SNaP[1] Module #4: The Barrier Cloud
Understanding the key obstacle to a free society
by Brian Wright

So I know what you're thinking: "Dude's reviewing his own stuff. Must be hard up." Well, either that or at the earlier stage of the promotion process, where nobody knows the book has been published and a few words of description by the author can start the ball rolling. [And, lol, I am hard up.]

Audience of Book

A word up front, because for this particular book—which is actually a 28-page, easy-to-read booklet—I envision sending the knowledge out to a fairly select group of individuals. The Barrier Cloud conveys the core ideas needed for all freedom fighters to be successful. I'll put it even more strongly: if key leaders and followers in the freedom movement do not learn and adopt the concepts presented in this book, full flowering of a benevolent society without coercion is unlikely. Thus, this book and review are addressed to "key leaders and followers in the freedom movement." You know who you are.

Publishing Context—Marketing the SNaP

The Barrier Cloud[2] represents some new thinking for how to bring the core ideas of the Sacred Nonaggression Principle to the marketplace... both a) to the general readership of caring, conscientious world citizens[3] who are at least emotionally inclined toward political liberty and b) to the self-identified libertarian activists of whom there are not yet sufficient numbers. I made the decision, subconsciously as it turns out, to break the SNaP book—published via Lulu—into seven distinct "modules," more easily digestible chunks of knowledge... for the younger, who do not like to read long stuff, and for the older, who find it difficult to read long stuff. These are the seven standalone modules, each approximately 28 pages:

1. The Kindergarten Rules—“Don’t hit, don’t steal, don’t lie.” The nonaggression principle comes from simple truths, core values.
2. Nonaggression 101—The fundamental rule of live and let live, and why it needs to be sacred.
3. The Roots of Nonaggression—Psychological qualities that promote a society without coercion, the sine qua non of enlightenment.
4. The Barrier Cloud (this book)—Addresses main causes of obstacles to movement along the Nonaggression Vector.
5. Breakthru Strategy—Grand and petite strategies for busting the Barrier Cloud.
6. Productive Action—Taking it to the streets: undoing the state and asserting our natural freedom to live our lives.
7. Nonaggression Faith—Useful techniques for assessing progress and encouraging the SNaP in our lives. Religion and references.

The book size is now 5.5" by 8.5" (vs. std. 'paperback' 4.250 x 6.875) and text size was also increased to 13 point Times Roman, with plenty of spacing. Then, in keeping with the whole goal of approachability and usability, I conceived of the set of documents as a series of stepped- learning training manuals, each addressing a fundamental area of understanding and/or action about the SNaP. Hence, the tongue-in-cheek title for the series: Liberation Technology User's Guide. Finally, I changed publishers from Lulu to Amazon's Createspace, to take advantage of automated ISBN assignment and much wider sales distribution.[4]

Conceptually Appropriate

When the proof modules were first delivered, I was thrilled to learn that they solved—or at least hugely mitigated—the singular problem(s) with my SNaP book: specifically, the high density of new (though simple) concepts and, generally, the stress felt by many in dealing with conceptual material. By repackaging into smaller units, this high density of new concepts has become much easier for the average reader to give it a go.[5]

For example, in the Barrier Cloud module, I ask the question: "If humans are naturally inclined not to aggress, then why aggression?" Which are actually two concepts at issue. Then I theorize a barrier to nonaggression consisting of an internal cause and an external cause, both biological in nature. These represent approx. four additional concepts. I discuss the causes, justifying my theory and proposing cures to the causes, outlining several more concepts. Basically, Module #4 describes the nature of the impediments to freedom and how they can be removed. Once grasped, freedom is ours.

Limitations and Criticism

Keep in mind that The Barrier Cloud is the middle module of an entire series of modules, the central argument in a series of arguments for the nonaggression principle. What I've proposed is "just a theory," and, further, I have had neither the time nor the resources to elaborate or buttress that theory to the extent that fleets of scholars and scientists might. Still I'm confident that the fundamental tenets of the theory are sufficiently self-evident that gaps in demonstration will be filled routinely in due time. In any case, the main proposal—the SNaP—stands as axiomatic.

People will achieve a benevolent society without coercion most assuredly by understanding what stands in its way. The external cause is a small group of psychologically diseased men who lack the natural inclination to live and let live: they have coalesced in stealth over time at the top of a hierarchy of immense political and economic power. Specifically, The Barrier Cloud draws solid references to the essence of this "patharchy," in the modern Western world, and how it exploits the internal cause... which is a persistent primitive brain structure, the limbic system, that many normal humans let overrule critical, independent thinking. The cure to the external cause is the truth, that is exposure of the "men of the power sickness;" the cure to the internal cause is spiritual enlightenment.

Fortunately, by understanding the simple concepts explained in The Barrier Cloud and putting into practice the lessons of the Liberation Technology series, humans can rapidly dispel the obstacles to their social destiny: a benevolent society without coercion. I will send a free, signed copy of The Barrier Cloud to anyone who accesses the Amazon page for the book and leaves a paragraph of serious comment; simply send me an email once you have made your review. Thank you for helping us break through.

[1] Sacred Nonaggression Principle: the idea that eliminating the initiation of force from human relationships is our highest calling in a social context. As advocated in my book of the same name.

[2] Full title Liberation Technology User's Guide: Module #4: The Barrier Cloud.

[3] I use the term citizen in its colloquial sense of one who identifies himself as a member of a body politic out of responsibility for seeing justice and freedom prevail for all in that body politic. A standard legal definition of citizen is "one who gives his allegiance to a state in return for protection by the state."

[4] As of this review, the first six modules have been published and are available on Amazon.com. Module #7 is scheduled for completion by April 1, 2011, as is the Amazon-published version of the Sacred Nonaggression Principle (all seven modules combined).

[5] What is a concept? Let me stay simple: a concept is a mental shorthand that treats an entire class of entities or actions as a unit, signified by a word or phrase distinguishing that class from a larger class of entities or actions through a definition. Reading and writing are mostly about concepts and thinking; passive image viewing is mostly about percepts and emotions.

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2011 January 14
Copyright © Brian Wright | The Coffee Coaster™
Barrier Cloud | SNaP Module #4 | Nonaggression Principle | Limbic System

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