7 Comments

I think you’re right, Jim. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

We should all try to make things better around us or, at very least, improve ourselves by learning skills and acting virtuously.

Great article!

Expand full comment
author

Thank you for your kind words and for reading my essay.

Teddy also said that the people of the Philippines had no ability to govern themselves, so he repeatedly sent troops to slaughter them. I can think of more free market oriented Americans from his era if you would like a list. -smile-

Expand full comment

Ha yes that’s true, but it reminds me of another quote. It went something like: I’ll always take a good quote from a man I don’t agree with.

And yes, I’ll gladly take that list. It’s always good to find more admirable people.

Expand full comment
author

I won't agree that Teddy Roosevelt ever said or did anything worthy of repute. He was an evil tyrant, a self-avowed progressive, who wanted to hurt other people and did so in many terrible ways. Here is TR on the people of the Philippines: "The Philippines offer a yet graver problem. Their population includes half-caste and native Christians, warlike Moslems, and wild pagans. Many of their people are utterly unfit for self-government, and show no signs of becoming fit. Others may in time become fit but at present can only take part in self-government under a wise supervision, at once firm and beneficent." from https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/Strenuous%20Life%2C%20Theodore%20Roosevelt.pdf

Here are a few people whose writings were better at the time, and worth reading today:

Lysander Spooner, Josiah Warren, Voltairine de Cleyre, Herbert Spencer

My friend and colleague in studying the history of freedom, Wendy McElroy, wrote extensively about the topic in various publications. I commend this one of her essays, though there are many others suited to your attention:

https://cdn.mises.org/5_3_4_0.pdf

Herbert Spencer should lead you to the work of Spencer Heath which would lead you to Spencer Heath MacCallum, E.C. Riegel, FA Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, and Murray Rothbard. A complete understanding of individualist free market anarchy would need to include reading Samuel Edward Konkin III's New Libertarian Manifesto, and perhaps the novelisation of that work by J. Neil Schulman, _Alongside Night_ which is free on the eponymous web site. All of which brings us to L. Neil Smith who was for a very long time the editor and publisher of the single best free market libertarian newsletter, The Libertarian Enterprise at ncc-1776.org

Thanks again for your interest in freedom communities. I've been reading with interest about your adventures in Uruguay. Now that you are in Colorado, I think you can see for yourself how very much change is needed in this country, and how none of the nationalist leadership groups are even vaguely interested in helping humanity. But wow are they eager to grift. Some of my comments on that topic here:

https://l5news.substack.com/p/not-long-before-the-end

in which I make reference to some of the important work of Doug Casey. You would do well to read his book _Crisis Investing_ as part of your preparation. His science fiction novels have a lot going for them, too.

Expand full comment
Apr 10Liked by Jim Davidson

Anybody know whatever happened with "American Contingency"? That originally seemed like it was going to have some promise, billing itself as "a network of better prepared citizens that can mobilize to assist in a natural and man-made disaster", but something seemed to fall apart fairly quickly and I lost track of it. I think the Feds tried to label them as a terrorist org or something but I never did hear the real story of what happened. This was back around 2020-2021 or so...

Expand full comment
author

They seem to exist. The top news item on their Latest News page is dated first of this month. https://www.americancontingency.com/ Prices seem within reach. But the reddit suggests some limited uptake and various issues. I suggest proceeding with caution.

https://www.reddit.com/r/preppers/comments/12y2s4j/american_contingency/

Expand full comment

There's this relatively new group out there that seems to be getting popular amongst the "solar doom" prepping crowd: https://solarkillshot.org/ I'm not a member, but I it's inexpensive ($10 / mo) so I might join for a while just to see what they're up to. I do pay judicious attention to Suspicious 0bservers but I'm not 100% wedded to that timeline, yet. Things seem to be escalating recently though, so that might change.... Given your space background and all-around knowledge of many things both subversive and liberty oriented, you probably are already familiar with the subject matter....

Expand full comment