaled across the grassy field below him, the sunrise crested over the mountains on the horizon, illuminating the organic farms surrounding the compound.

James waved to his neighbor and trotted to check on the local crops and animals, he was not required to, but he did it out of the need for the society to work smoothly.

HE met up with an old forum friend, and they reminisced about their punk-rock albums of yesteryear. James showed off his leftover collection of cd’s. They were in his high school shoebox.

James went to the Internet café. It was one of the few reliable electricity sources, run by solar and wind power from up the hill. He updated the nations website, and conducted more social exchanges on the digital marketplace that had helped the society flourish in its early days. He was inspired by the vigor of some youth located across the world. They were contributing to the Nation’s efforts, spreading anarcho socialist ideals to societies that might not know little of their efforts. He smiled as he logged off the computer, walking to the mess hall.

Frederich was the chef tonight, making a big paella, a recipe he learned from a South American member. Frederich still laments this friend, a casualty of the more violent aspects to Anarchist revolution. James cursed the bureaucratic pigs who have been holding the proletariat down for decades. He began to wonder if living separate from society really changes anything, but quickly made his mind travel elsewhere.

James marched home after the Nation’s Town Hall meeting. Many words were exchanged, and new recruits were introduced. James entered his home and lit a few candles. He was content, but he knew something bigger was necessary. He didn’t know what, or when, but he just knew: it was coming.

Policies

1.      Creative Commons- Non profit organization used to devote time and energy on the expansion of creative works for others to build upon.

2.      Free Association- People are invited to work, study, or talk with eachother in hopes to learn more about themselves and their surroundings. Its goal is not to unearth specific answers or memories, but to instigate a journey of co-discovery which can enhance the patient's integration of thought, feeling, agency, and selfhood.

3.      Mutual Aid-organization used to signify the a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit

4.      Ostracism  1,2,3- Guidelines put in place that must be met. Not  following the guidelines results in punishment inclusing a warning, fee, our expulsion.

5.      Agorism – Philosophy with the goal of bringing a society together in all relations between people and voluntary exchange.

6.      Black Market Trade- The trade of goods, and services without the official economy of a country.

A Day In The Life

A day in the life of a Black Flag Nation citizen is very pleasant. For starters I wake up whenever I want too.  Some may say that’s lazy but I can’t begin to tell you how much better my health has gotten since I started this routine. Today being a Monday I have regular weekly routine as anybody else would my age. I wake up, go to school, and then do my individual chores. Only in the Black Flag Nation there’s no such thing as a ‘dreaded Monday’, it could be Saturday for all I know. And although I go to school and have daily routines such as work, school, and chores I get to choose when to do it just as long as it’s done by the next day. Sometimes people slip behind but most people here are understanding and will let it go once in awhile.  When I go to school its nothing like school used to be for me. Here it is more about free thinking. We discuss philosophical questions and are focused more on being self taught rather then told what we should learn. We tend to study and ask questions in groups and unlike most schools, kids are allowed to help other students and everyone is allowed to talk to one another. Most schools would find this to be a nuisance because of the noise, but, because this is a digital society all our students talk to each other on online chats. This is very handy when it comes time for studying or when a student has a problem or doesn’t understand something. The same goes for test taking and attendance, everything is done digitally. After school I usually have work. Work isn’t the same as the outsiders work though. I don’t get paid to work But, I do get to live here at Black Flag Nation. That’s right; as long as you participate daily you are allowed to stay here. For work I am given a list of chores that are needed to be completed by the end of the day. It’s up to me to choose when I do them as long as their done by the end of the day. Certain tasks take longer than a day and for those tasks you are given a decent amount of time to complete them. Everybody gets a task that goes according to their job title. We decide who has what job by the prior knowledge and experience one has gained before they came to Black Flag Nation. Once my daily chores have been completed I have the option to go to the nightly social or I can go back to my place and call it a night. The nightly social is a club/bar that most kids my age go to at night to meet each other and have fun. Once the social is over though then it’s definitely time for bed. Our living arrangements are 3 people per roof and we each have our own bathroom. Talk about awesome. I love it here and wouldn’t move for anything.

A Day in the Life - Katherine

Today was a pretty decent day in Black Flag. I woke up to a few nice text messages that made me smile in the morning. Unfortunately, my phone is garbage at times and I had to attempt to resend my responses a few times. After breakfast, I decided to take a walk in the park with a notebook to get some writing inspiration. While there, I saw a pretty cute squirrel and managed to take a picture of it, but when I attempted to send the picture to my friend’s phone via MMS, I got a notification that their service provider has limits for sending/receiving media. Damn. So, I emailed it instead. Hurray. Later, after taking some notes in the park and picking up some takeout before getting home, I got in bed and watched TED conference videos for a few hours, added some books to my reading list (which grows daily, but because of my possible ADD/ADHD does not shrink) and read a few pages of one of the said books before drifting off to sleep. Good day, no drama. No complaints on my end.

Motto and Political Structure

Explaining the name:

The black flag represents the absence of a flag, standing in opposition to the notion of nation-states. The all-black flag represents a negation of all structures of oppression as well as the idea that a ruler or arbitrary border can represent the totality of the individuals within that border or under that ruler. As a white flag is a traditionally used, universal symbol of surrender, a black flag stands as a symbol of defiance.

Motto:

"Even pirates before they attack another ship hoist a black flag."

Structure:

Our nation is based on a combination of individualist anarcho-capitalism/agorism, with elements of anarcho-collectivism. No one is forced to have to contribute the earnings they make from black market dealings to anyone else, but digital co-ops exist and creative commons is the agreed upon standard for sharing music, books, software and other intellectual property.

Nation Animal

We went with a sloth because, not only is it absolutely adorable, but it represents the sluggish, charming independence we strive for in Black Flag. Black Flag is a place where anyone is free to "hang out" and be left alone, unless one chooses to associate with others.

Nation Seal

First Post

Testing, testing... information on Black Flag is coming soon!