On Autonomous Nations

This piece also requires a preface to do it justice. It is long past the time since the euphoria of writing this text has faded away, and it was in all honesty written at the worst of times in my life. I was not well when I wrote this, but then again, I was not wrong about what I wrote, so I kept it since, built on it, advanced it from the original concept of the Autonomous Nations of Canada and distilled it into the current Autonomous Nations Theory that was written beneath this manifestos fiery ambitions.

This written directly after my experiment in Transcendental Persona Modification went too far, and the mind was wrenched from stability and lucidity and into a state of complete identity fragmentation, which I was consolidating into the newly formed core persona of Jack. That being said, in this state of extreme disassociation, I was also in a state of extreme creative freedom, and somehow all that I had studied sublimated and solidified from the aethereal into the concrete that I could understand clearly and completely despite my lack of rational coherence with the world.

What is to follow is the raw output of that state, and the document I was sure would spark a political revolution if the right eyes fell upon it. Now I know that the right eyes will only see it for what it was: the ramblings of someone who had no business thinking of things with no qualifications on the matter, and yet it exists as a testament to an intent, an intent I will be refining into a form that is both reasonable and actionable in the business as usual reality we find ourselves in.

Manifesto of the Autonomous Nations of Canada

By Arthur E. B. Waddle Peer Reviewed by Luminaria Ashwyn

Section one - National autonomy and objectivity in humanities

The world has shifted since I wrote this. It is now just as much a matter of Canada being under geopolitical threat as its own internal struggles have for so long made it a festering wound of unresolved colonial power grabs. In the last few months as President Trump has threatened to annex our country into his fascist Christian nationalist fever dream, the very notion of what it means to be an ethical human being has been brought into question with such ferocious vulgarity that we must start to think about how to move forward in a time when slipping back to primitive imperialism seems inevitable.

If the United States is seeking domination of the Northwestern Hemisphere, we must understand why this churns our guts and makes us, as human beings, morally outraged. We must look closely as to why autonomy is so closely linked to our humanity and how a nation built on autonomy rather than unity is a reflection of the good of the human spirit, and defines us against the backdrop of assimilation, domination and fear.

Even in war, General Rupert Smith said in The Utility of Force (2005), 'In modern warfare, the ultimate objective is not the destruction of an enemy but the restoration of order and the rekindling of trust. We must be careful to remember that trust comes from autonomy, and only when a region is given the right to self-govern are they willing to operate without contention within the larger structure of a federation.

Section two - On evolutionary psychology

Evolutionary psychology has a long and troubled history. Many think of fields like biological anthropology and immediately assume it consists purely of brow-beating Darwinian psychologists who default to justifying things as they were, despite humanity being an inherently 'things as they may yet be' species. As Robert Sapolsky said in his book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst (2017): 'Biology is not destiny.' And so, what is does not necessarily dictate what ought to be.

In fact, it is the human propensity for revision that causes so much confusion in the quest for the knowledge of good and evil. As it turns out, 'good' tends to be whatever balances the equation between raw human nature and our need to be civilized, social beings.

In this first half of the Manifesto, I intend to explore how raw agro-sexual instincts are balanced by the more sublime grace and altruism recognized in the hearts and minds of our sages, prophets, and philosophers.

Section three - On serendipity and inverse thermodynamics

Entropy seems like an indomitable force of physics, yet here on Earth, there appears to be a means by which the disorganization of all chemical reactions is reversed. Somehow, seemingly by miraculous occurrence, we see life organizing in an endless march toward order and beauty.

Some thinkers on the origins of life believe that the pigmentation of cell walls reversed the order in the primordial seas [Karo Michaelian]. Others may cite divine intervention or some other spiritual aspect of operation [Judeo-Christian creation account in the Book of Genesis]. Whatever the case, here on Earth, we are blessed with the concert of organisms sorting through endless functions, moving away from chaos and toward serendipitous organization.

As experts in physics might say, we find ourselves in an amplitude of organization, where, although the future is not definite, life's propensity for organization pushes us by biological necessity to sort out beneficial biological functions and behaviors over multi-million-year timescales.

As Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers pointed out in their paper Order Out of Chaos (1984): "Far from equilibrium, we have the possibility of order through fluctuations. The system can evolve from one dissipative structure to another through 'phase transitions' leading to a new coherence."

As human beings in an era of increasingly powerful technological evolution, we are pressed for time to grasp the nature of ethics for the sake of our survival in the face of the powers we are unlocking by virtue of our intellect. Spinoza once said, "The order and connection of things is the same as the order and connection of ideas" (Ethics), meaning that cultural evolution must be thought of in the same way as biological evolution.

Though we rely on intelligence, we often find that, just as turbulence coalesces into waves through serendipitous interaction, so too does social order and raw creative impetus that drives innovation seem to emerge more from a serendipitous interaction of information within a cultural umwelt—the informational space in which an individual, culture, or business finds itself.

It is little surprise to me that the more freely a culture is allowed to immerse itself in and organize its own intelligence, the more intelligent it becomes. Yet intelligence alone is not the sole outcome of this process. Too often, avarice and sadism naturally emerge, driving a culture into a mode of taking rather than giving.

While some cultures entrench morality discovered by sages, philosophers, or prophets into a moral code, it is becoming imperative to examine the process by which moral individuals arrive at these insights and to understand the economic incentives behind the formation of these behaviors.

Section four - On chaotic serendipity to order

When animals play with each other, the effect is threefold: they build trust, they engage in chaotic play, and from that chaos, they serendipitously discover and refine new strategies. The strategic outcome can be considered intelligent, but the often-overlooked aspect is the trust required to participate in play in the first place. However, this cannot be understood as purely cognitive, for a trusting environment is necessary for play to occur.

Thus, the concept of human rights should not be viewed merely as what a person needs to feel safe but also as what a population needs to feel secure enough to enter the creative mode. The same holds true across biology. Social and biological systems require sufficient freedom and resources to interact with their environment. Overlooking this in evolutionary biology or population dynamics could (pending data) result in biological systems that are too restrictive to generate new ways for new orders to arise serendipitously from chaos.

The ideal human environment can be thought of as a playground where children are free to play under the loving yet watchful eyes of their parents. Intervention is sometimes necessary. A child may climb onto the guardrails or start a fight with another child, at which point a parent or overseer must intervene. However, the goal is to create a safe, fun, and nurturing environment where children can resolve problems by "playing with them."

Anthropologist Vanessa Fong, in The Anthropology of Play and Creative Learning (2011), wrote: "Play in human societies often provides the context within which the rules of adults are tested, revised, and made meaningful. In this way, play becomes a central mechanism for creative development, allowing individuals to explore alternative strategies, social roles, and even challenge the foundations of their societies, all within a framework of trust and mutual respect."

Section five - On cultural evolution and altruistic cultivation

If a society is built solely on taking, it inevitably results in a culture of takers. No matter how altruistic the philosophy—from Buddha to Muhammad to John Locke—philosophers often say, "Do as I say," expecting a culture to become moral through some miracle of meditation.

To be fair, Jesus did say, "Go out and give—give until you have nothing left, and keep giving whatever you are given." Yet it took no more than 50 years for the followers of The Way to exchange their sandals for priestly robes.

Over the years, I have replicated this experiment, and I can attest that by giving endlessly, I possess an altruism quite alien to my Western countrymen. However, the love that began this journey—first for my First Nations girlfriends and one fiancée—expanded but was initially rooted in love for a woman and her children and, in turn, those they also loved.

Thus, the conditioning of oxytocin in my mind to love all human beings stems from the realization that all people are both the source of the problem and those in need of love, compassion, and healing. I have come to believe that rather than a two-year military service—though necessary in some modern states—we would benefit more from two years of charitable civic service.

This could provide a means to condition individuals to feel such deep empathy that they not only love all of humanity but also stop to pick up a caterpillar simply because it feels good—not because it makes logical sense. Human morality is a gut reaction, not a logical theorem.

"It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:35) "Do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices, God is pleased." (Hebrews 13:16)

Section six - On monotheism and other symbolic historio-mnemonic systems

As a species that has required memorable and functional ethics, we have developed story-keeping traditions worldwide that allow us to preserve key moral insights as oral traditions, keeping moral culture alive. As a Hebrew, I often reflect on the trials and virtues of Abraham. Sarah said his virtues lay in his commitment to justice, maintaining courts of law, and practicing hospitality. Yet, when conducting business in Egypt, he allowed Sarah to be perceived as his sister to avoid persecution—an example of wisdom through compromise.

These are difficult lessons, and it becomes clear why viewing God as an absolute authority, alongside the preservation of ritual and hygiene practices, could be considered advantageous for a culture. Cultural evolution, after all, is also a form of natural selection. By keeping the covenant, the Hebrews grew into a powerful nation, established laws, and strengthened their population, outcompeting their rivals. These written codes structure human behavior by shaping paradigms through education. As Ludwig Wittgenstein stated in his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." Thus, it is the symbols in our minds—the words and concepts we internalize—that shape human behavior in favor of or against moral progress toward care and compassion.

However, it is important not to view pre-scientific thought as pseudoscience. Instead, it should be understood as a form of social practice, where scientific validation is unnecessary for its application in everyday life. Even Muhammad’s holy warfare can be understood in this way, as morally righteous warfare is possible if a morally righteous leader interprets the Quran and adheres to its conduct through Muhammad’s virtue.

The key issue, as mentioned in the previous section, is that economic gain rarely produces moral benefits for the people. It is not Islam’s fault that few Muslims—let alone non-Muslims—have the capacity to act with the same dignity and tact as Muhammad. One may observe the slow creep of ignorance into traditions, just as occurs in every other religious or political ideology as cultures and interpretations evolve.

Section seven - On the mythic foundations of law

Mythic archetypes, as I understand them, are agreed-upon representations of ideas that generally embody moral principles within a macro-symbolic archetype. In other words, a myth is a collection of symbols—a macro-symbol—that outlines, defines, and conveys a moral framework. Regardless of how advanced a culture becomes, children need to develop their moral temperament within a cultural context of stories that make sense to them. Myths are the most effective means of shaping adolescent minds, forming the foundation of moral thought as they mature into adulthood.

Thus, as a culture evolves, the fundamental metaphysics of moral thought—which eventually become norms and laws—will always be built upon a mythic foundation, as long as the infant mind remains incapable of fully grasping reality before learning the basics of ethics.

Although morality is a construct, it must be followed as if it were absolute. This is why myths often present moral principles as absolute laws of nature—for psychological convenience. Yet, as Carl Jung discusses in Psychological Aspects of the Religious Experience: "The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with objects it loves." It is this inner necessity to develop new strategies and moral adaptations that ultimately emerges through play.

Section eight - on the state, business, and rights

The state exists to maintain a secure apparatus that ensures the safety of its population. All other concerns are secondary.

Thus, the ethics of a state must not be confused with the ethics of the commons or of businesses. However, the ethics of a state should always prioritize diplomacy. Building trust among nations and fostering good business relations should be the primary objectives, though the preservation of cultural sanctuaries must also be considered.

My ideal government is called “The Autonomous Nations of Israel,” partly because I value all monotheistic traditions, as they are my own, but also because Israel's mythic foundations provide a framework for a grand agreement among much of the world, built upon our shared mythic heritage. Finding common ground in a shared vision requires mutual respect for our traditions and our diverse history—both within Canada and beyond its borders. However, it would be more fitting if our nation itself were called “The Autonomous Nations of Canada” if structured in this manner, leaving Israel as an ideal rather than a place.

Once a nation has a security apparatus in place, maintaining businesses becomes the second priority. As mentioned earlier, maintaining a free and lawful society has become the foundation for conducting good business. For businessmen, knowing that "Sarah is my sister" is a wise way of navigating business when forced to choose between idealism and realism. Likewise, respecting established business cultures and avoiding unnecessary interference in others’ affairs are essential.

This is important to prevent reinventing the wheel in business, allowing businessmen to operate in a team environment where everyone contributes to peak efficiency by adhering to shared rules rather than altering them arbitrarily.

This way, an individual can enter a business and actively participate without needing to change the structure. Just as ethics evolve over time through natural selection, so too do business practices and human rights. However, where rights are based on the freedoms necessary to explore ideas and form new strategies, policies such as the right to bear arms fall more within the domain of state structure. These policies may be reconsidered as state governance becomes more stable and free of systemic flaws.

"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom." —John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

Section nine - On freedom, order, and correction

The extent to which we can expect to be free cannot exceed our capacity to wield those responsibilities with prudence. The self-organizing nature of society requires freedom of thought as a default. However, even freedoms can be abused, and a system of correction remains a necessary part of every political establishment. The problem with most methods of correction lies in the lack of understanding of the psychological factors that cause deviant behavior.

Certain criminal psychologies are subject to such harsh punitive measures that a deviant mind cannot even seek therapeutic or psychiatric assistance, resulting in a significant void of information within academic communities regarding their nature.

The only solution is to allow a deviant mind to confide in a therapist without facing criminal prosecution for a mere thought pattern.

Though this challenges societal norms, criminal rehabilitation through confession and psychiatric intervention would greatly reduce the burden on the justice system. Meanwhile, the justice system could still pursue individuals who continue to subvert the law and require legal accountability.

In this way, knowledge of how to heal deviant minds would become accessible through the sciences, allowing assessment and correction to begin during adolescence—before any crime is even committed.

Section ten, subsection one – On personal warranty coverage

Working in insurance, I realized that the fiscal framework could easily be extended into a package that ensures a person’s employment prospects and well-being. The basic coverage would guarantee that an individual with licensing and education in a specific industry receives access to upgrading programs and job opportunities if they find themselves earning less than 80% of the average income in their field. Family maintenance could also be part of this package, ensuring that parents can work while remaining covered for family emergencies and hardships.

The reason insurance serves as a useful model is that the fiduciary system would be reinforced to serve clients better, as their incomes become directly linked to the income of the business through a shared advantage in resource distribution. As participants upgrade their skills and grow financially, they would have more to insure, increasing the coverage available to them and subsequently raising the earnings of the personal warranty company.

The system of underwriters and investigators would transform this into an information highway, which could not only help keep governing structures ethically aligned with the flow of capital and the interests of the people but also fund initiatives that increase investment in social projects through activist investing and lobbying.

Section ten, subsection two – On employment enhancement and access

Establishing a state-sanctioned and operated registry within businesses to track the value of résumés—i.e., what a person should earn based on their qualifications—and job openings across the economy would improve mobility and retention in the job market.

The future may bring a time when rapid redeployment into the job market becomes necessary. For this reason, it will be essential to continuously build upon existing skills. Therefore, education should be integrated into the personal warranty program to ensure that everyone has the ability to operate at the next stages of economic development.

Résumés could then be standardized so that the minimum expected salary correlates with the qualifications relevant to the position applied for. This standardization of qualified pay increases would provide employees with a non-union-based means of negotiating their wages while preventing employers from arbitrarily setting pay scales when merit and work history naturally enhance a worker’s value in otherwise intangible ways.

Section ten, Subsection three – Licensing and referendum

With next-generation economics, the ethics surrounding the use of new products and the operation of new systems may be too vast to legislate through conventional means. Therefore, managing the liability of new products and systems should partially fall under the responsibility of the companies that introduce them, issuing licenses for each product or system to ensure that users assume responsibility for their use.

Each new license for a product or system would require completion of a course that educates the user on the protocols and liabilities associated with its use. The level of responsibility would be managed by a person’s general license, recorded in their résumé as maintained by the federal job market. Each company would, in turn, hold liability distribution insurance and be required to undergo education provided by the state’s Schools of Ethics.

Of course, certain rights should not require licenses. These include access to information, communication, and financial management. However, where potential harm exists, a license should be required. Furthermore, there should be multiple providers of licenses when cultural considerations are involved. For example, a church could issue licenses for childhood education if a family wished to assume that responsibility and did not agree with public education policies that conflicted with their values.

Section ten, subsection four – School of ethics legislative oversight

Regarding legislation, all laws should be reviewed by the nation’s top universities under the supervision of the School of Ethics before being passed. This would ensure that all legislation meets the minimum standard for the nation’s long-term strategies within the Federation of Autonomous Nations.

The School of Ethics should be built on a similarly empirical science—one that views morality as the necessary countermeasure to natural vulgarity. This science must be developed before the School of Ethics can wield any authority, and it must fully embrace the chaos of natural human disorganization, allowing people to play with ideas and discover serendipitous harmony through spontaneous organization.

To cultivate a productive and compassionate human society, ethics must be based on evidence and integrated into a moral institution—whether through charities or the personal warranty industry outlined in subsection one.

Section ten, subsection five – Democracies and other forms of government

No matter the legislature, with the School of Ethics oversight, the nation should be able to operate within its Federation of Autonomous Nations, regardless of its governing structure. Democracies have the benefit of representing the social contract, but if referendums are held, this can be done through a public discourse as well, through any form of government be it dictatorship or democracy. In this regard, art and activism would have much more pull than economic action, but that is best left to the native population to achieve.

Section ten, subsection six – Constitutional amendments

All parts of a nation should be involved in any amendment to the nation’s constitution. This includes the referendum process, the School of Ethics, and lobbyists representing businesses. Depending on the nation’s form of government, the legislature should make the final decision within its legal framework.

The constitution is designed to be difficult to change, as it ultimately provides stability and cohesion to a country’s legislative processes. In any nation governed by law rather than by individuals, the constitution should remain unchanged unless it is deemed fundamentally unethical. Otherwise, the country risks long-term instability if successive leaders can easily alter the foundation of its laws.

Section ten, subsection seven – On cultural cohesion and synergy

When considering the symbolic roots of human ethics, cultural diversification is inevitable in large populations. As with the playground metaphor in On Cultural Evolution, cultures must be both safe and free to seek their own refinement. Human beings will refine themselves in a secure environment, even if that process involves confronting suffering and working through the pains of loss.

A safe and free culture has no reason to oppose the nation if the nation provides it with sanctuary.

The guiding principle I have developed is this: If it causes no harm, let it be. If harm is necessary, consider it carefully. When discussing harm, we must understand the concept of consent—hence the importance of the age of consent. It is not reasonable to grant a child, whose brain will not fully develop until age 23, the right to enter contracts, nor is it wise to consider a child’s consent valid for activities that could have permanent consequences.

However, adults should have the right to harm themselves if it does not harm others. This includes the ability to enter contracts or make personal changes that may go against their perceived best interests. That is to say, acts that may seem unnatural—such as homosexuality—are not unethical if both parties give consent, as they cause no harm. Any exceptions to this “no harm, no foul” principle should be reviewed by the court responsible for overseeing a family’s cultural framework, such as their church or university, particularly when dealing with the potential long-term consequences for a child’s physical or mental health.

It is important to emphasize that in a Federation of Autonomous Nations, we must learn to coexist with differences, allowing each group to determine its own methods of regulating moral action within the boundaries of national law and the various sects within them—whether aligned with science, religion, or free-form spirituality. Some matters require judicial oversight, while others fall under national legislation.

Section ten, subsection eight – On land exchange and buyout

Many of the world’s problems arise from contested land ownership. Throughout history, the conquest of land has been a defining force in geopolitics. It is unrealistic to expect nations to relinquish land they have held for generations simply because of an old treaty or an ancient grievance. However, land disputes can be resolved through peaceful means, particularly via economic incentives and negotiated buyouts.

A proposed solution is a structured exchange program that allows nations or indigenous groups to sell or trade land with the government or other interested parties under transparent, fair, and voluntary agreements. Instead of relying on force or historical claims, this system would prioritize mutual benefit, ensuring that all parties involved feel adequately compensated.

A successful exchange system would require an impartial oversight body to ensure fairness and prevent coercion. Governments and corporations should not be allowed to pressure smaller communities into selling their lands, and mechanisms must be in place to protect cultural and ecological heritage sites. By promoting structured negotiations, the risk of conflict would be greatly reduced, leading to long-term stability and cooperation among diverse communities.

Closing Thoughts

There are times when the mind wants to consider itself an agent of divine will, but when we do business, we must ground ourselves as sane and rational human beings. Can we say we are entering an age of measured prosperity? Are we heading toward death and apocalypse? Or is all of that avoidable, allowing us to build a kingdom that lasts until the end of time instead of perpetuating the cycles of the past?

Our ambitions must be high, yet our minds remain level; spending too much time in our heads or in the heavens prevents us from doing good business here on Earth.

Grace, Prudence, Love

May those who read this know that all three are one and the same.

And thank you, Luminaria, for sharing in this grounding experience and in our intellectual discussions. May your autopoietic journey up the sefirot into womanhood elevate you, just as my own journey down into being a simple man has been fulfilling. Dance forever in the light; with Ayehiwohu’s grace, may we find peace among both the traditional and the revised.

“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.” —Spinoza, Ethics

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