castle in the sky

The re-election of Obama has produced a rich harvest of the crazy and the paranoid, but my favorite example is this (map below), an attempt to build a walled fortress in the mountains of Idaho where gun ownership will be compulsory, "Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles," and the inhabitants will be prepared for the apocalypse, as long as the hordes haven't discovered, say, cannon.

On a different end of the right-fantasy scale is this attempt to create Singapore near Detroit.  "Twenty nine years prior (2013), Belle Isle was sold by the city of Detroit for $1 billion dollars to a group of investors who believed in individual freedom, liberty and free markets.  They formed their own city-state, with innovative systems of government, taxation, labor and money.  People soon came from all over the world to be part of this culture of unlimited opportunity.  Belle Isle became the “Midwest Tiger,” rivaling Singapore as an economic miracle.  Although numbering only 35,000 citizens, it generated billions of dollars in desperately needed economic growth and became a social laboratory for the western world."  The island location keeps up libertarian fantasy's long association with the sea.

My guess is that "Belle Isle" is a genuine fantasy, whereas "the Citadel" is a con job. Note they're taking "Application Fees" of $208 and that you can only lease your property in the redoubt, not buy (like China!).They repeatedly stress that they are NOT RACISTS. If I had the money to burn, I would lease half the spots and donate them to Black Panther groups.

 

Comments

[JamesP]

Yup, con - http://politicker.com/2013/01/meet-the-men-who-want-to-build-an-armed-castle-commune-for-patriots/

[coldglass]

I like the inclusion of a combined 'Firearms Museum & Reflecting Pool'.

[Leonard Hatred]

Let 'em do it, I say, so long as everyone knows what they're getting into. At least we'll know where they all are!

[dsquared]

ooh, a farmers' market!

[CMcM]

More joy in the FAQ section

The model will be similar in many ways to that of Disneyland. It is walled, gated, private property with controlled access. People pay to enter and agree to the rules because they see value in doing so. It is all based on a voluntary agreement between the owners of the property and those who want to come inside. Millions of people visit Disneyland and interact peacefully. It's exceptionally rare to hear of any serious problems. The key is that those people want to be there and understand what is expected of them. Surprisingly similar to what we are doing.

[Alex]

Nice of them to provide the feds with a clear helicopter LZ right in the middle, and next to the waterworks and power station too!

[ajay]

People go to Disneyland to have fun, though. It has roller coasters. I see no roller coasters here.

Those FAQs are indeed interesting. Apparently what we're looking at here is "A gated and walled community in the style of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rothenburg_ob_der_Tauber)"

Rothenburg ob der Tauber? I haven't heard of it, but... hmm, looks very nice, well-preserved mediaeval town centre, city walls...oh, wait, what's this?

"Rothenburg held a special significance for Nazi ideologists. For them, it was the epitome of the German 'Home Town', representing all that was quintessentially German. Throughout the 1930s the Nazi organisation "KDF" ("Kraft durch Freude") Strength through Joy organized regular day trips to Rothenburg from all across the Reich."

Hmm.

[Chris Williams]

Rothenburg is very beautiful, but owing to a chance survival of its medieval criminal justice records we know an awful lot about what they liked doing to criminals, especially those not from these parts. Breaking on the wheel featured heavily. It was very Daily Mail Island in Rothenburg o t.

Regarding the Citadel... I love those interior walls. Just the ticket for when the white supremacist Baptists fall out with the Christian Identity hardliners.

[Alex]

We really need Charlie Whitaker's perspective on the architecture; I think it's got a pretty bad case of cul-de-sacs-that-generate-traffic.

Also, on Chris's point, the good news is that several important choke points are very close to that park.

[Barry Freed]

What traffic? Other than the town center and the inside perimeter, there are no roads/streets/footpaths.

[chris y]

Tom Levenson had a nice anecdote about this thing yesterday. His version of the "plan" also clarifies that the large building top right is an ARMS Factory (Citadel people's emphasis).

[NomadUK]

Someone's been reading Oath of Fealty, it seems.

[ajay]

I am wondering who "John Parker" is to have a green named after him. Wiki has some plausible candidates:

captain of the Lexington militia at the Battle of Lexington
or
(aka "Gatling Gun Parker"), Brigadier General (ret.) U.S. Army, officer commanding the Gatling Gun Detachment in Cuba during the Spanish-American War?
Or, more disturbingly:
bodyguard to Abraham Lincoln, derelict of duty the night of Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

But probably not
African American abolitionist, inventor, and industrialist
or
fictional character in Buckaroo Banzai

[dsquared]

I wonder who's going to be buying the houses in that "neighbourhood" next to the explosives factory.

Per Wikipedia, it is this John Parker. Who is apparently most famous for having been massacred, along with his family and friends, in a poorly-thought out and constructed thought. Takes all sorts.

[chris y]

in a poorly-thought out and constructed thought.

I think they were massacred in a poorly-thought out and constructed fort. The poorly-thought out and constructed thought consisted in naming the village green in your theme park proposal after him.

[Richard J]

I'm not quite sure that Wikipedia article quite satisfies WP:NPOV.

[ajay]

Calling it a "village green" makes me think of Sandford, Gloucestershire, the original highly-localised, heavily-armed, self-governing community, where everyone and his mum is packing.

-- Like who?
-- Farmers.
-- Who else?
-- Farmers' mums.

[chris y]

Oh Jesus, Glenn Beck too.

[Chris Williams]

You know, if I was a suspicious and bitter kind of white supremacist evil man, I would begin to suspect that the Citadel was actually thought up by a ZOG plant to get all the righteous in one place so as to deal with them (Perhaps in a C18th re-enactment stylee, using only black powder rockets and 13" mortars to rub it in. Or perhaps with the whole fedgov black helicopter schtick; look, there's even a lake to make the SEALs feel at home! Bless.) all at once. The name's a bit of a giveaway. And if phase 2 doesn't work, phase 1 nicely de-funds them.

[Richard J]

Only one exit makes a bit more sense now. Who controls the key?

[Chris Williams]

Also, Vauban. Oh, he was French. Sorry.

[Richard J]

I think you'd have to pick Vauban up off the floor once he stopped laughing at the layout of the walls and the towers - NB the absence of any mutual support.

[guthrie]

Yes, the outer wall is pretty much a waste of time from the 1400's onwards. They should be using earthen mounds with at most a facing of stone.

Surely the ARMS factory should be in the centre of the castle, since it is so important, possibly even worshipful?

[Barry Freed]

NB the absence of any mutual support.

Mutual support? That sounds like commie pinko talk to me.

[Cameron Willis]

" I would begin to suspect that the Citadel was actually thought up by a ZOG plant to get all the righteous in one place so as to deal with them."

All too right, to my eyes. It's designed like a prison. Replace the neighbourhoods with cell blocks and the town centre with administration buildings, and it's a prison. The separated and walled factories, the single entrance, the lack of roads, the wall towers, even the second fence line for catching escapees who make it over the first wall: all standard to penal architecture.

[nick s]

It's designed like a prison.

Or a set of exurban gated communities, but same difference there. It definitely doesn't look like Rothenburg, with those acre-plus tracts that Americans consider necessary to avoid Euroweeniedom.

[ajay]

Cameron: True. If this was a defensive setup, shouldn't the towers be on the outer wall? As it stands you could suppress any defenders on the outer wall with fire, and advance right up to it, and the defenders on the inner wall wouldn't be able to see you because you'd be in dead ground behind the outer wall. But the towers are on the inner wall... which only makes sense if the threat is coming from the inside.

[nathan]

"We have purchased 20 mountaintop acres in Benewah County. This will become the initial factory location for our firearms company and will be developed into a Showcase for the larger Citadel concept. Improvements to the mountaintop Showcase property will begin in the Spring/Summer of 2013. We have been calling this property our Beachhead."

Interesting in terms of marketing how they could (if they were serious and the guns were quality) create a brand with strong emotional resonance in what is basically a crowded market of business's selling guns.

They got their USP

[coldglass]

Assuming this is basically an attempt to promote their brand via viral marketing, I kind of want it to be a huge success so they'll find themselves actually having to build and run the thing.

[Barry Freed]

TPM the other day posted a more extensive story on the place that's worth a read.