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Welcome to the Anticitizen’s Field Manual.

I’ve designed each section to be simple and digestible—no fluff, so you can learn and get on with implementing your life.

This first segment will be an exception though. I wanted to go into some philosophical and

Without further ado, let’s start.

Defining a “Citizen.”

You probably know what a citizen is: a person who belongs to a certain nation, and has certain rights and responsibilities attached to that nation.

The exact definition of a citizen is this, taken from the Oxford dictionary:

“A legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized. For example, ‘a British citizen.’”

And another definition from Merriam-Webster:

“A native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it.”

I’ve always had problems with these definitions because, in some way or another, they always define a citizen as someone who owes something to their nation, or government.

That could be many things:

Whether it be taxes, military service, patriotism, loyalty, or something else, a citizen of a nation is always deemed to owe something to their government, country, or State. In exchange, the nation is supposed to provide safety, security, opportunity, quality of life, or a range of other benefits to a citizen.

I don’t inherently have a problem with the first part of the equation. Patriotism, loyalty, and service to your country can all be great things. In fact, I think they are essential in many ways to the development and maintenance of a healthy society.

But over time, evidence has shown me that the second part of the equation—what a government is supposed to provide to us in return—isn’t as equally beneficial to citizens as it once was. Especially in the West, where many benefits of citizenship are diminishing beyond what our parents or grandparents may have enjoyed.

In most “developed” countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, much of Europe, and beyond, the benefits of citizenship aren’t what they once were.

This isn’t just my opinion. It’s possible to demonstrate this via many metrics.