Introduction
With vonu and the strategy of building the Second Realm becoming more well-known and practiced, this also means that misconceptions about them both have abounded, as well as some confusion on how they interplay with each other as tools in the liberation toolbelt.
We’ll cover those first.
Then, just as a potential point of clarification, we’ll re-address lessons from organized crime and it’s relation to vonu & the Second Realm, sparked by a recent discussion in the P.A.Z.NIA Committee of Correspondence.
And with it being 60+ years since some of Rayo’s writing, we’ll take a moment to address the evolution of vonu, and how the Second Realm/P.A.Z.NIA Network fufills the next step in the goal of becoming as invulnerable to coercion as humanly possible.
Finally, for a couple bonus sections, I’ll show you an example of the effective interplay of vonu & the Second Realm; and touch on, hopefully for the last time, why we as vonuans don’t “prep” in the survivalist sense.
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1) [PRACTICAL LIBERATION STRATEGIES] Vonu vs. The Second Realm
Vonu is a philosophy and freedom strategy coined and largely developed by the pseudonymous Rayo, Tom Marshall, back in the mid-to-late 1960’s.
The word “VONU” is an awkward contraction of the words “voluntary not vulnerable”, and practitioners adopt radical lifestyle changes in pursuance of freedom; or more pertinent to vonu, vonuans seek an invulnerability to coercion.
Such lifestyles include off-grid homesteading, van nomadism, perpetual traveling, strategic relocation, financial independence, living on a sailboat, crypto-anarchy, and more.
In terms of the Second Realm, this is rebuilding of all human institutions in a sort of parallel society, founded upon the principles of truth, voluntaryism, and peace, unlike the coercion & deception critical to the First. In contrast to vonu, it’s a more large scale strategy, requiring the involvement of numerous individuals.
Rayo put it this way: an ethical enclave (a “vonu agora”) can consist of only two vonuans; the Second Realm requires a community/network.
Therein lies the main distinction: vonu is more so an individual-based strategy, the Second Realm far more expansive. In my view, an individual learning to live a liberated lifestyle is a necessary prerequisite for involvement in the Second Realm — one feeds into/prepares the other. This not only means practical skills, but also the exorcising of collectivist spooks & other areas of mental liberation, so that the self-liberator doesn’t end up backsliding into political crusading, falling back into old statist programming, or whatever.
This also helps to ensure the maintenance and continuation of the Second Realm, as only vetted and reputable individuals will be allowed access to the entirety of the network.
In summation, while these two strategies complement each other greatly, and vonu enables additional Second Realm activity, they are different in scale and focus. More on this soon.
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2) Re-Addressing Lessons From Organized Crime (& It’s Relation to Vonu)
Recently, in the P.A.Z.NIA Committee of Correspondence chat, a fellow self-liberator/Vonu Podcast listener dropped in to raise a disagreement (of which we’re always happy to receive, if it’s accurate).
This individual somehow got the impression that Smuggler, Kyle, and I were basically recommending people join an organized criminal syndicate to become more invulnerable to coercion, referring to an episode of our Building The Second Realm series on lessons that can be learned from organized crime, based off of the Book on Strategy by Smuggler & XYZ.
There are so many things wrong with the above statement, so let’s get to addressing them.
To reiterate, vonu & the Second Realm are two different strategies, as described in #1. And considering both of these strategies are anti-coercion/pro-voluntaryism, organized crime doesn’t seem to fit the bill.
Secondly, is the disclaimer we provided in the show notes, which was read smack dab at the beginning of the podcast. I’ll highlight the most pertinent point:
Most everyone is familiar with organized criminal syndicates, whether it be the mafia, the mob, the Yakuza, etc. They are typically viewed as violent, chaotic, criminal organizations constantly under attack and surveillance by the federal government. The latter may be the most truthful accusation leveled, but believe it or not, there is a lot libertarians and anarchists can learn from organized crime as they build Second Realms.
This is something none-other than Dr. Murray Rothbard recognized (p. 295), in addition to Smuggler and XYZ, the authors of Second Realm: Book on Strategy.
Not only have these organizations existed for centuries, but they have flourished; they have their own internal arbitration system, private defense and security, they utilize temporary autonomous zones to make them more invulnerable to coercion, and they have similar ethical and moral codes that are strictly adhered to; a sort of parallel society to put it another way.
It’s worth noting that, as strict as some of their moral and ethical codes may have been, they still participate in behavior that violates personal autonomy; we are not overlooking this, but rather honing in on our focus on the relevant material. [Emphasis added.]
To conclude, please don’t go join an organized criminal syndicate, whether private or public (government).
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3) The Evolution of Vonu
Vonu is truly yours for the making, and as such, it must develop according to the factors confronted at the present time, whenever those happen to be.
Rayo put it this way:
“A vonuan, to me, is not just someone living in a particular manner. Life-styles may change. A life-style which was vonu 100 years ago may not be vonu today; some life-styles vonu today were not possible 100 years ago and may not be vonu 50 years from now. A vonuan is someone who places a high value on relative invulnerability to coercion – someone for whom freedom is worth a fair amount (though not infinite) of effort, inconvenience, discomfort. To a vonuan, vonu is not just a means to other ends, nor is it an ultimate end – like most qualities of life, and life itself, it is both. A vonuan will choose whatever way of living offers personal sovereignty and will change life-style again and again if necessary.
From what I gather, in the 1960’s/70s, these ideas were even more fringe and rare to find than today; and if not more fringe, access to less advanced forms of technology made community and networking a touch more difficult. Put another way, it was harder to find & build relationships with fellow self-liberators, let alone build a parallel society.
Our access to technology provides some advantages to us today (especially on our own privacy-hardened GhostPhones, GhostPads, & other privacy tools), mainly in the form of networking.
While 60 years ago, such a strategy as a Second Realm, P.A.Z.NIA Network may have been considered anti-vonu, I believe it to be more a necessity than just a choice now; and conjoined with Second Realm strategy, security culture tactics, and a more-developed agorism, still, to me, it falls within the purview of this liberating freedom strategy.
We’ll produce our own food; we’ll have our own infrastructure, from communications to energy; we’ll have our own reputation, arbitration, and adjudication systems; and as a whole, we’ll build the lives we want to live, despite the looming threats of the coercers…
Utilizing proxy merchants for acquisition of “private land”, advanced privacy technology to communicate via the ether, and fueling our vans with the miraculous Brown’s Gas/vapor systems to name a few, our self-sufficiency and decentralization will be our strengths.
Vonu has indeed evolved.
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4) BONUS: A Demonstration of Vonu/Second Realm Interplay (The Second Realm Enabling More Vonu)
Rayo was of the opinion that non-nomadic, stationary lifestyles were more vulnerable than nomadic ones – after all, if the coercers can’t find you, they can’t coerce you. This was especially true in his opinion if it involved a “property title”, “property taxes”, etc., such as off-grid homesteading.
And I would typically agree.
But what if you could combine the aforementioned liberated lifestyle, off-grid homesteading, with the proxy merchant strategy of the Second Realm?
You could have your off-grid homestead in place A, yet to government/Babylon officials, your “home base” may be in another state, another country, etc., and a mailing address somewhere within 30-60 miles away. Depending upon the arrangement you make with your trusted proxy merchant, they would likely handle any and all interactions with potential coercers, since it would be their name on the deed.
They would of course be compensated for the risk incurred, but this is all up to individual negotiation.
Other potential avenues worthy of investigation are trusts, shell corporations, etc. Basically, ways in which a proxy merchant could shield themselves legally & personally from as much risk as possible.
Vonu enables further vonu, vonu enables further Second Realm activity, and in return, Second Realm strategy greatly expands the prospects of those living liberated lifestyles.
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5) BONUS: Self-Sufficiency & Independence, NOT Prepping
It seems one of the most common misconceptions about vonu, whether in Rayo’s day or today, is that vonu is basically the same as just prepping/survivalism.
To summarize Rayo’s refutations, vonuans aren’t prepping for some disaster, economic collapse, or whatever; we don’t have a bug-out cabin in the middle of the wilderness, awaiting us for when we can leave our jobs in the servile society to go live off of canned goods while we learn how to live in nature.
No – vonu is a lifestyle change, a constant pursuit of a more competent approach at becoming and remaining invulnerable to coercers.
We may do some canning, we may have the ability to forage for some of our food/medicine, and even may have a converted van ready for a future nomadic scenario, but these are for the purposes of self-sufficiency and independence, NOT for prepping or mere survival.
There’s also the gloom-and-doom, fear porn bullshit that is usually associated with prepping and survivalism. Operating on that frequency means to be in resonance with the collectivist, coercivist hive mind. That channel has been disconnected a long time for me; never again.
Individually and as part of this over-arching Second Realm Network, we’ll achieve independence and liberation in all areas that it is possible; and where it’s still not feasible, proxy merchants will fill the role, smuggling goods in & out of the First Realm, for the expansion of the Second.
Forget about some unlikely, potential eventuality; the coercers are here NOW, the servile society has been here for a long while, and we’re nearly a few years past the year of hindsight (2020).
What are you doing to become more invulnerable to the coercers TODAY?
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