About this episode
Between 1787 and 1789, seventy-something pseudonymous essays argued against the proposed U.S. Constitution — the Anti-Federalist Papers. Essay No. 5, attributed to Brutus, makes the strongest structural case: a large, centralised republic will always outgrow the consent of the small communities inside it. Local voice cannot survive a federal one.
That's an argument you can recognise if you've ever watched a platform grow to a size where your individual publishing is one voice inside a system that no longer speaks in your accent.
Chapters
- 0:00 — Beyond a federal government
- 6:30 — Small states, big publishers
- 12:00 — The republican problem
- 18:00 — Federation and its objections
- 24:00 — When central voices displace local
- 30:00 — Modern parallels
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