ABOUT THE CONQUISTACORPS
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
JUNIOR DIVISIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND ENERGY CONSERVATION PROGRAMS
SURVIVAL SCHOOL
CIVIL DEFENSE AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
OTHER ACTIVITIES
JOIN OR FORM A LOCAL CHAPTER

There is a more serious side to the activities of the CONQUISTACORPS, and this has to do with the fact that its primary mission is to prepare members for leadership positions in the ASP. Towards this end, the CONQUISTACORPS will provide its members with the opportunity for a significant amount of classroom training. This training will generally take the form of seminars and workshops that are sponsored by the party, and which will be held periodically in different regions. These seminars will be designed to make our members more familiar with the party doctrine, and to prepare them to take a series of exams that they will need to pass to become eligible for a variety of positions in the party.

Rhetorical and Speaking Skills
Unfortunately, reason and truth will be generally insufficient to persuade more people to join our organizations. In addition to a superior ideology and doctrine, we must have the power of persuasion going for us. And, we need to recruit more members who have this power. Call it charisma or whatever you want; it is an essential ingredient in building our party, and it is essential for our party's success over the longer term. Charisma cannot be taught, but it can be cultivated and developed. Talent scouts within the party, and within the CONQUISTACORPS in particular, will be constantly looking for those who seem to have that little something extra going for them. When members with this potential have been identified, they will be encouraged to pursue a professional track in the party.  Scholarships may be available for those who have demonstrated potential.

Even for more average party members, the CONQUISTACORPS will provide the opportunity to develop communication skills and to master an area of party doctrine.  Specifically, members will be able to volunteer to speak before other members about an area of the party doctrine in which they have a particular interest.  This will give members the opportunity to clarify more abstruse and difficult to understand areas of the party doctrine in their own minds, and to communicate what they learn to other members. In turn, this will help prepare both those who volunteer to speak, and their audiences, to pass their examinations (levels one, two and three). Level one exams cover basic knowledge of our political system that everyone should have in order to vote. Level two exams allow one to qualify for the position of Social Science Technician. Level three exams will be required to qualify members for higher party posts.

Ideological Savvy
There are many factors involved in how people form their ideologies and world views. Genetics and temperament can undoubtedly play a major role in the process of ideology formation. Given similar life experiences, two people with substantially different genetically based temperamental propensities can potentially develop two very different world views. Correspondingly, they will tend to form different ideological allegiances. Thus, no matter how reasonable or well intentioned our party philosophy, there is only so much we can do to persuade some people. Some people will have a "natural" resistance to our views. Because of their genetic predispositions and the "global affect" which these lead to, some people will simply be less likely to form or adopt the same values, attitudes and beliefs that we have. For these people, the cognitive route to persuasion, and the roles that reason and knowledge play in persuasion, will be essentially blocked.

Because some people form their ideological views mainly on the basis of their feelings, or as a result of a global affect which tends to pervade and color their thinking, their views may prove extremely resistant to change. Because those who lecture for the party will inevitably encounter such people whenever they are speaking to a general audience, requires that we carefully consider the strategies we use to persuade people, and to gain new converts. One of the most important persuasive techniques that we can use involves cultivating skepticism, or getting people to critically examine both their own belief system and view of the world, as well as ours. Our own belief system has to endure this kind of scrutiny constantly. For this kind of reflective thinking and self criticism is an important element of our party philosophy. We want other people to be equally critical of their own belief systems. If we can get people to this first level; if we can get them to be more critical, open minded and objective towards their own beliefs, we will stand a better chance of getting them to take a closer look at our beliefs.

Ultimately, one of the most important things that we can hope to accomplish with our public education campaign is to get people to consider all belief systems more critically and objectively, from the standpoint of their origins and functions.  If we can get people to think about how they came to hold their own beliefs, including those beliefs which are more closely associated with their feelings and sentiments, then it will be easier to persuade them on the basis of reason and knowledge. If we can get people to the point where they deal with all belief systems on an even playing field, then ours should stand out from the rest on its own merits.

Seminars and Examinations
Within the CONQUISTACORPS, there is a group of full and part time party members who specialize in lecturing about the party philosophy, and in administering exams over materials which they cover in these lectures. Passing these exams (with a score of 80% or above) is required to occupy any higher posts within the party, whether they are salaried or not. These lectures are open to all party members and all party members are encouraged to attend. However, those who actually excel academically and who demonstrate that they are a "quick study" can expect certain advantages. First, they can expect to more quickly advance in the party hierarchy. Secondly, they can expect first preference for available salaried positions in the party. And third, they can expect certain perks, like selection for international travel and good will tours.

There is no mandatory attendance for these seminars, and it is possible to be entirely self taught in all the areas of knowledge that they cover. Study guides and other course materials will be made available to members for this purpose. Consequently, one can become proficient in all the areas one needs to know to advance in the party without ever attending a seminar. However, they are generally helpful in preparing for exams. The seminars will be held on a rotational basis and you do not need to attend them in order. All you have to do is contact your local CONQUISTACORPS organizer to register. The seminars will be designed to clarify some of more complex and difficult to understand aspects of the party doctrine, and to help members develop a deeper appreciation of the party philosophy.

At least two adult CONQUISTACORPS members must supervise the activities of JUNIOR DIVISION members at all times. Both of these adults must be class A members of the party, and they must have been class A members for at least six months. Husband and wife team leaders for youth activities would be ideal. Typical activities will include team sports, preferably, those with a low risk of injury. For instance, safetyball (baseball using a tennis ball) would be a good option. Again, all activities are at your own risk, on your own time, and using your own resources. The ideal here is to have small groups of parents who know each other well and who trust one another with their kids. Only parents who have kids involved in these activities should be charged with their supervision. Violation of any of these requirements is potential grounds for expulsion from the party.

As in the adult divisions, there will be a more serious side to the activities of the JUNIOR DIVISIONS which is related to their role in character development and moral training. When parents volunteer their time to supervise the activities of the JUNIOR DIVISIONS they should see it as an an additional opportunity to influence the normative development of their children. They can do this in a number of ways. First, parents can design their own regimens to target specific character deficiencies that they observe in their own children. Second, important moral lessons and life skills can be important by-products of well supervised team sports. Among other lessons, these sports can be used to teach the values of sportsmanship, a sense of fair play, and teamwork, to achieve a collective goal. Teaching such values should be an important part of any well rounded character development regimen. However, it should not be the primary aim of such a regimen to simply cultivate self esteem.

It is one of the major flaws of modern psychology that making people feel good about themselves is critical to their psychological well being. Once again, the influence of a normatively misguided humanism rears its ugly head. Even though there are many elements of modern psychology (especially social psychology) that are the basis for important elements of the party philosophy, this is where the party philosophy parts company with modern psychology. For, according to the party philosophy, primary emphasis should not be placed on simply making people feel good about themselves, or on building their self esteem. Feeling good about yourself should only come as the reward for an intensive effort aimed at self improvement. It should not precede this effort. In fact, feeling "less good about themselves" is often necessary to  motivate people to take the steps towards self improvement that can eventually justify feeling good about themselves. Hence, the activities of the JUNIOR DIVISIONS will not be designed to simply hand out mind candy. They will be designed to teach important moral lessons, to get kids to think, and to be more serious in their demeanor and their approach to life (the exact opposite effect of the popular culture).

Because the CONQUISTACORPS depends completely on our members' own personal resources, all members should have an interest in
in new ways to conserve energy and save money.  With these aims in mind, experts in the party will be periodically asked to volunteer their time to hold workshops on new, cutting edge techniques to conserve energy and resources. These workshops will be designed to eventually give our members some degree of energy self-sufficiency. Since our government is asleep at the wheel on this one, we will take the initiative by forming our own energy policy and developing our own techniques for energy conservation. Workshops in the energy self-sufficiency series will likely include such topics as: how to build your own solar and wind generators, how to make drinking water distilleries; how to grow enough food for a family of four on less than two acres, without using chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Other topics to be covered will likely include the most energy efficient ways to heat and cool your home, and emerging transportation technologies which have shown particular promise either for their potential to decrease energy consumption, reduce emissions, or both.

Environmental Assessment
As the world's population continues to grow uncontrollably, we can expect pressure on resources needed to maintain or improve our standard of living to increase. Virtually no one is talking about the frightening possibility that we may have to experience an actual decline in our living standards in the face of this growing global competition over increasingly scarce resources, such as oil. People are apparently desensitized to the issue by a misplaced faith in technology. Basically, people believe that technology will come to the rescue and will solve any problems related to resource scarcity, and that they will not have to experience any pain or make any sacrifices. But, what people fail to realize is that this mantra of our consumer culture is oriented towards making them feel good about themselves, so that they will have the confidence to buy things. This mantra coincides with what most people want to believe. Most people naturally want to be optimistic, and they want to feel good about the future. They want to feel good about exercising their personal freedoms, particularly their freedom to consume. The consumer culture is not very good at telling people things about their situation that they don't want to hear, but which may actually be closer to the truth.

The truth is that technology cannot solve all of our problems. There are limits to how many mouths we can feed, even if all of our most promising technologies, or those which are under development, have been fully deployed. Moreover, there is a limit to the number of people that the Earth can comfortably sustain without causing severe environmental problems, or without depleting key resources. And why should it be our aim to tax our resources to the very limit anyway? Actually, this is no one's conscious aim. It is simply a result of the fact that, on its current course, humanity is on a runaway train. It apparently has no sense of direction, no brakes, and the bridge is out ahead.

The central problem that humanity must face in the coming decades is that our numbers will overtake our resources. Economic competition over scarce resources is destined to increase. Standards of living, overall, are destined to decline, in both the developing and underdeveloped nations. People will have to cope with this situation individually, or they will have to organize themselves into networks that are designed to minimize the impact of the growing scarcity of key resources.

Things will end badly for us all, if the greater part of humanity proves unwilling or unable to submit to a certain level of direction, or self control.  Currently, growth is largely unregulated because people don't want their reproductive behavior to be subject to central authority or control, even if it means their conditions of living will become worse for it down the line. Most people don't want any restraints on their reproductive freedoms, because most of them are not yet convinced that such restraints are necessary to safeguard their interests over the longer term. Unfortunately, by the time that their life circumstances have changed in a way that makes them more receptive to the idea that restraints are necessary, it will be too late to avoid some of the more painful consequences that must naturally follow from a lack of foresight.

Environmental Protection
Given that the deck is stacked against us environmentally speaking, we have no choice but to suffer a certain level of environmental abuse that is caused mainly by people from other nations, primarily those located in the developing world (remember the Kyoto Accords, and why we didn't sign on). Still, there are a number of things we can do to help the environment overall. For instance, we can stop buying all that frivolous crap that people like to buy just because they happen to have the money at the time. Buy only those things that you really need, and when you buy durable goods, buy quality products that are likely to last. Sure, this will reduce the demand for products, and it will put some people out of work. But most of these people will be from either India or China. It is not our responsibility to provide these people with jobs anyway.

There are some fairly clear signs that our society could be headed for a rough patch, if not a major disaster, in the years to come. Either it will be related to the rising price of oil, or it will be related to our growing ethnic diversity (which our government should have attempted to prevent). In either case, you will want to be prepared. And although no one can be certain how things will turn out, a catastrophic collapse of Western civilization, or the American way of life is not out of the question, and is becoming more conceivable as time goes on. The institutions and individuals that are now in control of the ideological means of production are clearly taking our civilization in a direction that is dangerous, and potentially catastrophic. In the chaos and carnage that can potentially result, you may need some pretty good survival skills, just to stay alive.

Even if you discount such a dire forecast, it doesn't hurt to hedge your bets. It doesn't hurt to be prepared. It is almost never a good thing to be so confident that you never even consider the possibility that you could be wrong. It is almost certainly not a good thing to have unconditional faith in the stability of a social and political order that is showing as many cracks as our own. Consider having a well thought out survival strategy as a hedge, in case things go terribly wrong. Always have the shadow of a doubt, and never believe anything too strongly, unless you are convinced that it is most likely to prove conducive to your survivability over the longer term. The party philosophy is specifically designed to achieve the goal of maximizing YOUR survivability. In fact, this is the first principle of the Xenophyte Code, which is the basis for the party's philosophy.

The prevailing spirit of the times, or the Zeitgeist, does not even emphasize survivability. It leads people to feel so comfortable and so secure in their patterns of living that they never even consider the possibility that something could go terribly wrong. Consequently, they never plan for such contingencies. We will not allow our members to be among the unprepared. We will hold seminars and survival training exercises that will be designed to prepare our members for a "worst case scenario" in which there is a total breakdown of law and order, and in which the command, control, transportation and communications infrastructure has been reduced to rubble. Those who volunteer for our survival training exercises will be subjected to a level of deprivation that they could expect to experience in a total societal collapse.

By taking such simple measures as having a few months of food and water on hand, which is a wise precaution even under the most favorable conditions, our members can avoid many of the hardships that people who haven't shown such foresight will have to endure if our society should experience some kind of "disruption." And, by taking such precautions, our members can also greatly improve their chances of surviving a worst case scenario.

Survivalist Networking.
Having a network of people that you can rely on for mutual protection and support if things go bad in the larger society is an important part of a well designed survival strategy. To maximize your chances of survival, your network will need to meet certain basic requirements. First, your network will need to include people in your area. If the people in your survivalist network are spread out over too large an area, coordinating or communicating with them in the wake of a disaster could be a problem. Remember, if there is a complete breakdown of the communications infrastructure, you will not be able to use your cell phones!!!!  Secondly, your network will need to include people who have certain skills, resources, or training. We will insure that all of our members have the skills and training they need to become a valuable addition to any survivalist network.

The Philosophy Behind Survivalist Networking
The main idea behind survivalist networking is to pool everyone's resources, not just in order to improve everyone's chances of survival under the worst conditions, but to improve everyone's quality of life even under less challenging conditions. For instance, some members of your local network might have resources which make them logical choices for the task of food provisioning. This might be nothing more than owning a couple of acres on which to hunt game, or conduct subsistence farming. Other members might have skills or resources which make them logical choices for fresh water procurement. Still others might have training in the art of evasion, concealment and defense. When there are violent gangs roaming the countryside in search of food or water, and when there is no established law to protect you, you may find that you need people with such skills in your network. By having certain skills or resources yourself, and by networking with other members in your area who may have a different set of skills or resources, you will stand a much better chance of surviving than people who haven't bothered to "network."

Risk Assessment
Strategies such as survivalist networking are necessary to fill in the gaps in our government's planning. Your government has intentionally not planned for certain scenarios, because it refuses to even consider certain possibilities. For instance, the government will not plan for the possibility of a total collapse of the infrastructure which results from a large scale civil disturbance or a clash between ethnic or racial groups. Merely planning for such a possibility could prove socially destabilizing, if word of these plans leaked out. Such plans would be an admission that there might be something wrong with the multicultural model of society which your government has a vested interest in promoting.  Your government doesn't want to give legitimacy to such views. Therefore, it will not plan for any possibilities which would presume that there might be fundamental flaws in its models or ideals. In particular, it will not plan for the possibility that a large scale civil disturbance could disrupt or destroy important elements of the command, control, communications or transportation infrastructure. The government also does not want to admit that any circumstances could arise for which it might be unprepared, of that it could not deal with. Making such an admission might cause people to lose confidence in it.

For the reasons given, our elected leaders will not plan for certain possibilities. Because our elected leaders have adopted this bury your head in the sand approach, and because they appear to be missing the big picture, it is up to us to fill in the gaps for them. The truth is that, like all societies throughout history, our society can fail, and it can fail badly. We shouldn't be lulled into a sense of complacency by the fact that we have apparently come a long way in a short period of time. If anything, this sudden advance in our technology and our level of civilization should be a cause for concern. Because, somewhat like a stock market that has made a sudden advance, a civilization that has gone far and fast may be more prone to a sudden reversal of fortune.

As our population grows, we become even more dependent on things continuing to go right, in order to maintain our standard of living. We will become even more vulnerable to the effects of a disruption in supplies of vital resources like oil. If there is a disruption in the supply of such resources, for whatever reason, your quality of life can decline precipitously, and without warning. Barring significant technological breakthroughs, our vulnerability to a disruption in energy supplies will increase over time.

Simply being able to sustain human populations at their current levels will prove to be more of a challenge as time goes on. Unnaturally large human populations have been made possible mainly because certain efficiencies have been achieved in the production process. Levels of productivity and efficiency have been steadily advancing since World War II.  And, there has not been a major sustained disruption in factory output of the industrial nations since World War II (an earthquake or tsunami that kills 100,000 people doesn't count as a major disruption on a global scale). However, as time passes, it becomes less likely that we will be able to sustain our current levels of productivity.  As time passes, it becomes more likely that either a catastrophic event (man made, or natural), or the depletion of a key resource like oil, will interrupt the production process, or will drastically reduce its efficiency. These facts alone are among the most important justifications for a well organized survivalist movement. Your government is not doing enough to plan for such contingencies. Your government is not doing enough to safeguard your life and your property if things go terribly wrong. Your government refuses to acknowledge our extreme vulnerability, because, if it did, it would be tantamount to admitting that there is something fundamentally wrong with the system, and there is.

Because your government is not doing enough to plan for certain scenarios, it is up to us to network and to make "alternative arrangements" to secure the resources that we may need to survive. It is also up to us to prepare our members psychologically for the possibility of a sudden disruption in their way of life. The whole focus of a modern industrial society is to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Consequently, many will not be prepared psychologically or emotionally if their life circumstances should suddenly become more harsh, or if they should suddenly revert to a more natural state. In a word, easy living has made people soft. Our survival training seminars and exercises will be designed to reverse this unfortunate side effect of modern living.

The civil defense and disaster preparedness plans that your government has in place typically involve the mobilization of large amounts of material and large numbers of people.  They focus mainly on logistics, and they rely heavily on centralized direction and control. They also depend on the existing command, control, communications and transportation infrastructure for their implementation. In other words, they are based on the assumption that large parts of this infrastructure will be left in tact following a natural disaster. This is the major weakness of such plans. These plans could not be implemented if a disaster caused a total or near total collapse of the command, control, communications and transportation infrastructure.

By contrast, survivalists assume that they will have to operate under conditions in which significant parts of the command, control, communications or transportation infrastructure no longer exist. For this reason, our own civil defense and disaster preparedness planning will be much more decentralized in nature. It will focus much more on local control, resources, and the initiatives of small networks of people who are close to one another geographically.

Whatever Happened to Civil Defense?
As the nuclear threat from the former Soviet Union appeared to diminish in the late 1960s, civil defense and disaster preparedness planning went out of vogue. Since then, they have become activities in which only a small percentage of Americans are actively involved. However, as time passes, we could find ourselves facing new threats that are every bit as life threatening as the former Soviet threat. These threats demand that we have a well thought out, comprehensive strategy for civil defense and disaster preparedness. Such planning is necessary because our society is not designed to be robust. That is, it is not designed to withstand sudden catastrophic events on a large scale.

As our society has grown and has become more complex, it has also become even more susceptible to catastrophic reversals. Because a catastrophic failure has not occurred in our society in recent memory (Katrina doesn't count, despite its magnitude), people tend to be very secure in the belief that they live in a society which is both flexible and strong enough to absorb any potentially catastrophic events that could come its way. In response to this complacency, we advise our members: Don't be fooled; this society can fail! And, it can fail so badly that it can place you and your family at considerable risk. We will give our members the training they need to minimize this risk.

Worst Case Scenario
Lets talk about the worst case scenario. Lets say that there is a total collapse of our command, control, communications and transportation infrastructure. How would you survive?. For a time, you might be able to live off the stores of food and water that you have wisely set aside to prepare for such contingencies. Or, If you have a farm, you might be able to live off the land. Having either large stores of food and water on hand or having a country retreat would seem to be prudent measures that normal people should take, given the seriousness of the consequences that could result from a failure to take such measures.  Yet, apparently, your government doesn't even want you to consider these possibilities. It especially doesn't want you to consider a "worst case scenario."  To give serious consideration to the possibility of a worst case scenario would seem to be an admission that some circumstances could arise under which your government would not be able to protect you or your family. In fact, your government cannot protect you under all circumstances. Your government can only protect you and your family in "less than worst case scenarios" in which there is not a total collapse. If there is total collapse of society, for whatever reason, or if there is a total breakdown of the command, control, communications and transportation infrastructure, then you will be on your own. Your government cannot adequately plan for a worst case scenario. This is your responsibility.

So, If there is a complete breakdown of civil authority which are our geniuses in Washington haven't completely anticipated and planned for, what can you do? First of all, if you find yourself in a situation where you have to ask this question, it is probably too late for you. You will probably die slowly from either food or water deprivation, or from someone doing violence to you.

The possibility of the worst case scenario, and the government's inability to deal with it dramatically illustrates the need to have alternative civil defense plans.  For the benefit of our members and their families, we will draft such plans, and we will acquire the resources that are needed to carry them out. Our plans will be much more decentralized than the government's plans, and they will rely much more on our member's initiatives and resources. These plans will overlap and coincide with many aspects of our survivalist training.  Unlike the government's civil defense and disaster preparedness plans, our plans will be based upon the presumption that large parts of the existing infrastructure no longer exist. That is, they will be based on the presumption that there has been a total or near total collapse of society. They will be designed for implementation by small well organized groups who already have the requisite training and resources to survive under the worst conditions.  In particular, our civil defense planning will focus much more on unconventional modes of communication, transportation and tactics, in order to give our members an edge over any other groups that they may find themselves competing against in a "worst case scenario."

Boat Building
We will need a variety of small craft for various recreational and training purposes. In most cases, our meager budgets will demand that we build our own. For this purpose, the party will sponsor a series of workshops to teach the basic techniques of boat building. Due primarily to rising fuel costs, the boat building industry can be expected to experience some potentially revolutionary changes over the next few years. These changes will affect both the design and construction of small craft, as well as much larger vessels. Get in on the ground floor of these developments, and learn how to keep boating a pleasurable and affordable activity, even with considerably higher oil prices.

Professional Development Courses
Basically, these are more specialized seminars on politics, ethics and philosophy which will be sponsored by the party. These seminars will be more in depth and intensive than those which are designed to prepare members for their level 1-3 exams. They will be scheduled at different locations around the country each year.

Health and Fitness: Oceanic Athletic Rowing (OAR)
What could be more fun than getting together with a bunch of drunks and rowing 10 miles out to sea, or to the point of exhaustion, whichever comes first. Get in a little sun and some deep sea fishing at the same time. (this activity is reserved for Class A members)

Herpetology
Here is something different. Learn to identify, catch and keep snakes and other reptiles as pets. Organized hunts will be held for some of the most elusive creatures on the planet. Some international trips may be organized. We will team up with both amateur and professional herpetologists to make your field experience as memorable as possible. And, you may even have some live souvenirs to take home.

Any eligible Class A member of the ASP who wants to establish a local CONQUISTACORPS chapter, and who wants to conduct any activities under the name of the CONQUISTACORPS, must first sign a release absolving the ASP and its affiliates of any liabilities.
 

RELEASE
As a condition of membership in the CONQUISTACORPS, I hereby release from liability the CONQUISTACORPS, the AMERICAN SYNTHESIS PARTY, and our officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries and employees from claims demands and damages (actual or consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown, suspected or unsuspected, disclosed and undisclosed, arising out of or in any way connected with my membership in the CONQUISTACORPS.

Member's Printed Name _____________________________________________

Member's Signature:________________________________________________
 

Copyright 2008 by Alex Van Allen