u/nomadicsamiam

In 2019, I had just finished the Peace Corps and was traveling around, trying to figure out what to do with my life.

I was in my mid-twenties, a little depressed, and looking for a cause.

Then I saw Pete Buttigieg on a late-night show.

He seemed to check every box I was looking for in a leader: service-oriented, intellectual, thoughtful, and guided by a strong code of ethics.

So I returned to the United States, bought a motorcycle in Los Angeles, and rode it across the country to South Bend, Indiana, where Pete announced his presidential campaign in April 2019.

I ran out of gas a few times, spent a night near Skid Row, and met people from all walks of American life along the way.

A few months later, I converted an old coffee-delivery van in Seattle into a place to live and drove to Iowa to volunteer for the campaign. I eventually got hired and spent nearly six months organizing in Des Moines.

One of the most important parts of organizing for the Iowa caucuses was recruiting precinct captains.

A precinct captain was the person responsible for representing the candidate inside the caucus room. They gathered supporters, persuaded undecided voters, coordinated with campaign staff, and helped keep the group organized through a complicated process.

There was one precinct where Pete didn't have a captain.

For months, I had been meeting with a woman who lived there. I checked in with her, listened to her stories and concerns, and explained why I believed Pete was the right candidate.

She had personal connections to another candidate and originally intended to caucus for her.

On caucus day, I made the strongest ask I could.

I gave her my best pitch for Pete with all the passion I could muster. She agreed not only to caucus for him, but to serve as his precinct captain and recruit others. When she needed transportation, I helped coordinate a ride.

That night, Pete went from being nonviable in her precinct to winning three delegates.

The statewide results were notoriously chaotic. Bernie Sanders received more votes, while Pete Buttigieg finished ahead in the State Delegate Equivalent count by less than a single delegate.

I cannot prove that this one woman determined the statewide result. The caucus math was complicated, the reporting was messy, and thousands of organizers and voters affected the outcome.

But the final margin was so small that the woman I recruited may have accounted for giving Pete the edge. Of course, each organizer made the outcome happen, and all could probably point to that one that gave the edge, and that's what's incredible. How much one person can matter.

That result changed the way the country viewed Pete's campaign.

I drove directly from Iowa to New Hampshire and started knocking on doors. I believed that if Pete could follow Iowa with an upset victory there, the media attention, fundraising, and momentum could give him a real path to the nomination.

He came close, but he didn't win.

Bernie Sanders won New Hampshire and Nevada. Joe Biden then won South Carolina, the field consolidated around him, and Pete dropped out.

Biden ultimately became the nominee and won the presidency.

Would everything have unfolded differently without Pete’s narrow Iowa result? Would Bernie have emerged from Iowa as the undisputed winner? Would that have changed the media narrative, fundraising, endorsements, or consolidation of the field?

I do not know.

But I still think about the fact that one conversation may have influenced the direction of a presidential primary and, perhaps, the general election that followed.

The experience taught me that people without money, fame, or formal power can still make an impact in politics.

It also gave me a strange, Hunter S. Thompson-like view of presidential campaigning.

I helped a Kennedy recruit precinct captains in rural Dutch Country, Iowa. I slept on Jim Clyburn’s grandson’s couch the morning Clyburn announced his endorsement of Joe Biden, sealing the deal for Biden.

I met Pete, spoke with members of his family, and felt genuine warmth and a sense of belonging.

I also had wealthy donors tell me over cocktails that I probably did not know much about opera because I was “just a farmer boy,” giving me a sour taste of the disconnected political power brokers (on both sides)

When the campaign ended, the pandemic began.

I returned to my family’s fifth-generation farm and realized that agriculture was where I wanted to dedicate my life.

Today, I split my time between my family’s farm and small farms in Brazil. I focus on agroforestry, Syntropic Agriculture, and the question of how small farms can help create more resilient and self-reliant communities. I still believe in the power of a small group of people to change the world for the better.

I still support Pete and his message of belonging. But more than anything, the experience left me wondering how many moments in history turn on conversations that almost never happened.

Ask me anything about:

• Political organizing and getting involved in politics
• The 2020 Primary- meeting candidates, campaign families, donors, and political insiders
• Leaving politics, returning to my family farm, and building resilient communities
• Why I believe Agroforestry and Syntropic Agriculture can change the world and how

Community. The second you say it, the second it isn’t really there. It exists only when the rest falls into place. What’s the rest?

Infrastructure, institutions, culture. Culture mirroring institutions and infrastructure. When we create spaces and time that align this is where “community” is found.

In the serendipitous interactions that feel like chance but are actually designed is a sense of offering the space for them to happen.

Could this be a great day?

Wake up naturally because alarm clocks are an insane concept. Ease into the day. No digital for the first hour, as this spikes dopamine too early.

A good meal and coffee around others.

Now there’s an option: you can do your local work now or later in the evening; there are shifts. What might your local work include? It is centered around local needs- food, water, energy, shelter, social.

Perhaps you help grow food, repair a shared building, prepare meals, teach a skill, care for children or elders, restore a watershed, maintain an energy system, or organize a neighborhood gathering.

This is not your entire identity, nor is it necessarily your career. It is simply part of belonging to a place.

Everyone contributes some portion of their time to maintaining the systems that make life possible. The work is visible. Its purpose is clear. You know who benefits from it because they are your neighbors, and you benefit from their work in return.

The rest of your day may be spent doing work connected to the wider world. You might collaborate with people across continents, build a company, study a subject, create art, conduct research, or solve a problem for someone you may never meet.

Technology allows your mind and your work to travel while your body and your responsibilities remain rooted in something real.

This is the balance: Globally connected, locally accountable.

After your work, you move through a place designed for life rather than merely for transportation. Daily needs are close enough to reach on foot or by bicycle. Children are present. Older people are present. Public spaces are essential infrastructure and deliberate.

You run into someone you know. You stop and talk because neither of you is rushing between isolated destinations. Perhaps you hear about a meal happening that evening, a project that needs another set of hands, or someone who could use support.

These interactions look spontaneous, but the conditions behind them are intentional.

There are shared kitchens, workshops, gardens, courtyards, libraries, bathhouses, studios, athletic spaces, childcare centers, and gathering rooms. There are places where participation costs nothing, and you do not need to buy anything to be.

There is enough privacy to feel like an individual and enough interdependence to remember that you are not one.

In the evening, people gather. Not every night and not through obligation, but often enough that loneliness does not become the default condition of adulthood.

There may be music, food, conversation, games, learning, planning, celebration, or simply the comfort of being around others without needing a reason.

The goal is to build something new: the freedom of modern life without its isolation, the reach of technology without its disembodiment, and the security of community without its coercion.

A person should be able to leave, explore, change, and become someone new. But they should also have somewhere meaningful to return to.

A future where place matters more and where we can connect to everywhere without losing our relationship to somewhere.

This is a resilient, strong, and joyful future. A future worth building.

Born into the worst conditions imaginable, tens of thousands rose up and broke their chains against one of the greatest military minds the world had ever seen. They burned their own cities and plantations to the ground- "Better a country in ruins than a country in chains." They did whatever it took to win because now winning was a punishment worse than death.

Now you might be saying, after hearing this, that Haiti is still in ruins to this day, that they did not succeed, and that how things are now is a testament to capitalism and the support of the West. Let me educate you on what happened after they whooped the French and became the first and only nation born from a slave rebellion, the first in the Americas to ban slavery, and the first nation to gain independence in Latin America.

And yes, it involves building decentralized, resilient, self-reliant communities of part-time farmers. It also proves that systemic racism exists.

Thomas Jefferson was terrified that the Haitian Revolution would spark a revolt in the U.S.

They imposed an embargo along with all the other great powers of the time. No one would trade with a Black-run nation, despite it being one of the richest economies in the Americas before the revolution.

The US didn’t even recognize Haiti for 60 years. Not until the American Civil War and the fall of slavery in the states. Some thanks for the Haitians that fought for American Independence during the American Revolution, saving many American lives at the Siege of Savannah.

Oh, but the Haitians didn’t give up and submit to the powers that be, ignoring them and outright conspiring for their failure. Like the true revolutionaries they were, they said, alright then, fuck you. They built a system called Lakou. Grassroots, communal living, farming, and spirituality that took place in houses clustered around courtyards. They took care of their basic needs, existing outside of the systems we rely on today.

They played music and sang while working the land and feasting at night. They built self-sufficient societies centered around mutual aid and community resilience. They built outside of capitalism.

And it probably would have been able to thrive, too, had it not been for the French returning and demanding payment not to invade.

Haiti would go on to be forced to pay over half a billion dollars in debt, causing a loss of investment estimated at hundreds of billions that could have been used to build a nation. Some 40% of their budget would go to the French just to exist. They wouldn’t finish paying that debt until 1947. 1947. 122 years.

Paying a debt because they were a black nation trying to exist. Systemic racism exists, and black excellence exists- evident in rising from being treated as property, not even human. To leaders of their own nation. 

And that is the greatest revolution ever. Happy 4th.

Born into the worst conditions imaginable, tens of thousands rose up and broke their chains against one of the greatest military minds the world had ever seen. They burned their own cities and plantations to the ground- "Better a country in ruins than a country in chains." They did whatever it took to win because now winning was a punishment worse than death.

Now you might be saying, after hearing this, that Haiti is still in ruins to this day, that they did not succeed, and that how things are now is a testament to capitalism and the support of the West. Let me educate you on what happened after they whooped the French and became the first and only nation born from a slave rebellion, the first in the Americas to ban slavery, and the first nation to gain independence in Latin America.

And yes, it involves building decentralized, resilient, self-reliant communities of part-time farmers. It also proves that systemic racism exists.

Thomas Jefferson was terrified that the Haitian Revolution would spark a revolt in the U.S.

They imposed an embargo along with all the other great powers of the time. No one would trade with a Black-run nation, despite it being one of the richest economies in the Americas before the revolution.

The US didn’t even recognize Haiti for 60 years. Not until the American Civil War and the fall of slavery in the states. Some thanks for the Haitians that fought for American Independence during the American Revolution, saving many American lives at the Siege of Savannah.

Oh, but the Haitians didn’t give up and submit to the powers that be, ignoring them and outright conspiring for their failure. Like the true revolutionaries they were, they said, alright then, fuck you. They built a system called Lakou. Grassroots, communal living, farming, and spirituality that took place in houses clustered around courtyards. They took care of their basic needs, existing outside of the systems we rely on today.

They played music and sang while working the land and feasting at night. They built self-sufficient societies centered around mutual aid and community resilience. They built outside of capitalism.

And it probably would have been able to thrive, too, had it not been for the French returning and demanding payment not to invade.

Haiti would be forced to pay over half a billion dollars in debt, causing a loss of investment estimated at hundreds of billions that could have been used to build a nation. Some 40% of their budget would go to the French just to exist. They wouldn’t finish paying that debt until 1947. 1947. 122 years.

Paying a debt because they were a black nation trying to exist. Systemic racism exists, and black excellence exists- evident in rising from being treated as property, not even human. To leaders of their own nation. 

And that is the greatest revolution ever. Change my mind.

Born into the worst conditions imaginable, tens of thousands rose up and broke their chains against one of the greatest military minds the world had ever seen. They burned their own cities and plantations to the ground- "Better a country in ruins than a country in chains." They did whatever it took to win because now winning was a punishment worse than death.

Now you might be saying, after hearing this, that Haiti is still in ruins to this day, that they did not succeed, and that how things are now is a testament to capitalism and the support of the West. Let me educate you on what happened after they whooped the French and became the first and only nation born from a slave rebellion, the first in the Americas to ban slavery, and the first nation to gain independence in Latin America.

And yes, it involves building decentralized, resilient, self-reliant communities of part-time farmers. It also proves that systemic racism exists.

Thomas Jefferson was terrified that the Haitian Revolution would spark a revolt in the U.S.

They imposed an embargo along with all the other great powers of the time. No one would trade with a Black-run nation, despite it being one of the richest economies in the Americas before the revolution.

The US didn’t even recognize Haiti for 60 years. Not until the American Civil War and the fall of slavery in the states. Some thanks for the Haitians that fought for American Independence during the American Revolution, saving many American lives at the Siege of Savannah.

Oh, but the Haitians didn’t give up and submit to the powers that be, ignoring them and outright conspiring for their failure. Like the true revolutionaries they were, they said, alright then, fuck you. They built a system called Lakou. Grassroots, communal living, farming, and spirituality that took place in houses clustered around courtyards. They took care of their basic needs, existing outside of the systems we rely on today.

They played music and sang while working the land and feasting at night. They built self-sufficient societies centered around mutual aid and community resilience. They built outside of capitalism.

And it probably would have been able to thrive, too, had it not been for the French returning and demanding payment not to invade.

Haiti would go on to be forced to pay over half a billion dollars in debt, causing a loss of investment estimated at hundreds of billions that could have been used to build a nation. Some 40% of their budget would go to the French just to exist. They wouldn’t finish paying that debt until 1947. 1947. 122 years.

Paying a debt because they were a black nation trying to exist. Systemic racism exists, and black excellence exists- evident in rising from being treated as property, not even human. To leaders of their own nation. 

And that is the greatest revolution ever. Happy 4th.

We are at the lowest labor force participation rate in 50 years.

What does this mean?

Pro: For those looking, it does mean a smaller talent pool to compete against, and that may push wages up.

Cons: Stalls overall economic growth (if more people still means more growth) and strains our social safety net as more and more people need assistance.

We can expect the labor force to continue to shrink as baby boomers age out and birth rates decline.

Immigration is projected to bring nearly all of the labor force growth over the next couple of decades, but this can vary greatly based on who is in the White House.

We can't do much as individuals to affect the macro-environment; just know that you are not alone. Consistency is key, and perseverance is generally rewarded in the job search.

Hang in there and ask for help.

We are complicit, collectively. Mark Zuckerberg controls billions because billions of other people and I check Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook before even saying Good Morning to their family or getting out of bed in the morning.

Do I like that I do this? No. Do I feel better all day when I don't? Absolutely.

This level of attack on our most primitive psychological vulnerabilities is damn near perfect in the sense of consuming life and taking time and attention.

Do we need packages delivered in an hour? No. But if it's an option, we naturally take it.

Congrats to the billionaires; they have found optimal environments within the host and gone viral. As Bezos has referred to it, he has his "winnings". He won capitalism. A race to the bottom of our most basic human instincts.

So now, what to do when you have those incredible sums of capital?

One would think you'd set to work appealing to the better angels of human nature. You have won the reptilian brain- How about supporting the activities of the prefrontal cortex?

How about supporting long-term reward systems rather than short-term gratification?

Investing in supporting as many humans as possible in what we know leads to a healthy, happy, longer, and more fulfilling life-

Spending time with loved ones, eating nutritious food grown in a way that supports biodiversity and healthy and balanced planetary systems, working less and playing more, reducing financial stress, and building resilient communities capable of managing crisis situations and long-term problems.

Billionaires, I see you; you won. Now what are we going to do about it? How are we going to get creative and start thinking bigger picture on longer time horizons?

The fate of the world depends on it.

Comment “review” if you’d like one!

Upvote, comment, and share to get this to job seekers in your network who could use a little extra help.

Think about how money moves and is recycled.

Yes, eventually the pooled capital is released as inheritance (although increasingly concentrated), but what is happening now?

More and more sophisticated technologies for capital extraction are being implemented and propped up predominantly by the equity of Boomers and Gen X.

Companies conducting psychological warfare on younger populations- social media, gambling, porn.

Withholding all the land and hiking up the rents, designing universities to extract present and future wealth on false promises of higher income and secure employment,

I am increasingly of the opinion that many of our problems stem from how we treat our elderly and from how we have dismantled the family, or from a better societal safety net for the elderly in the form of better-funded social security.

Would older generations cling so hard to their 401 (k) s, propped up by a handful of companies that are expert wealth extractors, damaging the long-term viability of our species, if they lived with their children and didn't feel like they needed millions in the bank to retire and age with dignity?

Edit with my main point: There are A LOT of wealthy old people who signal and say they are for reducing income inequality and are anti-corporate greed, but would NEVER sell their 401Ks, where most of their wealth resides, in the very companies they complain about. Actions speak louder than words.