Tootfinder

Series D, Episode 12 - Warlord
ZUKAN: He's been on Betafarl for three hours. He'll have left Scorpio by now.
[Sandpit on Betafarl. Nothing else is in sight.]
SOOLIN: Here?
AVON: According to Zukan's coordinates which were confirmed by flight control.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/323

TL;DR: what if nationalism, not anarchy, is futile?
Since I had the pleasure of seeing the "what would anarchists do against a warlord?" argument again in my timeline, I'll present again my extremely simple proposed solution:
Convince the followers of the warlord that they're better off joining you in freedom, then kill or exile the warlord once they're alone or vastly outnumbered.
Remember that even in our own historical moment where nothing close to large-scale free society has existed in living memory, the warlord's promise of "help me oppress others and you'll be richly rewarded" is a lie that many understand is historically a bad bet. Many, many people currently take that bet, for a variety of reasons, and they're enough to coerce through fear an even larger number of others. But although we imagine, just as the medieval peasants might have imagined of monarchy, that such a structure is both the natural order of things and much too strong to possibly fail, in reality it takes an enormous amount of energy, coordination, and luck for these structures to persist! Nations crumble every day, and none has survived more than a couple *hundred* years, compared to pre-nation societies which persisted for *tends of thousands of years* if not more. I'm this bubbling froth of hierarchies, the notion that hierarchy is inevitable is certainly popular, but since there's clearly a bit of an ulterior motive to make (and teach) that claim, I'm not sure we should trust it.
So what I believe could form the preconditions for future anarchist societies to avoid the "warlord problem" is merely: a widespread common sense belief that letting anyone else have authority over you is morally suspect. Given such a belief, a warlord will have a hard time building any following at all, and their opponents will have an easy time getting their supporters to defect. In fact, we're already partway there, relative to the situation a couple hundred years ago. At that time, someone could claim "you need to obey my orders and fight and die for me because the Queen was my mother" and that was actually a quite successful strategy. Nowadays, this strategy is only still working in a few isolated places, and the idea that one could *start a new monarchy* or even resurrect a defunct one seems absurd. So why can't that same transformation from "this is just how the world works" to "haha, how did anyone ever believe *that*? also happen to nationalism in general? I don't see an obvious reason why not.
Now I think one popular counterargument to this is: if you think non-state societies can win out with these tactics, why didn't they work for American tribes in the face of the European colonizers? (Or insert your favorite example of colonialism here.) I think I can imagine a variety of reasons, from the fact that many of those societies didn't try this tactic (and/or were hierarchical themselves), to the impacts of disease weakening those societies pre-contact, to the fact that with much-greater communication and education possibilities it might work better now, to the fact that most of those tribes are *still* around, and a future in which they persist longer than the colonist ideologies actually seems likely to me, despite the fact that so much cultural destruction has taken place. In fact, if the modern day descendants of the colonized tribes sow the seeds of a future society free of colonialism, that's the ultimate demonstration of the futility of hierarchical domination (I just read "Theory of Water" by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson).
I guess the TL;DR on this is: what if nationalism is actually as futile as monarchy, and we're just unfortunately living in the brief period during which it is ascendant?

Series D, Episode 12 - Warlord
ORAC: Orbit range in seventeen minutes.
SOOLIN: Visual scanners?
DAYNA: Locking on to automatic.
[Crew room]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/8 B7B4

" A grand jury has now found no probable cause to indict Ms Jones on the charged offenses."
Fox News reports violent Antifa warlord released by Obama judge - National Zero
https://nationalzero.com/2025/09/02/fox-news-reports-violent-antifa-warlord-released-by-obama-judge/

D12 - Warlord
ZUKAN: [Shakes head] As long as the installation is right.
AVON: Well, the only problem now is: where do we find enough raw material to keep this lot running? [He is moving about, looking at various circuit boards and so forth.]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/103 B7B3

Great article from NYT about sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan from the UAE. For me it illustrates the bigger problem of the middle-east/gulfstates, the absence of any meaningful democracy, too rich oligarchs with too much power. Politically the people are living in medieval times there.

Conquering Soccer and Arming Warlords
The Emirati vice president is best known as the owner of Manchester City, a top English soccer team. Behind the scenes, he has been described as the “handler” guiding his country’s secret foreign wars.

Series D, Episode 12 - Warlord
AVON: He's going to get here and discover that his daughter is nowhere to be found before we've even finished loading.
SOOLIN: Unless we get a move on.
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/237 B7B2

#Blakes7 Series D, Episode 12 - Warlord
ZUKAN: Insofar as we on Betafarl have always sought to protect ourselves and our borders, there are some here who would not be unjustified in regarding us as aggressors, but if it is aggression to protect oneself by ensuring that the others remain weak, then we have been aggressors.
BOORVA: Ah.

Series D, Episode 12 - Warlord
AVON: All right, come along and hold her hand if you must, but in the meantime you can make yourself useful, there's a fault on the inner door alignment. [Soolin heads toward the door.]
[Comm room]
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/171 B7B4

D12 - Warlord
ZEEONA: I'm a biogenetic engineer, I work with this kind of equipment all the time. I thought I could help to put it together.
TARRANT: We're unlikely to be ready for that today, so why not let Soolin show you to your father's quarters?
https://blake.torpidity.net/m/412/63