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What do the hill tribes of Southeast Asia, who successfully evaded states for two millennia, have in common with modern cypherpunks with their cryptocurrencies and encryption? Both groups understood something that escapes most of us: liberation doesn't come through political struggle, but through strategic invisibility. When the costs of control become higher than the revenue from it, states make a rational decision – they withdraw. In the article "Running for the (Digital) Hills," I reveal time-tested strategies for escaping state control and show how digital tools amplify the same patterns that have worked for millennia. The hills are calling – whether real or cryptographic.

https://juraj.bednar.io/en/blog-en/2025/06/11/running-for-the-digital-hills-strategies-for-liberation/

Field Monkey 6mo ago 💬 2

I've been living in many different parts of Zomia for about 20 years now. I've read James C. Scott and I think there's a slight romanticism in his work.

Zomia, I think, extends into southern central Chinese provinces like Hunan, birthplace of Chairman Mao, albeit in surrounding mountainous regions. I've been in Miao villages there that are seriously hard to get to. Rammed earth houses that are falling apart. Kilns no longer used. Terraces planted out to timber trees because it's cheaper for them to just buy rice. They just want their children to go to university.

In many parts of Laos and northern Thailand, you very rarely see police. There are village chiefs. They like to settle things on their own. And it works. But still, not so many young people.

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Juraj 6mo ago

Well, Scott says that with advent of modern nation state, things have changed (and thus probably not many young people). That's why we have cryptoanarchy, because as attack vectors changed, so have to change the defense tactics.

Anyway very cool you've lived there, I would be excited to hear more about it. I've been to quite a few of these myself (Yunnan / Xishuangbanna, Laos, Cambodia, northern Thailand), it's fascinating, especially if you consider the terrain and the fact that people really used to live there 😉 .

I enjoyed also his other books (Seeing like the State, Against the Grain).

Field Monkey 6mo ago

True. I'm actually in Yunnan now. Gorgeous place.