After several years in which I believed I wasn’t likely to write another freedom book this side of the grave … I sorta kinda feel a book coming on. Not promising anything, mind you. Right now the feeling is like the one you get when a sneeze is coming on — but may or may not actually emerge.
If I do this thing, though, I already have a working subtitle picked out: “Everything you need to know.”
Yeah, I know. No freedom book can deliver that. But trust me, I’ll use that phrase to ironic effect.
I’ve already made some notes. But since you guys are the most likely audience, or the people most likely to gift the book to others to help them along the independence way, I could use your thoughts. What would you like to see covered in another Claire Wolfe book? (Assuming there is one.)
Can we start with general principles — e.g. freedom begins with mindset, you own your self, take care of your health, determine your level of risk aversion, be prepared, practice self-defense, etc.? Use the comments to tell me what you’d like such a book to cover. The topics can be ones that I’ve already “done” (there are always new slants) or ones I haven’t yet thought of.
Your opinions, please?
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P.S. Some of you know that I have, in fact, written another book lately. That book, Hardyville Tales (or whatever else the Duffys decide to name it) will be out soon, published by BHM. I’ll keep you posted about that. But that one is a compilation and expansion of existing Hardyville stories. Above, I’m talking about a new, from-scratch book project. Potential book project. Maybe.
How theoretical? How practical? Or both?
1. Conditioning oneself mentally, knowing your freedom limits (where to draw the line and what to do about it when reached), and maintaining your position in face of personal and political adversity (a la Sustainable Freedom).
2. HOW TO:
a) handle oneself when talking to the police or other “authorities”;
b) remain private–online, via snail mail, and personally (who to trust and what to tell);
c) fight off encroachment (from Real ID, banks, NAIS, etc).
3. Setting up personal “safe deposit box” (savings, coins & cash, hiding valuables on or off property).
4. Basic self-defense, and hiding arsenal on or off property.
5. Stocking up: pantry, possessions, barter items.
a) Determining what is necessary, and what is excess.
6. “Stocking up” on expertise, for independence, self-confidence and self-reliance.
This is pretty general, but how about one’s journey toward freedom? I’ve been in a journey mindset for some time; have started writing about it a little. Living free is a process, a road one chooses to travel on.
I’ve been interested in hearing more about your own personal journey, perhaps in the form of a biography. In what ways did you put your own theories into practice? When and how were you forced to compromise? What do you feel you missed out on by following this path?
I have a few ideas as to the answers to some of these questions from reading your books, magazine articles, and such. Your recent articles on BHM have had a more personal tone than your older writings, a tone which I welcome. I know you are a very private person, and I both respect and expect that fact, but the personal angle is often the most encouraging when what the reader needs most is the will to take the path traveled least.
Sincerely,
Ed
My vote goes to “observations, observations, observations”. Claire, I find your ability to actually show the symbiosis of “eternal vigilance” and increased personal and social happiness to be your defining attribute as a writer.
Sadly, there are hundreds of things to decry about our “societal” dystopia, but I think they all boil back down to the same thing: too many folks seem to think of other human beings as lesser than themselves, which opens the door to the “need” to “control” “them”. Thing is, I don’t think this is the natural condition for human beings, and that most folks can recognize this with a relatively small shift in perspective. Seeing that perspective seems to be the big problem–those who exploit people against each other apparently have some pretty rockin’ Kool-Aid to keep it under wraps so well–and I know that my biggest frustration is in articulating it well.
To be blunt: Claire, you articulate it well. You bring “normalcy” to a liberty-centric worldview. You make it perfectly believable that people should not proxy their selves out to any sort of external entity, but should remain sovereign unto themselves. You make it obvious why a body could actually be happier without any “protection” at all from the state. And you do it effortlessly through your observations. It just kinda squirts out of the pores naturally. 🙂
Ultimately, whatever you choose to write about, I’d request that. Both for me, and for all those who I would send in that direction to see what sort of life that “living like that” might actually be like.
(And for my daughter too, now sixteen months and delightfully contrarian-with-a-smile. With luck, she will some day understand for herself just how carefully her library has been assembled. 🙂
L2, it may be general, but it got me thinking about the overall theme of the book. Journey … roadmap. That may be it.
Pat, about as theoretical and practical as the suggestions you made. Right now, the best thoughts would be those that could help me organize my concept and develop the theme. Not looking so much right now for websites or specific freedom techniques (later for that). Looking to shape the overall picture. Does that help? What you’ve offered is good — just right.
I sat outside with a friend talking about this. As we bounced ideas back and forth, a shape emerged. I need to go make some notes on that discussion. But the discussion and L2s suggestion took this book thing from being a vague notion to having form, howver cloudy.
Ed, thank you for that. I sometimes think I talk much too much about myself. But I’ll definitely keep the personal touch formost. The friend I was talking with suggested interviews with people who are living (by their own definition) satisfying freedomista lives.
I don’t know how many of Julia Cameron’s books you’ve read, Claire, but I’ve been drawing some inspiration lately from her sequel (to The Artist’s Way), “Walking in this World: The Practical Art of Creativity”
http://www.amazon.ca/Walking-This-World-Julia-Cameron/dp/1585421839
It seems to address more creative endeavors than art for me, and has been helpful for both photography and page layout. It might be good for organizing the writing process as well, since getting started is half the battle.
Random thoughts:
How do we implement the following quote without becoming the enemy? How do we draw the line?
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!”
I suspect it’s one of those things that we all know, but it may be hard for most people to put it into words.
If good and evil are opposites, and evil hates good, can good still claim that it is an opposite if it hates evil?
How do we overcome the programming instilled in people to submit to evil? Clearly, we are not subject to this programming (right?), but how to we open the eyes of those around us?
Can anyone ever be free if he does not resist evil? Is such a person even free in his own mind? So, if we truly believe that we are free, does that include the freedom to not resist evil?
I’d love to see a new book!! I think your series of articles that started with the Quality of a Free Man, would be good to incorporate. One of the truly lost lessons of personal freedom/individual liberty is that it begins with the person/individual, and that is something you espouse regularly. Our specific definitions of personal freedom may vary widely and that’s OK as long as we’re each satisfied with our own choices, accept the responsibilities that come with those choices and don’t impose those choices on others.
And it would be great to see some of these ideas thru the eyes of your personal travels on the road of freedom. Like how in God’s name you ended up in the desert. I’d be suicidal in the desert. But most of my friends would be juat that unhappy here in the middle of the forest, so it’s all relative.
What would you be most passionate about writing in this season?
And what would be easiest to build upon the work that you have produced since your last book?
I’d love to see a chapter “Everything I need to know about government I learned from Thomas Jefferson”:
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”
“A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government. ”
“All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. ”
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. ”
“Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state. ”
“I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind. ”
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. ”
“Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not.”
I also really like the quote “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. ” which is always said to be from T.J., but its my understanding it was from Gerald Ford.
Anyway, no one in politics today is forward thinking like T.J. was, he was certainly on to something. The best way to get back to liberty and freedom is go back to the beginning.
If you are going to write a book on freedom it would be good to start with some basic framework of what freedom is. The definition is different from person to person. I would be willing to bet if you surveyed the masses with the question “do you have personal freedom?” You would find most Americans say they are.
In 7th grade English I had to read and do a book report on Orwell’s 1984. Ironically, it was in 1984. When it was written if you asked folks if they though the folks in the book were free, you’d get a different answer. Today, little of the book is not part of our “free” lives. I understand there is no ‘right to privacy’ in the Bill of Rights, but it would be part of my personal framework for freedom. I just think it is am important starting point to educate people of how this freedom is defined.
I too think a more personal touch would be cool, in addition to helping get a message across.
I became a fan of your work because you always offer good suggestions on what to do about tyranny, rather than merely telling us how screwed we are like all the other books seem to want to do. Stick to that formula and you can’t go wrong.
Claire — I so very much enjoy your freedom writings! I would be highly interested in how to act when the “S” only SORT OF “HTF”. In other words, things don’t collapse but just diminish bit by bit, like a once-proud neighborhood gone to seed. Where to go.. what to do.. what mindset to cultivate to survive in an environment of creeping totalitarianism (I know I know…we are heading there in ways large and small already). The last 2 generations have been indoctrinated via media and schools to believe that the Unfair is Fair (paying “your fair share of taxes ” means not only paying MORE than your less affluent neighbor for using the same roads and libraries but paying an even greater percentage the more you makel the half of the population that pays NO taxes is bound to be happy to vote a greater tax burden on their tax-paying brethren).
Most people dont remember (because they never knew or have just forgotten) what freedom really means.
Atlas Shrugging just isnt going to happen — not in any big way. We wont be able to set up Galt’s Gulch. It may happen in small ways (as an example, people may retire before they otherwise would have in order to limit their slavery).
What do we do?
What do we do when they take our guns” for our own good”? It is going to happen, likely with wholsesale registration then a step-up in the media campaign to make gun owners look like selfish (oh how they use that word against us across the board) Neanderthals.. Violence no-kidding isnt the answer; the poor deputy serving the warrant to us is the guy we went to High School with and anyway, is just doing his job, And anyway, wouldnt work in any meaningful way. But what is the answer?
Gee, Santa, how about recipes for all the software components of a working Gulch? Goals, checklists, and footnotes on how to set up Linux, set up your browser to use TOR, do anonymous email, advertise on an anonymous web, gripe on an anonymous blog, trade coins and work product between gulches on an anonymous ebay, trade stocks on an anonymous exchange, fund Gulch projects with anonymous venture capital…
The technical nuts and bolts are the least important part of what you can bring to the table. If you set up a roadmap and a table of contents in an anonymous wiki and champion it, who knows how quickly the details might fill themselves in?