The following is an excerpt from my upcoming book, "Vonu: A Strategy for Self-Liberation." Herein, I tell you all about mean-time to harassment, such as: why it's important, how to gauge the efficacy of your vonu lifestyle, and input Rayo had to offer. Keep in mind, this is still technically the first draft of the manuscript, so if you find any typos, please let me know! :)
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So, how does one gauge whether or not their current lifestyle makes them more invulnerable to coercion and to what degree? Well, right at the outset, Rayo formulated the idea of mean-time to harassment, which he defined as:
…the strength of vonu, usually expressed in years. MTH is typically used to gauge the profitable viability of concealing a vonuum (the place or situation of an invulnerability to coercion) relative to one’s competency at vonumy (the art of achieving an invulnerability to coercion).
He includes the following visual aid:
Since the image isn’t the clearest, please allow me to explain what’s going on here. On the vertical axis, we have the degree of vonu in MTH, or, number of years a vonuan can predict to live undiscovered. On the horizontal axis, we have the difficulty in concealing a vonuum (the place or situation of an invulnerability to coercion), which is equivalent to the amount of activity within said vonu shelters, regardless of what type it is. The chart includes:
- Summer survival
- All weather survival
- Comfortable home
- Small workshop or laboratory
- Small manufacturing
- Light industry
- Heavy industry
So, the idea is that the less mobile/larger a vonuum is, the harder it is to conceal, the higher competency required for the increased activity, and an overall likely drop in the amount of years it will take for it to be discovered. As a vonuan moves vertically/horizontally in the chart without increasing activity, while also increasing their competence, their MTH will generally increase; if a vonuan moves vertically/horizontally in the chart (increasing activity) without being more competent, their MTH will decrease.
In said chart, there are 8 “levels” of vonu, namely A-H. What vonu lifestyle changes would be applicable for each?
- A, B, and C-level: wilderness vonu, “bugging out”
- D-level: van nomadism
- E-level: off-grid, stationary living (i.e. tiny home living)
- F-level: small manufacturing (i.e. a small workshop)
Here’s Rayo’s personal take on A-C level vonu:
The diagonal lines represent levels of capability one order-of-magnitude (10x) apart. Six years ago [in 1967], when I was becoming seriously interested in vonu but had little experience, my competence was roughly represented by line A. Three years ago, after experience with living in a van, competence had increased to line B. Today our competence level is approximated by C. Thus, at present, we can choose among the following: a small tent, adequate for summer only, in a remote place with 100 years MTH; a larger tent and more equipment and supplies in a place with year-round access and a 10 year MTH (the larger tent is also more visible).
There’s one other aspect to point out regarding the above chart: the profitable and unprofitable viabilities. What do Rayo and other vonuans mean by this? Well, in short, the further horizontally one goes on the chart, the more equipment necessary, and the more severe the risk of confiscation becomes. Rayo worded it thusly:
Within the shaded area vonu is not likely worthwhile – i.e. total costs of being vonu will usually exceed the total benefits. The boundary between the viable and non-viable situations slopes downwards to the left, at least under present conditions. This is because (1) the lower levels of activity require much less equipment and thus a higher probability of confiscation is acceptable; (2) the lower levels of activity are less suspicious and thus unlikely to lead to serious loss even if discovered.
For that reason, G and H-level operations would be huge in scale, making them the least practical, at least for the foreseeable future. Consider Aurora from Alongside Night, a sovereign free port, and a new libertarian country as examples of these.
It’s worth noting that there may be some inaccuracies in the above explanation. There’s only one article wherein Rayo explains MTH and I have to go with what’s available, as I can’t call him up on Skype and get clarification. Nonetheless, MTH is crucial to vonu, so an honest attempt is at least necessary.
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