Weekend watching is an idea I got from my old stomping grounds, The Daily Paul. Essentially, if you have a movie, documentary, interview, or other hour plus long video that would appeal to the readers, post it on Friday when everybody has time to watch it as opposed to the weekdays when we’re busy.
Gandhi is a movie that I watched before I converted to anarcho-capitalism but I believe it strongly influenced my direction. It was right around the time I discovered Voluntaryist.com and was reading a bunch of quality articles on theft and taxation and voting and violence. I love this movie and if you haven’t ever seen it, you should right now. It’s an epic, so get prepared for a chunk of time to be spent. It’s a motivational, entertaining history and life lesson. It is essential viewing for anarcho-capitalists and civil disobedients.
If you don’t currently have the Veoh video viewer you’ll need to get it now. I did and it only took a couple of minutes. I would have put the Google video version of this up, but the video quality was garbage. The Veoh quality is top notch, free, and ready for immediate viewing. So no complaining! Enjoy! =)
Michael Nystrom, webmaster of The Daily Paul, has just announced that he is being sued for copyright violations. I’d like to discuss the issue of copyrights and anarcho-capitalism as well as our struggle for freedom and The Daily Anarchist’s role in it all.
Here’s another quality podcast by Dan Carlin and his show Common Sense. As I’ve mentioned before, Dan Carlin is not an anarchist. But I have hopes that someday he will be. Perhaps, if I keep posting his better shows here the anarcho-capitalist crowd will inspire him to look into things a little more and he can tweak his philosophy ever so slightly so as to be a completely consistent proponent of non-aggression.
The axiom of self-ownership is fundamental to anarcho-capitalistic and voluntaryist philosophies. Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that the act of arguing itself requires the arguer to have accepted the axiom of self-ownership. I suggest that if someone has reasons for arguing, their reasons will be reflected in the assumptions they make about “reality.” These reasons compel them to argue, the very act of which Hoppe has shown to contain an assumption of self-ownership. We would therefore expect the assumptions arguers make about reality to contain at least one concerning self-ownership. In this essay I debunk the Marxist notion of the exploitation of the laborer even if we, for the sake of argument, concede the labor theory of value, and then I show how this relates back to an assumption about the right to self-ownership.
Well, today is my birthday as well as the day that my driver’s license expires. I have to say it feels quite liberating to soon be exercising my liberty without permission. In taking Gandhi’s advice I decided to be open about my disobedience. Gandhi says that civil disobedience should never be something that is kept secret or hidden from the authorities. I want the world to know that my conscience is clean and that if any crime gets committed it will have been the state who holds the guilt.
For several years I’ve heard people compare the current condition of the United States, and the West in general, to the fall of the Roman Empire. I sometimes object to this because the comparisons are usually unfair and uninformed. Rome – both Republic and Empire – was built upon slavery, as was Greece. Our Civilization is built upon a commercial model, which is completely different. People sometimes complain about being “wage slaves,” but that bears little resemblance to the actual slavery of the classical world. (I should probably add that the United States is not an empire. It is a hegemon, not an empire.)
More specifically, the title to this article should be “An Open Letter To Libertarians Who Aren’t Anarcho-Capitalists… Yet.” I am writing this to you today not as an opponent but instead as a beacon of hope. I know what’s going on in your heads. I know your frustrations and your desires. I know your tactics and strategies and all of their shortcomings. I know these things because I used to live it. I’ve lived it since the time I was a little boy up until the recent past. And I am here to tell you there is another way.
The Daily Anarchist has grown by leaps and bounds in the last few weeks. I recently bought advertising space on Lew Rockwell and Free Keene to help spread the message and it’s working! Whereas before I was the only blogger, we now have a total of three guest bloggers. I am optimistic more people will join us as we get our name out there. Readers will be able to expect higher frequency and greater quality blogs with each passing week.
Our advertising space with LRC is nearly at an end, but fortunately I’ve got a three month spot lined up on The Daily Paul. After that, I will be out of my own money to spend on advertising. What I need is more money to continue advertising on those two sites. I pick those sites because there are roughly one half million readers on Lew Rockwell that have no place to call home, where they can post content as well as comment on blogs. I also pick The Daily Paul because I know there is a percentage of readers there that self-identify as anarcho-capitalist but have no other place to share ideas. Also, the Ron Paul crowd, I am certain, is a stone’s throw away from anarcho-capitalism.
My goal is to raise $2500 over the next several months so that when my advertisement on The Daily Paul runs out I will have another stretch of advertising lined up. I doubt I’ll get anywhere near that goal, but any amount raised will help significantly. I’d also like to put the FUN in fundraising by making a raffle out of it.
My wife is a nurse by profession, but she is also a very talented artist. What we will be auctioning is a portrait of your pet or other wildlife painted personally for you. She has painted several of our animals, both living and deceased, and they are wonderful household additions to help immortalize your family pet. She also does wildlife. These make great gifts! Please visit her website at Friends On Canvas to see her work.
Every $10 donation will purchase one raffle ticket and every $50 in donations will buy six raffle tickets. At the end of the fundraising period I will draw one ticket and the winner will be rewarded with an original painting by Kitty King. Your donations will help to spread the message. Thank you!
Seeing the LRC post on how the conversion time from being a libertarian to being an anarchist is about two years again made me think about whether it’s better to help libertarians on the way to anarchism or voluntaryism or to try to convert overt statists to libertarianism. After considering the question for a bit I realized the answer was neither, or rather, both. When talking with either one, however, it is important to remember the goal is not their immediate conversion to antistatism, but rather, to try to help nudge them along the way
There are many reasons I am excited to be moving to New Hampshire. There is a network of individuals willing to operate in the underground economy. There are far fewer oppressive laws in New Hampshire than there is in California. There is a greater likelihood of freedom increasing with time in New Hampshire than anywhere else. But the main reason I am looking forward to New Hampshire is the help I will be able to get that would be nearly impossible where I currently live.
As an anarchist activist and practitioner of civil disobedience, I’m likely to have run-ins with the criminal organization known as government from time to time. In California if/when I get arrested I would only have my family as a reliable source of support and even they could help little. But in New Hampshire there is a legion of full time activists that will be able to help me every step of the way.
If I get pulled over I will be able to dial PORC-411 and have other activists arrive at the scene and film the process. In jail, I will be able to get bailed out if I choose by the Civil Disobedience Evolution Fund. At trial I will get coaching by other activists who understand the entire system. Pre-trial there will be activists handing out Fully Informed Jury Association pamphlets that discuss jury nullification. While in jail I will likely have the company of other libertarian activists and will be able to peek outside the window and see protesters who are looking out for my safety.
All of this and more awaits the activist in New Hampshire. None of this exists at all in California. Here is an interview with one man who I’ll be happy to meet shortly upon my arrival in New Hampshire. Enjoy!
