Free State Observer

Whoa, it’s been five months since I blogged anything. I blame Facebook. I used to keep a background part of my mind subconsciously focused on noting things to blog about, but now that part is redirected towards noting things to Facebook about, in a neverending quest to amuse my friends (both of them) and serve as a lesson to others, usually on what *not* to do with your life.

At this time five years ago, I was driving across the country, en route to New Hampshire. Seems like a good time to reflect and review on where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Random thoughts on the past five years (I also blame Facebook for damaging my ability to put together a cohesive narrative; everything comes out in 400-characters-or-less bullet points now. :-\ ):

– New Hampshire is a beautiful place. I am very fortunate to live here.

– No regrets about leaving California. That said, I have observed that some wounds don’t heal with time. Or perhaps I just haven’t found the proper emotional or intellectual salves to apply to them. Also, as Jon Kabat-Zinn has noted, “Wherever you go… there you are.”

– I love my funky little log cabin in the woods. I’m utterly failing to keep it up to Middle-Class Suburban White Guy standards of decency, but then, I don’t really care about such standards.

– Clean country living, while perhaps boring to some, appears to be good for my health. I’ve lost 15 pounds, and according to my fancy-pants electrical impedance scale that does everything short of trimming your toenails while you stand on it, I’ve aged negative 3 years over the past 9 months. I haven’t had a drink in over 7 months (without the assistance of drugs or AA, I might add), which is a major accomplishment considering that A) most of the people I socialize with drink like fish and B) my God but I love to drink. We’ll see how long I can keep it up. It’s a real struggle some days.

– Two years ago, I wrote this: “I’ve been meaning to reread “1984?; it’s been many years. But IIRC, it seems like the current reality of the U.S. may actually be worse than Orwell envisioned. This is actually worse than all sorts of sci fi dystopian books/movies I’ve read/seen over the years.” Since then, I *did* reread 1984. I wouldn’t say the U.S. is worse than what Orwell envisioned, but the similarities are mind-blowingly shocking and depressing… and at the same time, difficult to focus your eyes on, seeing as how it’s the reality in which we live all day, every day, and it gets increasingly hard to remember or envision a different/better way of living, like a fish trying to imagine what it would be like to not live in cold water.

– Despite all the heinous police state stuph growing and spreading in the U.S., I’m also aware that, in the grand scheme of things, I’m incredibly fortunate to have grown up (well, as “up” as I’m ever going to get) in late 20th century America, enjoying health, wealth, freedom, recorded music, books so cheap people throw them away, the world at my fingertips via the Internet, inexpensive air travel, a huge diversity of tasty things to eat and drink (some of them even good for me), and, with statistically low exceptions, nobody trying to shoot me, bomb me, rape and pillage me, etc. When a bad day is a traffic jam on the interstate, or the expresso machine broken at Starbucks, you’re pretty lucky.

– The New Hampshire liberty movement continues to grow, and now has discrete branches espousing different strategies. One branch favors living today as if there were no coercive government. This strategy appears to me to result in frequent arrests, weeks spent in jail, pissing off one’s neighbors, hateful comments in the local paper, but hey, whatever floats your boat! See http://freekeene.com/ for more info. Another branch favors working within the political system, trying to get more pro-freedom people elected to office, ousting anti-freedom people, fighting bad laws, supporting good laws, etc. The New Hampshire Liberty Alliance, with which I got re-involved last year after a year or two of not really speaking to one another, is a leader in this department. Now, longtime readers of this blog might wonder why I’d spend time and energy on such a thing, after whining at length about my loss of faith in electoral politics, my evolution to flaming anarchist, adulation of Stefan “Big Chatty Forehead” Molyneux, etc…. well, I’ll tell you (and try to be brief about it). Basically, while I would love for there to be a Rothbardian button to push, and would gladly push it if given the opportunity, letting any ensuing chips of short-term chaos fall where they may, the sad fact is, there IS no button. There’s never going to be one (or I lack the optimism and vision to believe there will be one, I just don’t know). Even if the upcoming economic crash (which I firmly believe *is* coming) brings our current political administration to its knees, a peaceful anarchocapitalist society is not going to rise from its ashes. Far from it. We are a nation of soft, flabby, spoiled children who expect certain necessities of life to be provided to us, reliably, by government, (even some of us who shriek about wanting more freedom), and I just don’t see that system going away any time soon. Therefore, as a means of self-defense, I will do what I can to ensure that better (or at least, less bad) people get elected to local and state office, and do what I can to keep my local and state taxes from going up. On the federal level, I will do what I need to do to keep the jack-booted thugs from putting a bullet in my head. And remember: Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. — Sun-tzu

– As for five years from now… well. I think our (and by “our”, I’m referring to Americans here) world is going to look quite a bit different. Many people are in for a rude awakening, economically speaking. Comparatively speaking, New Hampshire is going to be one of the better places to be in the U.S. I’m glad I’m here. And as long as you don’t push me or try to take my stuff, I’d be right glad to have you here too.