1.
PARALLEL POLIS REVISITED: WAY FROM CONCEPT
OF PARALLEL POLIS TO DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
JOSEF ŠLERKA, 6. 10. 2019

2.
1. INTRODUCTION

3.
1. INRODUCTION
JOSEF ŠLERKA
Why I am here?
I would like to support this project and
https://osome.iuni.iu.edu/demos/echo/

4.
2. PARALLEL POLIS

5.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
CHARTA 77
Charter 77 was an informal civic initiative in the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to
1992, named after the document Charter 77 from
January 1977.
Motivated in part by the arrest of members of the
psychedelic band Plastic People of the Universe,
the text of Charter 77 was prepared in 1976. In
December 1976, the first signatures were
collected.

6.
Mainstream culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7ZmhEGFHj8
Underground: The Plastic People of the Universe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTraKKbsLw8

7.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
CHARTA 77 (VIA WIKIPEDIA)
Charter 77 criticized the government for failing to
implement human rights provisions of a number
of documents it had signed, including the 1960
Constitution of Czechoslovakia, the Final Act of
the 1975 Conference on Security and
Cooperation in Europe (Basket III of the Helsinki
Accords), and 1966 United Nations covenants on
political, civil, economic, and cultural rights.
They was able used the system against system.

8.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
PARALLEL POLIS
Václav Benda:
"The moral right and obligation of a citizen to participate in the rectification of
general things (ie political in the broadest sense of the word) is beyond doubt."
"I therefore propose that we join together in an effort to gradually create parallel
structures, capable of at least limited substitution of the missing and beneficial
functions, where possible, of existing structures and “humanize them.”

9.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
MAIN AREAS
1. Constant monitoring and verification of civic rights and freedoms, which the
state tends to restrict. Parallel Polis consists of people who actively advocate for
(and protect) their rights.

10.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
MAIN AREAS
2. ”Alternative” (underground) culture is independent, and consists of art which is
developed without the permission—or support—of public authorities.

11.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
MAIN AREAS
3. Parallel education and science, representing the right to free education and the
development of scientific research (residential seminars and educational
societies and academies)

12.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
MAIN AREAS
4. A parallel information system as an expression of the right to the free
dissemination of information (such as samizdat publishing and unofficial
magazines and collections)

13.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
MAIN AREAS
5. Parallel economy: "Political power considers this area as a critical resource for
arbitrary control of citizens and strictly regulates it at the same time". The
economy of dissent was based on reciprocity and trust in the individual. It was the
germ of a principle and the search for resources which are not dependent on the
control of monetary tools.

14.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
MAIN AREAS
6. Creation of parallel political structures and the promotion of their
development. The alternative political structures must be incubated in the Parallel
Polis and develop into a form which can replace the ruling authoritarian regime.

15.
2. PARALLEL POLIS
MAIN AREAS
7. Parallel foreign policy must be an instrument of the parallel society for the
international stabilization and grounding of the movement and the search for
financial and mental resources.

16.
3. ESCAPE FROM SYSTEM
#HCPP19: OP-OUT.

17.
3. #HCPP19
ABOUT HCPP19 - OPT-OUT
A nasty dehumanization, carefully marking all
people by their governments, stealing their
biometrics, strengthening the power of territorial
states and suppressing the liberty of individuals.
There remains however the possibility to choose a
suitable permanent residency, to create
international companies, to get a better passport
and to use state cheats to hack the tyrant.

18.
3. #HCPP19
ABOUT HCPP19 - OPT-OUT
Use cryptographic technology to regain privacy,
to save freedom, to step up from the first
constrained realm and to build the second one.
Achieve new freedom using globality and
flexibility.
Opt-out of the system!
1993

19.
3. #HCPP19
HACKER
A computer hacker is any skilled computer expert that uses their technical
knowledge to overcome a problem. While "hacker" can refer to any skilled
computer programmer, the term has become associated in popular culture with a
"security hacker", someone who, with their technical knowledge, uses bugs or
exploits to break into computer systems.
In cyberpunk literature, hacker's biggest enemy are a big corporations, because
states no longer have practical sense.
Somebody who is able used the system against system. We long for
autonomy.

20.
4. ANTINOMY?

21.
4. ANTINOMY?
BUT SO WHAT …
People like you, as well as dissidents in the seventies, think that personal autonomy is
above the will of the people. Or, as liberal thinkers like Habermas would say, that
human rights cannot be abolished by the will of the people.
We long for autonomy.
So what's the problem? First, there is no polis in this congress that cares about its city,
as it has inherited with all layers and views. You're here alone. In this you are more
underground than Chartists :-)
There is a desperate lack of discursive procedures between bubbles. Plus a powerful
problem called the tech gap.

22.
4. ANTINOMY?
BUT SO WHAT …
The regime we live in is not quite comparable to the communist one. Believe me.
But it has its own: populism, whether left-wing or right-wing, is a fundamental
attack on the autonomy of the individual. Today, another divide line, the line
between autonomy and tyranny of the majority, has added to the differences in
redistribution of money.
Finally, the concept of paralaleni polis was local. While the main focus of the
hacking world is virtual and global.

23.
4. ANTINOMY?
BUT SO WHAT …
Great idea. But…

24.
5. DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC

25.
5. DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
The distributed republic is a concept of fluid
republic consisting of land and citizens scattered
around the globe, changing far more frequently than
conventional nation-states. In fiction, many of these
republics are corporate entities, while others are
more loosely connected anarchist communities. The
concept is rooted in the anarcho-capitalist, dystopian
cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, and was used
extensively by novelist Neal Stephenson in his books
Snow Crash and The Diamond Age.
But for me is much more similar to Leagues in Greek
Antiquity (Greek city-state federations)

26.
5. DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
We should encourage people to build more that
one parallel polis that are not so much related to
technical solutions but to the overall etos. Once
the dissidents found their underground. Today,
undeground should find its dissidents.
Being prepared that there is a world out there full
of socialists, liberals, environmentalists who have
completely different views of the world (you know
Klinka), but share with us the idea that freedoms
and human rights are more than the sovereignty
of the people.

27.
5. DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
The best regulation is self-regulation. The best governance is self-
governance.
It offers dual citizenship to its members and is slowly becoming a parallel state
outside geographical boundaries.
The state is not a form of organized violence, but an expression of identity and
elementary values, as well as an institution for the defense of these values.
It may concentrate on the dysfunctional positions of state structures, as the
original strategy of Parallel Polis wanted, but in a completely new situation.

28.
5. DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
CHALLENGES
Testing the limits of freedom today takes place in a number of areas and it is not
possible to choose just what we like. At the same time, however, it is becoming
increasingly apparent how different rights and freedoms come together and I
must not only accept this fact, but also accept it. There is not one freedom that
rules over everyone, just a constant center and effort
Undergroud was the most free component of the Charta 77, technological
underground is just as important for current polis. It is necessary to open as much
as possible and to make it accessible to the widest possible public and to
encourage it in its activity.

29.
5. DISTRIBUTED REPUBLIC
CHALLENGES
As far as education and science are concerned, it is the education that needs to
be made available to peripherals. So is applied science. The threshold of
technology availability for poor areas needs to be lowered.
New forms of economics need to be experimented. One option is to support
local currencies..
… let something new coming up.

30.
THANK YOU