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I thought about this inquiry:

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•Jess• •11/100 recorded songs•

@utotranslucence

What are ways of experimenting on governance and economics on city, nation state and planetary levels? (I.e 1-10 million, 10 million-1 billion, and 8 billion) Detailed simulations Changing games, online communities and social networks Charter cities Pilot government programs

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Obviously Freyja wanted to explore different governance •practices•, not different political forms/arrangements, so my Kalmar thing is answering a question she didn’t quite ask. But maybe it’s aligned in spirit with her inquiry.

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Anyways, aside from being awesome, aesthetically pleasing and a great rejoinder to Brexit (and amusingly Canadian not to become a republic but simply to trade in for a different monarch)... this idea is not completely bananas in the emerging world of the 21st c

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First off, we’re all tiny countries in population, broadly considered middle powers economically. We are small fry compared to US, China, etc But as a collective, the five nation states of Kalmar would have economic + diplomatic clout. In the era 1945-201_, Big whoop. No need

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...to unify. In 202_ onward, there may well be. Our five countries are going to be terribly hit by climate change, and yet relatively speaking we will be better off than many/most others. What this means is that we will be a refuge. Which means refugees.

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And this is where our humanitarian ideals and history of social tolerance and action can serve the planet. Shit might hit the fan, soon, hard. As one somewhat cohesive superstate with (mostly) clear norms about how to treat people (none of these nation states are perfect...

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...all have stains on their records), we could function as a bulwark & an ark for people fleeing the hardest hit areas. In a hundred years, if nation states are still a thing, if humans are still a going concern (eg we haven’t eliminated ourselves or been out competed by tech...

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...or our genetically engineered descendants or a Singularity)... then Kalmar could organize the peaceful migration/settlement of new populations in Greenland. Two hundred and fifty years from now, Kalmar and New Zealand collaborate in settling coastal Antarctica.

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Heck, let’s get really crazy. Kalmar happens, and five years after it’s founding (which occurs dramatically in 202_), the Celtic fringe of Britain leaves and joins Kalmar as well. (Northern Ireland, of course, joins the unified Republic of Eire). So Scotland is a Kalmarian realm

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by the 2030s. Not much else to say. To recap: Kalmar union acts as one of world’s tolerant, non-eco-fascist lifeboats in time of climate chaos and mass migration. In long-term, Kalmar helps create new human communities in novel environments

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Terrible name! The Kalmar union was pure Dano-Swedish exploitation. Otherwise, yeah, cool idea. But incompatible with NATO & the EU. How to navigate that?

9:21 AM · Aug 8, 2019Twitter Web App

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Ok, we can overcome Norwegian resistance with a rebrand.

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Failing that, two battalions of special forces should do... <_<

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I feel like every political system in the European/North American context (and quite a few other areas) is in an elaborately designed deadlock. A lot of the China trade war stuff and Cold War 2.0 with Russia seems to be about their increased eagerness to break that deadlock.

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Hanseatic League 2.0 :D Extends the functionality of an existing legal structure for a new purpose. Not the first time this has been done. Just extend it to every Northern European state with coastal waters. :D

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Now you've replaced "offensive to Norwegians and Finns" with "offensive to most of Europe"!

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