Decentralism: The Path to Self-Government

Centralization in our social, economic, and political systems has given rise to a deep sense of powerlessness among the people, a growing alienation throughout society, the depersonalization of vital services, excessive reliance on the techniques of management and control, and a loss of great traditions. 

— Decentralist League, 1977

Forty-seven years ago, a group bringing together the political left and right, Democrats and Republicans, attempted to create a “third way” called the Decentralist League of Vermont. It was convened by Robert O’Brien, a state senator who had recently lost the Democratic primary for governor, and John McClaughry, a Republican critical of his Party’s leadership. Each invited some allies for a series of meetings to question authority and forge a new political vision.

“We oppose political and economic systems which demand obedience to the dictates of elite groups, while ignoring abuses by those who operate the controls,” its founding statement announced. 

Vermont had been fertile ground for “outside the box” thinking before. To start, it didn’t immediately join the new United States after the War of Independence, remaining an independent republic until 1791. Almost half a century later it was the first US state to elect an Anti-Mason governor, during a period when opposition to elites and secret societies was growing.

The Anti-Mason movement – which also elected a Pennsylvania governor and ran a candidate for president in 1832 – lasted only a decade. Most of its political leaders eventually joined either the short-lived Whig Party or the more durable Republicans. Along the way, however, it exposed the dangers of special interest groups and secret oaths and, on a practical level, initiated changes in the way political parties operated — notably nominating conventions and the adoption of party platforms, reforms soon embraced by other parties.

Early in its history, Vermont also had direct experience with another type of challenge to centralized power — nullification. The general idea is that since states created the federal government they also have the right to judge the constitutionality of federal laws — and potentially refuse to enforce them. It happened when American Colonists nullified laws imposed by the British. Since then states have occasionally used nullification to limit federal actions, from the Fugitive Slave Act to unpopular tariffs. In November 1850 the Vermont legislature joined the club, approving a so-called Habeas Corpus Law that required officials to assist slaves who made it to the state. 

The controverial law rendered the Fugitive Slave Act effectively unenforceable, a clear case of nullification. Poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier praised Vermont’s defiance, but President Millard Fillmore threatened to impose federal law through military action, if necessary. It never came to that.

Even a short-lived political movement can produce new thinking and unexpected change. In 1912, for example, the new Progressive Party inspired by Theodore Roosevelt when he lost the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft led to the election of Woodrow Wilson. Roosevelt left the Party, but its work continued under Robert La Follette. Although La Follette’s run for president in 1924 netted only 17 percent, he won Wisconsin, his home state, and successful reforms were implemented there.

In recent times, Vermont has emerged as a testing ground for progressive political, economic and environmental thinking. But the ex-urbanite professionals and members of the counterculture who arrived to help make that possible built on a solid foundation. Questioning of illegitimate, centralized power began before the American Revolution, as early settlers in the Green Mountains organized to declare themselves free of British rule and exploitation by land speculators. It continued with the jailhouse congressional re-election of Matthew Lyon in defiance of President Adams and the Alien and Sedition Acts, resistance to an embargo of Britain and the War of 1812, rejection of slavery and Masonic secrecy, and Town Meeting defeat of the Green Mountain Parkway during the New Deal. The pattern reflects a libertarian streak that has resisted the excesses of both liberal and conservative leadership.

One key reason is localism, a long cherished Vermont value. Even when Gov. Deane Davis, a conservative Republican, backed a state land use law in the late 1960s, he chose to call it “creative localism.” Town Meeting exerts a powerful enduring influence, both practical and symbolic. A form and reminder of direct democracy, it holds out hope that self-government remains possible in the age of powerful administrative states. The stakes may be overstated at time, but the use of this forum – in some cases the only one available – can be a form of self-reliance and self-determination reminiscent of the early Jeffersonian impulse.

In a similar spirit, the group of Vermonters who launched an alliance in 1976 aimed at decentralizing political and economic power. Invited by Bob O’Brien, I acted as secretary and helped to craft its Statement of Principles.

That Fall, Bernie Sanders made his second run for Governor as a Liberty Union candidate and called for the break up of big banks. The winner was Republican businessman Richard Snelling, who defeated Employment Commissioner Stella Hackel after a fractious primary season. Jimmy Carter became President and soon appointed Hackel as Director of the US Mint. 

According to a March 28, 1977 article by UPI, the Decentralist League was officially launched in Montpelier with a press conference and had 12 initial public signatories. The plan was not to become another political party, the press coverage said, but rather to “speak out for the interests of persons not protected by rigged deals.”

Charter members included McClaughry of Kirby; Sen. O’Brien of Orange County; Sen. Melvin Mandigo, a Republican representing Essex-Orleans; Rep. William Hunter, a Democrat from Weathersfield; John Welch of Rutland, who sought the 1976 GOP nomination for U.S. Senate; and Frank Bryan, a UVM professor. I also made the eclectic list, identified as a magazine editor and activist from Burlington, joining former Democratic party vice-chairman Margaret Lucenti from Barre; James Perkins of Sheffield, co-chair of the Vermont Caucus for the Family; William Staats of Newfane, founder of the Green Mountain Boys; Martin Harris of Sudbury, leader of the National Farmers Organization; and John Schnebley Jr. of Townshend, who ran in the 1976 Democratic primary for the U.S. House.

As I outlined in Decentralism & Liberation in the Workplace, a July 1976 essay published in response to the US Bicentennial celebrations, Decentralism involves participatory democracy and worker ownership, home rule and neighborhood assemblies, regional self-sufficiency in food and energy, and voluntary inter-community alliances. Through efforts at both the industrial and local political levels, it can move us toward a social libertarian culture that respects the traditions of freedom and independence in America’s past, and that adds to this heritage a positive vision of human nature, ethical and ecological tools, and an internationalist perspective.

The basic purpose of the League, McClaughry argued at the time, was to “re-orient the political spectrum so that people begin to see issues in terms of power widely dispersed — close to them in communities, and power centralized — in large institutions over which they have no control.”

Bryan and McClaughry continued to explore the concept and Vermonters’ attraction to decentralism in The Vermont Papers: Recreating Democracy on a Human Scale. “God-given liberties, hostility to the central power, whatever it may be,” they wrote in 1990, “their attachment to their towns and schools and local communities, their dedication to common enterprise for the common good – all these have been among the most cherished Vermont traits, the subject of countless eulogies of Vermont tradition over the years.”

Although the League lasted only a few years — a casualty of Reagan era polarization — it did identify a set of core beliefs, priorities and policies that could unite those who find the current national and global order unsustainable and dangerous. In Burlington, one legacy was the creation of Neighborhood Planning Assemblies. 

Taking aim at centralized power and wealth, the League asserted that decentralizing both, where and whenever possible, is the best way to preserve diversity, increase self-sufficiency, and satisfy human needs. 

Its basic principles, published in March 1977, resonate anew in the current global atmosphere of resurgent authoritarianism. Some policy specifics may seem dated, others are more relevant than ever. 

Decentralist League of Vermont

Statement of Principles

In a free and just society all men and women will have the fullest opportunity to enjoy liberty, achieve self-reliance, and participate effectively in the political and economic decisions affecting their lives. Wealth and power will be widely distributed. Basic human rights will be protected. The principle of equal rights for all, special privileges for none, will prevail.

When economic and political power is centralized in the hands of a few, self-government is replaced by rigid and remote bureaucracies, the independence of each citizen is threatened, and the processes of freedom and justice are subverted. Centralized power is the enemy of individual liberty, self-reliance, and voluntary cooperation. It tends to corrupt those who wield it and to debase its victims.

The trend toward centralization in our social, economic, and political systems has given rise to a deep sense of powerlessness among the people, a growing alienation throughout society, the depersonalization of vital services, excessive reliance on the techniques of management and control, and a loss of great traditions.

Decentralists share with “conservatives” repugnance for unwarranted governmental interference in private life and community affairs. We share with “liberals” an aversion to the exploitation of human beings. We challenge, however, conventional “liberal” and “conservative” policies which have concentrated power, ignored the importance of the human scale, and removed decision making from those most directly affected.

Decentralists thus favor a reversal of the trend toward all forms of centralized power, privileged status, and arbitrary barriers to individual growth and community self-determination. We oppose political and economic systems which demand obedience to the dictates of elite groups, while ignoring abuses by those who operate the controls. We believe that only by decentralization will we preserve that diversity in society which provides the best guarantee that among the available choices, each individual will find those conditions which satisfy his or her human needs.

Decentralists believe in the progressive dismantling of bureaucratic structures which stifle creativity and spontaneity, and of economic and political institutions which diminish individual and community power.

We support a strengthening of family, neighborhood and community life, and favor new forms of association to meet social and economic needs.

We propose and support:

— Removal of governmental barriers which discourage initiative and cooperative self-help

— Growth of local citizen alliances which strengthen self-government and broaden participation in economic and political decisions

— Widespread ownership of productive industry by Vermonters and employees

— Protection of the right to acquire, possess and enjoy private property, where the owner is personally responsible for its use and when this use does not invade the equal rights of others

— Rebuilding a viable and diverse agricultural base for the Vermont economy, with emphasis on homesteading

— A decent level of income for all, through their productive effort whenever possible, or through compassionate help which enhances their dignity and self-respect

— Reshaping of education to promote self-reliance, creativity, and a unity of learning and work

— A revival of craftsmanship in surroundings where workers can obtain personal satisfaction from their efforts

— The use of technologies appropriate to local enterprise, and which increase our energy self-sufficiency

— Mediation of disputes rather than reliance on regulations and adversary proceedings

This decentralist program implies a de-emphasis of status, luxury, and pretense, and a new emphasis on justice, virtue, equality, spiritual values, and peace of mind.

Decentralism will mean a rebirth of diversity and mutual aid, a new era of voluntary action, a full appreciation of our heritage, an affirmation of meaningful liberty, and a critical awareness of Vermont’s relationship to the rest of the nation and to the world.

Originally posted in 2022

Workable Practice: Revisiting an Enlightened Community

The schedule at Karme-Choling was tight, and mostly the same each day. Discipline and precision were the watchwords. And lots of practice.

By Greg Guma

original version published in the Vermont Vanguard Press, 1979 

“Buddhism doesn’t teach religion, it teaches spirituality, or rather, a way of life. It doesn’t promise anything. It teaches us to be what we are, to become what we are, constantly, and to relate to our living situations in that way.”

— Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche

Vermont isn’t exactly the Himalayas, but there is something ancient and sacred about the Green Mountains, even with Interstate ribbons of highway cutting through the view. And that’s not the only similarity between Tibet and northeastern Vermont, I thought, as we drove toward Karme-Choling, the Buddhist meditation center started eight years before to help bring Buddha’s example to America. 

Both places were also home for Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche (an honorific meaning “precious one”), founder of this and other contemplative communities.

The photographer making the trip with me had never been to a Buddhist community before. He expected “monk-types” in saffron robes, chanting in Hare Krishna style, he admitted. Since I’d been visiting to study and meditate for years — from the start, when it was known as Tale of the Tiger — I knew his expectations would be shattered once we were on the 540-acre farm outside the Village of Barnet.

There were no blissed-out Hindu disciples, no Silva Mind Control or Moonies (although some had done a bit of “spiritual shopping” in the past). These American Buddhists basically looked and acted like the rest of us. They drank coffee, smoked between meditation sessions, and enjoyed a good joke.

Still, there was a profound difference between life at this contemplative center and the usual samsara (confusion) surrounding us every day. The people here actively tried to follow the Buddha’s example, teachings, and vision of community. They also sat in silent meditation at least four hours a day. It was called “practice,” and these Buddhists considered it the core of their lives of “basic sanity.” They were on the path of enlightenment — a state of complete awakeness. 

I hadn’t been back for several years, spurred on by talking with Buddhists who had launched Burlington Darmadhadu, a teaching, meditation and study house nearby. About six adults and their kids had been sharing a home on Margaret Street, offering classes and, on weekends, opening their first-floor shrine room for public “practice.” According to Cindy, a member of the small community, the plan was to become more public and move into a larger building downtown. 

        “We’re hanging out our shingle,” she said.

During an evening at their home, I’d watched a tea ceremony, full of compelling simplicity and precision, yet at the same time ordinary. Now I was revisiting their larger community, attempting again to understand how surrender to the ordinary — to the boredom of silent practice — can lead to the end of suffering.

The farm was in full bloom; a thriving garden faced white buildings across a dirt path. Most of the structures didn’t exist the last time I was here. The community’s focus then was farming and possible expansion. But that phase was over. Karme-Choling had turned back to its main purpose: intensive training for visitors from New York, Boston, and Burlington, following the Buddha’s example of passionlessness and non-aggression.

Guatama Buddha was not a god, but rather a prince five centuries before Christ’s birth, and expected to become a ruler of the Sakya tribe. At age 29, married with a newborn child, he renounced his worldly life and became a homeless religious seeker. Despite his comfortable place in the world, he wasn’t at peace; his mind turned often to the inevitability of suffering beneath the bright surface of the world, to impermanence and the universal facts of sickness, old age and death.

During six years of wandering Buddha found neither enlightenment nor peace, and finally abandoned his ascetic quest while continuing his spiritual practice. One day, while meditating under a Bodhi tree, he finally experienced the illumination he sought, and spent his remaining years as a teacher, sharing his path of salvation and peace. The same way of non-attachment that Rinpoche brought to the US and, specifically, to Vermont. It had worked for me.

The Dharma

 “No one can embark upon the path without the preparation of the Hinayana, without developing the evolutionary tendencies, the readiness for the path. In this sense the teachings could be said to be secret, for if a person is not ready for the teachings he won’t be able to hear them.”

— Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche

At the time Chogyam Trungpa was the most charismatic Buddhist leader in the West, said to be a tulku or emanation of compassion, the 11th reincarnation of a high lama. As the story went, his education was guided by Tibetan monks from early childhood, and he eventually became Abbot of the Surmang Monasteries. But Communist pressure eventually forced him to flee, first to India, then to England, and later to the US. 

In March 1970, several of his students started Tale of the Tiger in Barnet. It was the beginning of a new international Buddhist movement.  Despite personal flaws revealed later — among them, heavy drinking, smoking and promiscuity — Trungpa was a major force in bringing Buddhism to the US. 

For several years I had visited frequently for meditation and training, studying with Rinpoche, sharing free time with William Burroughs, and long afterward continuing what was called insight meditation. “All the teacher can do is to create the situation,” Trungpa once explained. “And because of the situation and environment the pupil’s mind will also be in the right state, because he is already there.” 

Beyond all the theory, meditating was crucial, a rewarding practice that expanded my horizons in many subtle ways. Thoughts still arose and demanded attention, but when meditation worked I could observe them, without rejecting or becoming involved. The idea was to accept rather than discriminate or become engaged in mental struggle. Just be here now.

The Tibetan Buddhist tradition focuses on three approaches, or vehicles: the Hinayana, or narrow path of fundamental truths and basic practice; Mahayana, the open path of compassion for others; and Vajrayana, the ultimate enlightened power over the phenomenal world. All three paths were explored at Karme-Choling and other meditation centers, but most of life revolved around Hinayana practice.

“In the past we had a communal flavor,” said Gaylan, who had become director in 1977 after studies at Buddhist centers in Boulder and Aspen, Colorado, and teaching at the Naropa Institute. “We’re moving from being a community to an institution. People come here for the intensive programs, and the whole environment is filled with Buddhist teachings,” he explained. In 1979 visitors could stay at Karme-Choling for just $12 a day, participating in programs ranging from weekend retreats to month-long Dathuns. In 2024, a one-week meditation retreat was priced at about $1,000. Smoking is no longer permitted anywhere on the property.

This center and others were part of an umbrella organization, Vajradhatu, an incorporated association of Buddhist churches under Rinpoche. And thus, it was at his instruction that the focus at Karme-Choling shifted on completion of an initial $600,000 construction project that included dorm space for 100 visitors and an exquisite meditation hall.

The move from community to institution altered both life at the center and relations with the nearby village. Gardening, once a major summer project, was cut back to change the balance between work and practice. Production of meditation cushions and other accessories was scaled back.

”Local people are no longer joking about us,” Gaylen said. He pointed out a favorite article in Country Journal, which covered rural New England life. “They feel we’re stable and responsible, and a few local people come to the programs.”

He echoed Rinpoche, who had already produced a dozen books, advising not to submit to “blind faith,” but rather “to trust in a good doctor. Having a teacher is part of the path, showing us competence in dealing with the world.”

As Rinpoche himself explained it, ”All the teacher can do is to create the situation. He will create the right situation and because of the situation and environment the pupil’s mind will also be in the right state, because he is already there.”

The Sangha

It was 1:30, lunchtime at the center. Staff and residents gathered in the airy cafetera for salad, rice and tea. Some people weren’t speaking. They were on Dathun, 30 days of full time meditation. These short-term residents practiced four hours daily, from 7 to 8 a.m., from 9 to 11, and from 6 to 7 p.m. The rest of the day was split between work, in which other visitors took part, and evening study groups.

The sangha, or community of Buddhists, had become smaller and more focussed since I last attended Mahayana training in 1975. I talked with Stephanie about the changes. She had lived through most of them.

“There is less farming,” she said, “but it is done well. Originally, most people came to live here to do practice,  but realized it must be a center for others. The big change came with all the building. We became work-oriented.”

We fondly recalled days of bringing in corn and potatoes for freezing, assembly lines of residents and visitors. “But now practice is more important again,” she said. “We realize we’re not creating our own little world. People who stay here are in training, to work here or in other centers.”

Not everything had become institutionalized. Tasks were still shared, especially child care, dishes, and clean up. There was also some gardening and production of samadhi cushions. Like most long-term residents, Stephanie also took a turn at meditation instruction and “creating an environment” for practice.

”Have you been in the meditation hall yet?” She asked. Since I hadn’t, she suggested I do some sitting in the afternoon. Forty-five people in the seventh day of their dathun would be back in the hall at 4 p.m., after their work time. If I wanted to write about meditation, joining the sangha felt like the right idea.

“Meditation is very much a matter of exercise. It is a working practice. It is not a question of going into some inward depth, but of widening and expanding outwards.”

— Rinpoche

Practice and the Four Noble Truths

The meditation hall was decorated in red, orange and blue, with white walls and beams adorned with gilded castings. At the front was an altar, flanked by huge windows looking out on the farm and hill beyond. Rinpoche’s mahogany chair was on one side, facing wall-size photos of His Holiness and a sculpture of Buddha on the opposite wall.

At 4 p.m. someone blew a conch outside and another resident repeatedly struck the living room gong. People walked silently toward the building, removing their shoes before entering. I joined them and sat cross-legged on two cushions facing the altar.

My eyes were open but looking at nothing in particular. I concentrated on my breathing. At first, at such times, some effort was needed to bind the mind to this most simple process. Thoughts arose, and I tried to observe them without becoming involved or rejecting them. The idea was to accept everything rather than to discriminate or engage in mental struggle. It still wasn’t easy.

There was much to distract, not only in the hall but in my mind. The Four Noble Truths, for example. Buddha’s basic teachings. First, that pain is part of all experiences in life — the pain of birth, illness and death, but also the dissatisfaction that haunts us. Second, that the origin of pain is desire, craving, or attachment to our actions. Third, that the goal is to do away with attachments, expectations, desires. And fourth, that the way to that goal is an eightfold path of ethical action and meditation.

My thoughts moved from the teachings to myself: Am I clearing my mind? I’ve almost got it. How can I write about so vast a subject? Why are all these people here? Oh, I’m daydreaming again. Back to my breathing.

This is boring. But Buddhists often joke about that, about how ordinary it is to just sit here. Being on the path is the goal itself. How did Rinpoche put it?

”We will see that one can in fact be at the end result at the same time that one is traveling along the path. This can only happen when there is no I to start with, when there is no expectation.”

The time did pass, broken only by 10 minutes of quiet walking to stretch our legs. After 90 minutes the meditation leader rang a large gong. We rose, not excited, just finished for the moment. It was time for tea, cantaloup and watermelon, and a half-hour break until the sangha returned to the hall for evening practice.

The schedule was tight, and mostly the same each day. Discipline and precision were the watchwords. And lots of practice.

I recalled an epigram used during a training session to describe the Buddhist view. It incorporated irony, clarity and a humanistic, atheistic perspective that marked Trungpa’s approach.

”We must accept that it is all hopeless,” he said. “But it is also workable.”