We’ve spent a lot of time talking about why the world is a Molochian shit show. In this 9th session with Jim, we stop admiring the problem and start looking at the bill.
If Game A is a sinking ship, how much does it cost to build the lifeboats?
Jim, being the veteran strategist he is, doesn’t deal in vague utopianisms. He deals in numbers. And the number to reach “Phase One”, the proof of existence that actually scales, is roughly one billion dollars.
The 3% Tipping Point
We often feel like we need to convince everyone to change. We don’t. Social complexity science suggests that once a committed cadre reaches 3% of the population, the status quo starts to wobble. At 15%, the game flips.
In the U.S., 3% is about 10 million people. To house them in functioning, trading “proto-bees” (communities of 150 to 3,000 people), we need a massive infusion of capital. But here’s the kicker: the total cost to transition the U.S. over the next 60 years is about $200 billion.
That sounds like a lot until you realize it’s only one-half of one percent of annual U.S. philanthropic spending. We aren’t asking for the impossible; we’re asking for the rounding error on the guilt-money of the billionaire class.
The Strategic Hedge
So why hasn’t it happened? Because nobody has presented a plausible battle plan. Until now.
The pitch to the rich isn’t just “save the trees.” It’s a sophisticated financial hedge. We tell them: Keep 98% of your assets in the game you know, but put 2% into building the standby operating system. If the shit hits the fan [and between the debt burst and climate change, it will] you want a world that actually knows how to function.
It’s insurance for their descendants. It’s buying a stake in the only system that won’t burn down when the grid fails.
Conquest from the Bottom Up
While the media is obsessed with the “Kings” and the national drama in D.C., Jim points to a more effective flank: Local power.
In a rural county, 1,000 to 10,000 votes don’t just influence an election, they own it. If Game B communities start taking over county commissions and school boards, they can begin the “Great Repeal.” They can legalize composting toilets, rewrite zoning laws that forbid self-sufficiency, and dismantle the health department rules that treat nature as a biohazard.
We don’t need the Presidency yet. We need the local permit office.
Punctuated Equilibrium
The growth won’t be a smooth line. It will be “punctuated equilibrium.” We build the infrastructure in the quiet years, and then, when Game A hits a crisis like a financial collapse or a climate disaster, we surge. We provide the “osmotic pressure” that sucks people out of the burning building and into a membrane that actually works.
It takes three generations to fully enculturate a new way of being. We are the first generation. We are the ones who have to build the first five experiments, learn from the failures, and “fork” the governance until it’s unbreakable.
It’s time to move from talk-talk-talk to walk-walk-walk.
