UNITED EFFORTS
A United Effort:
- is the organization of individual Latter-day Saints into a mutual beneficial society (a gift society)
- is based upon voluntarily giving, sharing, co-operation, free agency, common consent and variety
- is not based upon the Babylonian principles of buying and selling, that everything has a price, the profit-motive, selfishness, the spirit of competition, force and homogenization
- has as its purpose: to advance the cause of, and prepare the way for the establishment of, Zion, and to reduce or eliminate the influences of, and ties to, Babylon, performed via their own free agency and not by way of commandment through the proper priesthood channels
GIFT SOCIETIES
A Gift Society:
- is one in which every member seeks the interest of the members of the Society
- is one in which members donate time, labor (services), ideas, resources and money to other members of the Society
- has the express purpose of providing for the NEEDS of the individual members of the Society by making them all independent from Babylonian suppliers, self-sufficient producers and engaged in actively developing their talents as opposed to slaving away their lives in meaningless mundane tasks working for Babylon, so that a surplus may eventually be generated by every member of the Society
- may operate on the principle of open-ended monetary loans, meaning that they are gifts with the expectation of paying them back, if possible, so that the Society may reuse the funds for further gifting, but without any time limits, contracts or requirements
- may operate on the principle of donations of surplus or may have a preferred minimum donation, as each Society decides
- may have a decentralized treasury in which each member keeps their funds until a group donation is authorized by the Society
TRIBAL RELATIONS
Tribal Relations:
- means that the members of the United Effort Gift Society are related to each other (family relations)
- helps to ensure the honesty of the members, as a dishonest member would be ostracized by their family, a penalty worse than being ostracized by an unrelated group
- may consists of several families, clans or tribes per Gift Society or one Society may be entirely composed of members of one single family/clan/tribe
- does not necessarily exclude single persons who want entrance into the Society, all to be decided by the common consent of the members of the United Effort
STEWARDSHIPS
Stewardships:
- are donations given to individual members according to the need of the individual or the combined needs of the Society members
- may be given according to the talents of the members involved
- may be small or large, as decided by the Society
- may be given out in steps, so that a steward may receive a small stewardship at first, and then, when the stewardship is returned as surplus, the same steward may be considered wise and talented enough to obtain a larger stewardship, and so on and so forth, as decided by the Society
How to Start a United Effort Gift Society In Your Area
If you are interested in starting, or have already started, a Gift Society in your area, post your contact information on the United Effort Gift Society Bulletin Board. People who are interested in learning more about, or joining, your Society can either contact you directly or can leave their contact information on the Bulletin Board thread that you start. You can then contact who you want to invite.
Also, you can get yourself a free Facebook account and add me (LDS Anarchist) as a friend. This will link you to other like-minded individuals who are interesting in forming or joining a Gift Society. You can use my list of Facebook friends to find individuals in your area who are interested in joining or forming a United Effort. Then contact them and invite whoever you want to join your Society.
If you are interested in finding and joining a Society in your area, check the United Effort Gift Society Bulletin Board. As stated above, you can leave your contact info on the thread of a Society in your area if you don’t want to contact them directly. You may also add me as a friend in your Facebook account to help to establish a network of members, or potential members, of United Efforts.
Some Ideas
Here’s a list of ideas that can be used. Obviously the principle of anarchism (free agency) and common consent will rule, so each Society will operate differently, as they wish, but these suggestions may get you started thinking of the possibilities.
- Have a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly meeting at a set place and set time
- Make the meeting short, say 20-30 minutes max
- Have the meeting on private property, so that you can turn away the uninvited
- Send out personal, written invitations to people you want to join
- Have Society members decide who will get invitations before the invitations are sent out for the next meeting (the Society members are a “filter,” selecting people they feel are men and women of integrity)
- Include on the invitation information about the Society so that people know what it’s all about (the invitations become another “filter,” so only people interested in gift societies will attend)
- Require that donations be made in silver or some other non-government currency (this protects the treasury from the effects of inflation)
- Require that everyone bring their silver dues (donations) to each meeting and, if no stewardship is authorized during the meeting, that they take them back to their home afterward
- If someone hasn’t brought the minimum donation in silver to a meeting, allow them to order some at the meeting (obviously I recommend using the Silver Bartering Currency, but any bullion silver will do)
- Have someone keep track of the membership roll, how much silver each member has brought to the meeting, how much silver each member has contributed to any previously authorized stewardship, and how much total silver is available for use in any stewardship authorized at the meeting
- When a steward has obtained a surplus sufficient to pay back the donation received and he or she brings the donation received as a stewardship to a meeting, divvy up the loot (the silver) and return it back to the same people who originally donated it, according to he record kept
- Cast lots to determine who will receive the first stewardship, the second stewardship, etc.
- If multiple families (clans) form a Society, cast lots to see which clan receives the first stewardship and so on and so forth
- Set a minimum and maximum number of Society members for best efficiency; if more people want in, have them form their own Society
- When all the needs of the Society members have been addressed and everyone is producing a surplus, consider using the surplus to bless those not in the Society or have the Society break up and reform into multiple Societies with new members whose needs are not yet met
- If desired, allow families (clans) to send representatives to the meetings along with the combined clannish silver donation, to keep the meeting at a workable number of people
- Have Society members utilize the Establishment of Zion Think Tank forum both to obtain ideas on how to supply the needs of their membership and also to post ideas for use by other Societies
Next Anarchism/Anarchy article: Spicing up your church experience
Previous Anarchism/Anarchy article: Establishing the tribes of Israel: the real reason for plural marriage
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12 Comments
LDS Anarchy 
Excellent article, a tribal gift economy is a great way to ditch capitalism. We are doing something similar in the Bay Area called the White Cross to provide “gifts” of food and essential items to the homeless.
This reads like the cross between a legal document and a role playing game instruction manual… And so on and so forth. ;P
Wow. A comment.
You know, when I was just a kid, the latest craze was the Dungeons & Dragons role playing games. All the kids at school were into it and I thought it was so cool but never got it as a present, so I saved up my money and road my bicycle to the local comic book shop that sold it and bought myself a D&D starters game. I was so excited as I road home, thinking that finally I would be able to find out what all the fuss was about and participate in some games with my friends. Then, upon entering my house and telling my mother the good news about my recent purchase, she was quick to inform me that she had heard that the leaders of our new church (the LDS church) had counseled against such role playing games, that it was of the devil, etc., etc. I was crushed, but thought that I could still get my money back. But then she told me that I probably shouldn’t take it back so that it could be sold to someone else and have it be a bad influence on them and told me to just throw it away. Back then I was not the anarchist I am today, so I obeyed and chucked the game into the trash, sad about the loss of all the money I had saved up.
Perhaps this post is a manifestation of that repressed memory and my inner desire to still partake of role playing games?
Oh, yeah, and growing up, everyone said I ought to be a lawyer…
The problem to me still exists that whenever a person is given the authority, unless that person is moral, virtuous and full of integrity…it leads to the same problem that government has…corruption by the ones in power. If that is in tribes, clans or government the same problem exists. The threat of getting kicked out of your family for misbehavior only works if everyone in the group is full of that same moral fiber. (except the offender at the time, corruption and all) I hope for each individual man and woman to take it upon themselves to change who they are, so that a society like that can exist. That’s the real problem in this world in my opinion. No on is concerned about character anymore. That’s how we will successfully govern ourselves. Until then, if you can find a group of people that are like that right now? Go for it, I think there would be tremendous benefits. It’s a good outline.
And, from my economy point of view…your mother should have allowed you to take the game back or keep it. After all, the more games sold, the more games produced. The fewer they sell, the fewer games produced. Your mom helped instead of hindering. LoL.
‘Under ancient Irish law the land did not belong to the king or the chief or the landlord, but to the tribe, and the lowest of the free-tribesmen had as much an inalienable right to his share as had the chief himself. In process of time parts of the tribal territory appear to have become alienated to subtribes or families, and the chief, who always… Read More exercised certain administrative duties with respect to the land, appears to have had certain specific portions of the tribal land allotted to himself for his own use, and for the maintenance of his household and relatives. He was in no sense, however, what is now known as a landlord, although the whole tendency of later times was to increase his power at the expense of his tribe and vassals. … Amongst the many bitter injustices inflicted upon Ireland and the Irish by the English conquest none has had more cruel or more far-reaching effects than the abrogation of the Brehon law relating to land-tenure and division of property.
‘ “The head of every tribe”, says the Brehon Law tract the Cain Aigillne, “should be the man of the tribe who is the most experienced, the most notable, the most wealthy, the most learned, the most truly popular, the most powerful to oppose, the most steadfast to sue for profits and to be sued for losses.” As early as the third century, in a well-known piece of Irish literature, Cairbre, afterwards King of Ireland, is depicted as asking his father Cormac Mac Airt the question: “For what qualifications is a king elected over countries and tribes of people?” And Cormac in his answer embodied the views of practically every clan in Ireland down to the beginning of the seventeenth century. “He is chosen”, said the king, “from the goodness of his shape and family, from his experience and wisdom, from his prudence and magnanimity, from his eloquence and bravery in battle, and from the number of his friends.” He was, however, always chosen from the near kindred of the reigning chieftain.’
— 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia
“These laws are of great antiquity and may antedate the coming of the Celts to Ireland. St. Patrick is credited with codifying these laws in the 5th Century. His efforts fill five volumes and are known as the Senchus Mor. Its ordinances are named C’ain Padraic after St. Patrick. These five volumes which have come down to us, however, are only a small portion of the old Irish laws which covered almost every relationship and every fine (finna, family) shade of relationship, social and moral, between man and man.”
I see an emerging pattern here. The Senchus Mor sounds interesting. It’s too bad it is only a part.
Where are you quoting this from?
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02753a.htm
http://www.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/brehon_laws.htm
Senchus Mór
http://books.google.com/books?id=9AYKAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover
http://books.google.com/books?id=S6fPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1
http://books.google.com/books?id=sSgNAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover
[…] a Gift-Based Society Filed under: Money — mahonri @ 8:00 am The Anarchist Mormon makes a suggestion that may seem radical to modern Mormon readers, but which wouldn’t seem […]
(I wasn’t really sure where to put this comment. I guess this post is as good a place as any…)
I recently purchased a musical album, entitled, “Journey Into Paradise: The Larry Levan Story.” I had heard so much about this super-famous DJ, Larry Levan, that I decided that I wanted to hear more of the stuff he had worked on. After getting the album, I was very impressed with his work and I decided to look him up on Wikipedia. In the Wikipedia entry footnotes, there was a hyperlink to an article called, “Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage.”
Apparently, The Paradise Garage (a dance club in New York City) and Larry Levan made an indelible impression upon any and all persons who were able to go there while the club existed. People think of that time attending that particular club (a decade of dancing) as the happiest time of their lives. The article account is fascinating on so many different levels, but the following descriptions of this apparently very happy environment really caught my attention:
So, “inspired anarchy” created this loving, joyous environment, huh? Isn’t that interesting? Look at this next quote which shows that there was more involved than just anarchy:
Did you catch that? “Inside the Garage, the original disco family were continuing and amplifying their tribal rituals.” So, this decade long, bizarre anomaly in clubbing history was a result of tribal anarchy.
If you read through this entire article, you’ll notice elements of a egalitarian tribal anarchy. Tribes have loyalty and take care of one another. There is a sense of brotherhood, etc. Notice what is said in the next quotes:
Anyway, I won’t quote any more of this article. I just found it interesting to hear these obvious descriptions of an egalitarian, tribal anarchy at a club in New York City.
From Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage:
“Inside the Garage, the original disco family were continuing and amplifiying their tribal rituals. And at the centre was Levan himself, a DJ who enjoyed such a passionate relationship with the people on his dancefloor that they worshipped him more or less as a god.”
From Spiritual Gift Giving & Recieving:
“Warning –We’re talking about unlocking and releasing your god potential, so you need to be fully prepared and even expect that people will one day form cults around your name. Hopefully they will eventually look past the persona and catch the vision themselves. Certainly your closest friends will. Then multi-level miracle campaigns will spring up everywhere you go. But even in the humble initial stages of your accumulation and distribution of gifts, you have to be comfortable with being emulated. When we magnificently magnify our callings in life we do not feel threatened in the slightest by copiers or even freeloaders. We respect them as equals and care for them as we would a newborn baby, who cries and eats and does not contribute in the same ways an adult would but is no less valuable in our sight.”
From my heart:
LDSA, I sincerely, strongly and with deep love, suggest that you take the opportunity to apply the principle of F-I-L-E Sharing, L-I-F-E Sharing, Consecration of Physical and Spiritual Properties. This Nov. 8th you could download a healthy dose of Larry Levan’s good energy to honor his passing and receive that torch of freedom and goodwill that he passes to any willing to accept it.
That is a ways in the future so you have plenty of time to prepare yourself spiritually and physically for the simple ritual. But DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! Not because I suggested it…but because you will learn much from the experience and you can bless SO MANY PEOPLES LIVES. Eldie, man….you have already blessed so many lives with your work thus far. I know you aint gonna stop but PLEASE! I ask you with an immense respect and great humility to take it to the next level.
Besides the wonderful exchange of ideas that takes place regularly here at the virtual paradise garage that is the LDS Anarchy blog. We have many who have applied the things written about here….things that YOU have written to their lives and changed reality for the better… Liv, Justin, Dyc4457, Rob Pollard and myself. I remember when I read your post about Fear & Trembling and let it sink into my subconsciously to later apply the formula. It had serious spiritual effects that I can still feel inside and out, over a year later. It is time to take your revelation maybe a little more seriously? I don’t know…and perhaps take your ‘self’ a little less seriously, that’s always good advice for any of us at anytime right?
You and I have spoken before about music …and if you notice music seems to be coming up a lot lately on the blog in comments and posts. It is a pure and perfect vehicle for accomplishing the Lord’s purposes. Just look at the role that music played in my Fear & Trembling cleansing experience inspired by the How To Receive What You Ask For post. Let’s get this party started…It is time for all of us to be anxiously engaged and take the things we talk about from the virtual realm to the physical…unless we only want virtual salvation.
You will note how things go in cycles. Sometimes because we are progressing and sometimes to try to give us second and third and so forth chances…but we all have read enough of the word of God to know that there comes a cut off point with these cycles. I am seeing that about three years and one month ago you were setting forth all of this great info and urging yourself and others to take action to establish communities with this very post. It may not have been the time for all of these actions to fall into place…and maybe more importantly we should see that not EVERY LITTLE THING that we can come up with…not just in our own minds…but also EVERY LITTLE LAW OR COMMANDMENT that we can elicit from the mind of God is expedient. I really learned a lot from LDSA’s observations on THE LAW OF EXPEDIENCY….which is an OVERarching and UNDERlying (if arching is too close to archy) theme in the grand planning of the Universe….I pray that my observations may be taken to heart and considered with an open mind as they come from a broken heart and have been filtered through my mind in a contrite spirit of urgency and excitement even rapture in the Holy Spirit.
I am not saying that you got sidetracked….well yeah we all get sidetracked…often. But I guess what Im throwing out there is that there were some comments from a certain detractor/distracter here that nonetheless point out something really valuable to us. He brought up role-playing. This needs to be fun…and yeah everyone has a role to play. But it is the real deal. So its more than a game in that sense. Actually as God Children play is what we do. But remember that endless rules…a rule written for every imaginable scenario like this fascinating but dangerous collection of ancient Irish law…5 volumes and that’s only scraping the surface??? Damn, talk about some ripe for punishment, impoverishment and just straight up asking the Devil for it lost souls. Sounds as bad as the Jews at the time of Jesus. So bottom line is ….I feel that we are all waking up to and being shown in various aspects of our lives that we must not overthink things….that will only be detrimental in our service to the Lord.
INSPIRED ANARCHY is pragmatic in many ways…but above all else and throughtout it all it is SPONTANEOUS AND ACTIVE AS THE GOD OF LIFE IS.
Elder Chantdown, I love your enthusiasm. It is truly infectious. And I totally appreciate the encouragement you offer me. If it will make you feel any better, let me just say that I truly believe that something new is coming next, some breakthrough that will help us all “take it to the next level,” as you put it, transforming these principles into reality. I don’t know who it will come through, maybe through me, maybe through you or someone else, but I feel confident in this and perhaps it will even come as soon as November 8, as you suggested…
I feel it too. And I know it will come through ALL of us. Each one has a vital part to play. It will be glorious.Great changes are happening at every moment….more momentous shifts are expected in Oct. …Spiritual whisperings have spoken of positive transitions in Nov. and the Holy Ghost promises a wonderful Christmas!