I asked: "Is it total lunacy to hope for radical decentralization?"

Stag Heath answered: "Emphatically not. The lunacy lies in allowing a monstrous amount of coercive force to accumulate in the hands of a very small and insular group of people and not anticipating that it will attract every power mad zealot and special interest bribe merchant under the sun. Such an agglomeration of power is a sure breeding ground for a level of corruption unparalleled in human history. Radical decentralization, i.e., the restoration of the true American Republic, is our only hope for a free and prosperous future."

I agree, mostly, but the timeless question must be asked: "What is to be done?" How, exactly (or even roughly), can we induce the diffusion of authority?

At one point, the myriad institutions of civil society acted as countervailing forces to the power of the state, but today they are atrophied, withered, or altogether extinct. Not that revitalized Lions Clubs will cast off our yoke.