Essay - On the Psychology of Micronations

Have you ever noticed that most people in micronations are at least a little crazy?

You’ve got to wonder if it’s just a coincidence. Are there really more lunatics than in the general population? And even if there are, might it not be that you have to be a little crazy to think you can found your own country, be a king, et cetera?

There’s also the curious fact that micronations are “addictive” – that is, a certain group of people (who usually correspond to the most active and successful) find it extremely difficult if not impossible to leave. These people also seem to correspond to the ones who are at least a bit crazy. It’s not a one to one correspondence, but it’s pretty interesting.

Reading a book on psychotherapy and the way the mind copes with problems, I found with interest that it may absorb itself to an unhealthy degree in something external – for example, a simulation. And micronationalism seems tailor-made for this sort of thing.

Think about it. First, you get a big ego boost. Even the most ignorant, unskilled person can probably get a job as Minister-of-something-or-other in a small nation, and nothing except concern that you’re going to have a one-person nation can stop you from becoming King. The ego boost, even when it’s illusory, must be tremendous. A number of people in micronationalism seem to have either inferiority or superiority complexes – the former can be easily assuaged, and the latter inflated.

Micronationalism is also an escape. When we’re in micronations, we’re not in the real world. We’re in the micro-world, a very revelatory term – we’re not a community, or a hobby, we’re a world. In the real world, I may have a dead-end job or be struggling to pass Science class, but in the micro-world, I’m leading an army armed with the latest in destructive weaponry. In my opinion, this element of escapism is why we often see D&D and other fantasy fans make the jump into the micronational world.

For the introvert (as most micronationalists are) the hobby provides a way to meet new people in a nonconfrontational setting. When you join a country, you immediately have a community – you could call it the intellectual’s substitute for a gang. This analogy actually goes about as far as you’re willing to take it, and is pretty revealing. Better yet, all of the people are somewhat like you.

So, the slightly crazy person (for the extremely crazy person is unable to participate) is drawn to micronationalism instead of more traditional forms of compensation. He may choose it instead of drugs as a source of escape, he may choose it instead of gangs as a source of community, and he may choose it instead of sex and violence as an ego boost.

This is why people stay on when they will admit that they have absolutely no desire to ever see their country grow into a real independent state, or even any desire for anything at all. I am hardly saying that if it weren’t for micronationalism we’d all be drug-addicted murderers in gangs. Far from it – we’re generally not that kind of person. But we gain our allure from exactly the same sources as such criminal activity. And we too, are, in a sense, defying the rules (like the UN definition of sovereignty), always a perverse attraction for the slightly mad.

But, whereas drugs, gangs, and violence tend to create a downward spiral, the micronational cycle is basically virtuous rather than vicious. If you rule well and manage to create a great nation, you will get real rather than illusory self-esteem; that is, besides the title of king, you will become, in a sense, royal. If you stay with a country for a while, you can form lasting friendships – and I myself have found beyond a shadow of a doubt that this helps me form friendships with other, non-Internet, people.

And if you really, really do micronationalism right, then, in the manner of the Zen theory of enlightenment, you will realize that you are, in your escapism, tending ceaselessly to reality, whereas in fact you had reality in front of you the whole time. Now these discoveries and changes will not mean you no longer need micronationalism and leave it behind like a worn out shoe, but that (to continue the Zen analogy) you view it as a Boddhisattva, partaking in it because you enjoy it rather than because you are desperate for it.

There is, though, a further complication that can be both good and ill, and I’m not certain it’s ever been seen through fully. If you spend far too much time in micronationalism, you can start associating yourself with your micronational character, and, in the words of Vonnegut, “you are who you pretend to be”. Then…you’re pretty stuck.

You can’t just abandon micronationalism because that would be abandoning a major part of yourself, which would then have no direction and become extremely confused and possibly mentally dangerous. I believe I am in this state. Certain others passed this state long ago, came out on the other side (that is, identifying more with their fictional self than with their actual self), and are far the worse for it. The solution to this has yet to be found, but it may be what certain parties have been mentioning all along: not to have any character except your reality.

Considering the vastly different situations that you-as- micronationalist and you-as-normal-person have to face, this seems all but impossible. I do not have a solution for this.

For the group that tend to stick with it, micronationalism is a good thing – a grounding of their excess energies into just the right categories. For those who stay with it too long, though, they may get stuck in such a mindset. From the psychological perspective, micronationalism must be taken in prescribed doses, just like any other medicine, or else potent and unfortunate side effects will result.

- Scott Siskind