Proudly preaching to the choir since 1996

“Of the 30-50 sites I HAVE to check out each day, yours is one of maybe 2 or 3 that feel like home instead of like work. — Thomas Knapp Rational Review News

Thank you, Tom.

Starting off like that sounds self-promotional. But that’s not where I’m going. I was honored by what Tom wrote, but more, he got me thinking about my place in this strange, dangerous, “interesting” world.

It all began 20 years ago

My book 101 Things to Do ‘Til the Revolution was published in 1996. Yep, 20 years ago this year. It came out very late in the year, so not until 1997 were many people were aware of it. Vin Suprynowicz wrote a column titled “Buy this book by the crate” and next thing I knew I was being hauled around Phoenix by a very nice young man for speaking engagements in groups so diverse that some were free-market anarchists and some pledged allegiance to the flag and boasted of helping to institute a long-ago loyalty oath.

And we all loved each other! Which is not to say we all agreed with each other. But we all had a certain wavelength in common, beyond the superficialities of the political spectrum. We were mad — and ready to laugh and behave in a most disrespectful way.

Thank you, Vin.

Around that time, I also had my first interview with a mainstream columnist, Steve Duin of the Portland, Oregonian. I was terrified because I already knew MSM types just don’t play fair with you when you’re out there on the fringe. But Duin caught all the right nuances. He asked me some hard questions, but always treated them in the right spirit. He composed a beautiful column.

So right from the beginning I got the idea that all over the supposed political spectrum, there were people who were friendly, or at least amenable to considering alternate ways of being free. And of cheerfully disrespecting those who imagine they have the authority to keep us unfree.

The people I met in those early days and the best people I’ve met online since have two things in common. No matter where they are in the tired old political spectrum, they’re ready to take action on their own behalf. And having seen the emperor’s naughty bits limp and shriveled in the cold breeze of reality,* they’ve lost even the illusion of respect for the Grandeur of Government (or are willing to lose it).

And you know, them’s my people.

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Right from the beginning, I never had any desire to Convert the Statist Heathen. I knew my job was preaching to the freedomista choir. And I didn’t care how the choir members identified themselves politically. My job was to encourage, inform, cheer on, and give new inspiration. Maybe stir up a bit of happy trouble — for those already so inclined.

Oh, a few people have told me I’ve changed their views or even their lives. One did, just this week, in the most kind way. And that’s always gratifying.

But the people who’ve been changed by my writings were already on the path. Sometimes they knew it and just needed to read the right words at the right moment. Sometimes they didn’t know it until they fell into a book or onto a website. But they knew something wasn’t right and they needed an outside-the-box solution.

Truth is, and you know it, that many of you here are ahead of me and always have been. You know more than I do. You’ve made deeper commitments than I have. You’re smarter and more educated than I am. You’ve found your philosophical positions and followed them. You’re certainly better pistol shots than I am. And this is not base flattery; it’s simple truth.

Which brings up the question …

So what the heck’s the use of me, anyhow?

Before this new site became an idea a few months ago, I was in a low place. I would have quit the entire online freedomista world if I could have gotten a nice, steady, boring job.

Then along came a friend with an ambitious concept. He wanted me to do not only new things, independent things, but some things that were bigger than I’d ever considered. We talked. I never did share his ambition or his big vision (so far; we’re still talking), but he gradually pulled me up and out of my lassitude.

Thank you, S.

In discussing with him what my purpose is, the answer actually came up very quickly: the best thing about me is the people I attract.

The best thing about “me” isn’t about me at all. It’s the Commentariat. Or the people who rarely speak up online but are always there, being doers, sharing their wisdom, laughing about things, helping other freedomistas where help is needed. Being Moles or Agitators or Ghosts or Cockapoos. Or just themselves, undefinable. The best thing about “me” is the people who feel comfortable in a place like this, and who go out in the world and create freedom.

So yeah, I preach to a choir, and the choir is sometimes refreshingly more knowledgable about the Gospel of Freedom than I am. And willing to share their wisdom and experience. And we’re all willing to encourage each other.

The Living Freedom blog is, at bottom, about hundreds, and silent thousands, of people living freedom — or wanting to. Doing the best we can, as Harry Browne so immortally said to “find freedom in an unfree world.”

My job is simply to provide the gathering place and a little inspiration and information.

Okay, I know. I know. I blog waaaaay off that mission many times. To rant or blog bad news. I don’t think that will cease.

But now that we’re here in this harmonious and serene-looking new location (Thank you, Bear) it’s time to re-focus on that mission. Not without the occasional, or even frequent, departure into political, cultural, or personal insanity. But let’s let that be balanced by more focus on how we live this life, how we manage this journey, how we help or hinder each other, how we can prepare ourselves and how we can help another generation to survive and remain free when whatever is to be … is.

Not ready for prime time

I leaped to this new site faster than intended. I thought I’d be ready to start blogging by the end of August. Then I’d transition gradually from BHM. We’d begin building the main site only after I get back online full-time later this month. Take a few months to get everything ready.

But this week I realized it was time to make decisions and take actions that we’d have rather spent months on. The change wasn’t anticipated. But it was An Opportunity. And an exilarating one. A gratifying one. And one that has developed day by day, sometimes making yesterday’s stated intentions obsolete by this morning.

I must beg your pardon that very little on the site aside from this blog is yet finished or presentable. Some of it isn’t even started. Didn’t want it to be that way, but you’ve been understanding — not to mention helpful in improving things.

One other thing that wasn’t finished when we began the premature move: my thinking. I know I want to focus this blog (and ultimately the rest of this site) more deeply on living freedom. I just haven’t quite worked out how.

So, like giving function to non-functioning hyperlinks, that too, will develop slowly over time.

For now, I’m just glad to be with you and grateful to be a preaching, singing member of this particular choir.

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* That, by the way, is something I’d have never written when this blog was on BHM. Not that they ever censored me. They didn’t. Ever. Just that I was always aware I was on Somebody Else’s Property and that their mores prevailed.