Some dreamers hope their new states will be the lands in which they can be (or might have been in some previous age) their own kings and queens and heroes, in which they can play with dreams of power and glory without fear of failure, as the Brontë sisters did in composing their childhood epics of the kingdoms of Angria and Gondal. Indeed, Bruno Fuligni, in his study of ephemeral states and micronations, L’Etat, c’est Moi, calls such entities private monarchies or, perhaps more accurately, cryptarchies.

But the actual state can’t be set aside at will. One can’t merely nail a declaration of independence to one’s front door and bid the state farewell. Failing to pay taxes, for instance, will soon make one’s true sovereign, the non-fictional state supported by lawyers and policemen, exercise its power to collect.

@ Cabinet