Ask HN: How to survive/fight mafia states?
Apologies, some parts are not core to HN, but I'm a "startup" "founder" (read: struggling micro company with bootstrapping), and I'm looking for complex suggestions that also involve IT systems.
I'm living in a ex-Soviet-occupied country, where courts, media/propaganda, oligarchs and most aspect of everyday life is under control of the powerful prime minister and its mafia connections. When they want your business, they modify the laws, suffocate your market position, you are forced to sell, then restore the law or make it even more uneven towards their side.
I've lived in the free West for a few years, but for family reasons, I am now stranded where I am now. I have an independent income source: working remotely for Western companies. I have a small but growing local business interest, which, if grows and becomes profitable, will be certainly in the focus of the oligarchs.
What are your advice on how to (figuratively and literally) survive in such hostile environments?
I'd look for way of life and advice inside/under mafia organizations, e.g. triads, yakuza or drug mafia. As far as I know about these, the organizational logic is very similar to what we see here among politicians.
I'm also interested in how should the suppressed people organize themselves, how to communicate? Is there a good tech/method for it? How to protect against adverse agents?
I'm also looking for ways to accept the situation and reach inner peace. My mind always races against the daily injustices that are common here, but the "locals" are too tired to fight them, they keep their heads low, in the hope that they will not be picked as next targets.
I'd also look for inspiration and stories where persons go against all odds.
Thank you!