(Download a PDF version of The Buyer’s Guide to a Start-Up Society)

If you are considering participation in a Start-Up Society here are some things you should consider before you get involved.  These points all come from the Civilization Engineering^® technology and are based on parameters needed to create a stable, durable civilization.  These are some of the parameters you do not want to be without.

Civilization Engineering^® is about equal on the excitement/romance scale with plumbing.  Plumbing is that system which brings fresh water to you and carries away the dirty water.  Normally you never think about it— until it stops working.  It is the same with Civilization Engineering^®. If you get the landlord–tenant relationship correct, for instance, and have a means to hold it in place, everything runs smoothly just as when the plumbing is all in order and working fine.  But get the landlord–tenant relationship wrong, and things can go very badly. This landlord-tenant relationship is just one of the fundamental parameters one needs to have in place to start a successful society/community/civilization.

Here are some parameters I would not want to be without:

[Words with the ce superscript are words defined in the Civilization Engineering^® Glossary found on civilizationengineering.com]

• Separate Private and Commons^ce
  There should be a strict delineation of sovereignty between the private areas and the Commons^ce. What happens between consenting adults behind closed doors in the private areas is of no concern to the Community^ce Managers with the only exception: any activity creating Externalities^ce can be prohibited. An example is the guy who makes a huge stink with his fertilizer production program that creates an intolerable smell outside of his private area.  Any behind-closed-doors activity that endangers others outside of one’s own private area is the province of the Community^ce Managers, otherwise the Managers have no say.

• Community^ce Manager Duties
  The Landlord, or Community^ce Manager, is restricted to creating and maintaining the infrastructure— aka the Commons^ce— and managing the Externalities^ce. The infrastructure includes the streets, the water supply, the sewer system, the electrical grid, the telephone or fiber optic grid as a minimum.Managing the Externalities^ce includes traffic control, noise and vibration restrictions etc. Any activity that people do that annoys the neighbors should be administered by the Community^ce Management and the level of allowable annoyance determined by the Community^ceThe Community^ce Manager is prohibited from imposing health care, education, retirement programs, welfare programs, an established religion etc. Those types of programs can be incorporated into the community’s initial contract/constitution and would thus be agreed to by the Tenants/property owners before activities commence; but including these things above and beyond infrastructure duties and Externalities^ce is not a good practice as history has shown.  My personal preference is to have the absolute minimum scope of duties assigned to the Community^ce Management and keep it there; but other people want more done on the collective/community level and they are free to find those communities that provide those things, or just work within the freedom of the community itself and involve only those who chose to be involved.

  There are many tradeoffs in a Community^ce design.  Should there be zoning or not? is one example. Should there be a Building Code? is another. Find the style of Community^ce you like and live there; but always keep the private areas private and out of the reach of the Community^ce Management.

  How to keep an oversight and brake on the Community^ce Management so it does not turn everything into a Public-Works-Boondoggle in those arenas it is assigned to is an important parameter that will have to be addressed later— space not permitting here./

• Arbitration Agreed Upon with a Neutral Third Party
  There should be a contract or constitution governing the Community^ce and within that constitution a specified, separate and neutral third party to settle any disputes between Community^ce Management and the Tenants. This third party is empowered to make binding decisions on any dispute between Community^ce Management and the Tenants. This third party is an independent enterprise not constitutionally connected to the Community^ce or the Tenants. The Community^ce and its Tenants are separately customers of the third party.This same third party could also be used to settle disputes between Tenants but not necessarily.  Deputes could be settled between Tenants by the Community^ce  Whichever arrangement is used would be part of the constitution of the Community^ce.

• Internal and External Defense
  One design parameter that always needs to be addressed is defense: both internal and external. How should this be done?  Is it a citizens’ militia with mandatory participation of all?  Or is it to be contracted to outside agencies and paid for by all Tenants?   These things need to be decided and settled up front when the contract between Community^ce Management and Tenants is formed.

• Permitted Actions
  The goal is Freedom^ce which means voluntary interactions at all times. The governing rule in a Community^ce should be: all voluntary interactions are permitted as long as they do not create an Externality^ce and all involuntary interactions are prohibited.Trade with others outside the society’s territory shall be permitted without restriction.  There should be no trade tariffs or restrictions between members of the society and/or the outside world.

• Who Is In and Who Is Out
  All persons who agree to the governing rule above— of what is permitted and what is not permitted— can be participants in the society. Those who cannot agree to and abide by the rule above are not permitted into the society.I would like to find at this point a startup society that excludes Muslims.  Islam’s mission statement is to convert everyone to Islam and Sharia Law or murder them.  Islam is utterly incapable of getting into agreement with the above rule.  Islam is totally incompatible with any civilization worthy of the name civilization.  I would reject any proposal for a startup society that did not recognize this incompatibility of Islam with anything else and thus exclude all Muslims from consideration in the society.  Islam should be excluded until that time it has its version of the Enlightenment and discovers the value of practicing toleration.

• The Society’s Status Within the State
  Every place on the earth’s surface is claimed by some political state. What is to be the status of a startup society within that state is a central question that needs to be settled before the new society is commenced. What the startup society would ideally have is complete sovereignty over its area. This may be very difficult to obtain but will be necessary in the long run.  Do not proceed without some general agreement as to who controls what.  Do not assume anything about this relationship with the local political state.Those who build on the open sea should still get into agreement with some political states regarding using their ports.

• Start–Change–Stop
  Start–Change–Stop is the classic description of a cycle of action. Every cycle of human action follows this pattern of a beginning (Start), something moving or changing (Change) and eventually coming to an end (Stop).  For the startup society one of the most important parameters is the contract between the Tenants and the Community^ce  If over time it becomes necessary to change the rules or to change the Management, the question is how is this to be done?  Some provisions must be stated in the society’s constitution as to how changes are to be made.

• See the article Executive Summary on the website com for a more information on how to design a startup society.