Last night’s Thinking Liberty is available for download at patriotradio.com. A libertarian discussion on Westboro Baptist Church clowning around, Mike Gogulski reporting assaults, the Vote For Nobody campaign, police brutality, security and roads in a freed market, Gil Guillory, and anarchy!

[cross-posted at fr33 agents]

There’s a lot of epic going on in this Amon Amarth video:

The word fascism is being thrown around a lot, but there is a real danger of ultra-nationalist militancy growing from current economic troubles and dissatisfaction, as the rise of The British National Party demonstrates.

I don’t want to paint a broad brush over such a large and non-centralized group as the angry right-wing mob. But dangerous sentiment is frequently seen there: the view that troops fight for freedom against a nebulous foreign threat to America while freedom is threatened at home by traitors with some kind of treasonous socialist agenda. Of course, any government is a threat to liberty at all times – that is their function. But the Tea Party right doesn’t have a consistent libertarian message – to them government is good when it pushes people around, but bad when it takes too much of their money to give people who don’t deserve it. They express the view that authority should protect them against bad things, and that those who hamper these efforts are traitors.

The sentiment of heroic warriors protecting the nation while domestic enemies stabbed in the back is classic fascist breeding ground.

Sure, there are times when fighters at the front are betrayed by people with authoritarian agendas (I think of Stalinist treachery in the Spanish Civil War) but “The Troops” are not protecting our freedom – they are expanding the influence of the American political class. Obama just has a different view of power than neo-cons do.

Ron Paul and the anti-war right have the potential to defuse the authoritarianism seen in the most visible opposition to Obama. The more right-wingers realize that empire is not the answer, the closer they get to a consistently libertarian view. It will hopefully become easier for them to think that politicians are not selling out Americans or betraying the troops, but are just doing what politicians always do: mislead the public and set themselves up as the key to a better future. If the troops are not fighting for freedom, then the whole government is the problem and promoting the soldier ethos seems like less of an answer. Campaign For Liberty, by pushing a consistent anti-empire message using traditional American imagery, could set the American right in a less authoritarian direction.

None of this means that anarchists should downplay pushing for anarchy, or should not condemn authoritarianism when it comes from any professed friends of liberty. But it may inform the way we interact with different political groups.

darianworden.com

“However, if time travellers do break into the LHC control room and pull the plug out of the wall, then I’ll refer you to my article supporting Nielsen’s theory that I wrote in 2025.” – Brian Cox

Mike Gogulski, who has contributed greatly to Center For A Stateless Society, Fr33 Agents, and other libertarian projects, was attacked in September by several people including police officers. Read the full report at Mike’s blog.

We might be living in a very different world five years from now. If we want this to be a better world, we have to put our hands into history.

Notions of stability, freedom, and personal identity are tied up with authoritarian ideas. This must be broken.

A weakened political system provides unprecedented opportunity to carve out anti-authoritarian autonomous zones. To do so requires networking, spreading ideology, and working for resilience. Providing valuable services and goods can help gain influence (see A Quick Look At Insurgent Political Influence). Think counter-institutions – economic and social counter-power.

Be careful – authority will attempt to co-opt what it is unable to destroy with force.

Thoughts?

(cross-posted at fr33 agents)

The latest Thinking Liberty internet radio show is now archived at patriotradio.com. I’m very happy with our work. I’ve tried to balance the spontaneity of authentic conversation with the necessity of quality presentation. I think that black bloke, bile, and I did a good job of that, although remembering historical facts during a spontaneous conversation is difficult – I had to correct myself on Weimar inflation and we said the wrong year for the Beer Hall Putsch. Unfortunately the production end of the show could use some work, and some of bile’s talking did not record. But Patriot Radio is a work in progress so things should get better.

While at Porcfest, I chatted with Jason Talley of motorhomediaries.com about agorism. The video went up on motorhomediaries.com today. We take a look at some details that Brad Spangler didn’t go into deeply during his excellent discussion of agorism with MHD’s Pete Eyre.

Note that I generally refer to myself as an individualist anarchist, not an agorist. The main reasons I make this distinction are that I think Konkin over-emphasizes breaking the law at the expense of other methods of building counter-power, that the playbook for revolution in New Libertarian Manifesto over-simplifies things, and the words “individual” and “anarchy” better emphasize the roots of my political thinking than does “agora” (I’m a writer – I should be anal about these things). But my thinking is greatly influenced by agorism so I won’t dispute the label.

The works of Samuel Konkin and other agorists should be read by anyone interested in building a free society. Agorism.info is a great place to start. The presentation of Agorist Class Theory that I did at Porcfest is available from my website.