Timothée Demeillers

This project is the third part of a literary investigation into the contemporary transformations of libertarianism.

My starting point is a sentence by Peter Thiel that continues to haunt me: ‘I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.’ This statement encapsulates a tension that runs through part of American society today: the idea that individual freedom can no longer flourish within the framework of liberal democracy and the rule of law.

During the residency, I want to meet those who embody this challenge to the established order: sovereign citizens, libertarian activists, autonomous communities, as well as local elected officials, teachers, social workers, researchers, and journalists who observe these phenomena on a daily basis.

I am not seeking to write an investigation into the radical fringes of American society. My ambition is broader: to understand how a philosophy that was once marginal now permeates the American political imagination, from the most remote territories to the highest levels of power, and how it intersects with a particular conception of the ever-evolving American pioneer myth.

At the end of the residency, I hope to write a work of literary nonfiction composed of portraits, landscapes, and personal reflections. Rather than an argument, I envision a gallery of characters whose individual stories will open up a broader reflection on the place of freedom, the state, and democracy in contemporary America.

The United States is the natural setting for this investigation. While libertarianism has some of its roots in Europe, it found its fullest expression in America, where it resonates with some of the country’s foundational narratives: the conquest of the frontier, individual autonomy, private property, and distrust of centralized power.

I would like to structure my residency around three complementary territories.

First, Appalachia, particularly eastern Kentucky, where I want to understand how history, geography, and living conditions have shaped a culture of self-reliance and distrust of institutions. There, I will meet residents, local officials, teachers, social workers, as well as artists such as photographer Shelby Lee Adams.

I will then continue my investigation in the Great Plains, primarily in Wyoming and Idaho, where new libertarian activists and ‘sovereign citizens’ are settling, drawn by an enduring frontier imaginary.

Finally, I will conclude in Washington, D.C., in order to observe how ideas that were once marginal now permeate circles of power, think tanks, and certain federal institutions.

By connecting these three spaces, I hope to trace the trajectory of a single idea, from the territories where it takes root to the places where it now shapes political decision-making.