Tag: anarchy

Nation States End – Episode 216

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The Story: The transition to the information age will end nations

According to the case made in the book “The Sovereign Individual”, the nation state rose to power as a natural consequence of the conditions of the industrial age.

Gunpowder made obsolete the old technology such as armed cavalry, and castles. That set the stage for the efficient smelting of iron, which lead to factories.

Factories are very centralised – making them vulnerable to vandalism and also to taxation. The factory owners needed the protective watch of governments to maintain their properties.

Now we are moving into the information age, and it is much more common to have digital property, in the form of websites and cryptocurrency. In many ways, the nation state is powerless to protect these new forms of property, and in many cases it is powerless to tax them.

Still the belief in the authority of the nation state remains. How long will it hold up? Kurt explores that question and more in this episode of The Paradise Paradox!

The Links:

Urban/Rural divide – Multiversity Project

Post Anarchism, the Sovereign Individual – Multiversity Project

Welfare State Collapse – Multiversity Project

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please like and follow The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit. Also check out my new site, Cryptonomics, and follow Cryptonomics on Steemit

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

Listen and subscribe to The Paradise Paradox on Anchor and other services.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Bitcoin, Dash and digital currency for beginners – Episode 181

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The Story: The dream of cryptocurrency and what to do about it

Most people hear the word “Bitcoin”, they don’t think much of it, or they think only about drug markets on shady parts of the web. Bitcoin, Dash and digital currency in general are similar to the Internet itself in some ways. If you can think back to 1995, you might remember people saying how the Internet was full of paedophiles, pornography and other undesireable material – a place for nerd and perverts, but certainly not for regular people. Today, almost everyone who has the resources to access the Internet uses it on a regular basis, from shopkeepers in London to monks in rural Thailand. A technology which was once only for a few, quickly became a necessity for everyone.

Free digital currency – currency not controlled by any government – may be the greatest breakthrough in monetary technology since coins were first minted. However, just as with the Internet, the benefits are not obvious to most, unless they have a need to escape the restrictions of normal money. Farmers in Argentina use these currencies to escape the will of banks telling them how to grow and what to grow. Activist organisations such as Wikileaks use it to accept payments when governments try to block them. Impoverished Venezuelans use it to smuggle in food to feed their families, as the national currency collapses before their eyes. If you want to send money across the world cheaply, or to find a way to save money so it isn’t eroded by inflation, or you have a desire to see a better world where everyone has a chance to live comfortably, could a currency such as Dash or Bitcoin help you?

In this episode, Kurt discusses the dream, the highest ideals of digital currency – ending war and providing a means for the masses to escape poverty and reach prosperity, removing power from central banks and holding governments accountable to the public they are supposed to serve. He also gives an overview of how to acquire Dash or Bitcoin, some pitfalls to avoid losing your money, and some ways you can earn this currency.

Join us in an industry-disrupting episode of … The Paradise Paradox!

Disclaimer: Nothing in this video or podcast is to be construed as financial advice.

The Eps:

Dash vs Bitcoin – Which will reach mass adoption first?

Bitcoin vs Dash – Ridiculous comments about Dash

Why Amanda B. Johnson loves Dash

The Links:

Dashforce News

Travelling using Dash by Joël Valenzuela

Dash Nation Slack or Dash Nation on Discord

What is Bitcoin? video

Where to spend Dash

Spend Bitcoins

Purse.io – buy Amazon gift cards

Bitcart – buy Amazon gift cards

Coinmarketcap

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

How did I become an anarchist – Best Bits

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Kurt is interviewed by Jeff Berwick on Anarchast, and is asked Jeff’s favourite question, “How did you become an anarchist?” Kurt explains how he put the pieces of liberty together – understanding social or personal liberty, understanding economic liberty, understanding the philosophical and legal aspects, and finally having the “click”, realising that a state is unnecessary and undesirable.

Watch and listen to the full interview here: Kurt on Anarchast – Living Freely and Enjoying the Ride

Kurt on Anarchast – Living Freely and Enjoying the Ride

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The Story: Kurt is interviewed by Jeff Berwick on Anarchast

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Jeff Berwick, known for his media outlet “The Dollar Vigilante” and his channel “Anarchast” in which he interviews notable anarchists, almost always beginning the interview with the question “How did you become an anarchist?”

I’ve been listening to the Anarchast for years, and hoping that one day I would be able to appear on it, so when Jeff asked me, my answer was an emphatic “Hell yes.”

I figured that, to make the interview entertaining for Jeff and for the thousands of listeners, I’d better prepare carefully, thinking about what would be engaging for them. So in the couple of weeks leading up to the interview, I wrote out many drafts thinking about how I would describe my journey of becoming an anarchist, “Free man on the land” type ideas and how they lead me to question authority, about the freedom that people enjoy in Mexico (despite its flaws), the anti-authoritarianism that exists here, spiritual experiences, and how life is full of wonders.

The Eps:

See the world with new eyes – Episode 147

Jeff Berwick: The Dollar Vigilante – Episode 77

Sterlin Lujan: Compassionate anarchy – Episode 156

The Links:

Anarchast on YouTube

The Dollar Vigilante on YouTube

The Cash:

If you enjoy our posts, please become a patron on Patreon, or have a look at The Paradise Paradox’s page on Steemit where you can join, earn money, and upvote our posts to help support the show! You can also find a lot of additional content which is not posted on this site, with Kurt’s posts on Steemit and Aaron’s posts on Steemit.

We really appreciate all of your contributions! Every cent and satoshi we receive lets us know that we’re doing something worthwhile, that you are entertained by our program, and that you’re starting to question what you know more and more. Please be generous. Donate to The Paradise Paradox. Or buy some stuff on Amazon using this link. Or buy some of our great T-shirts here.

The Episode:

To download the audio, right click and press “save as”.

Remember to subscribe on iTunes or subscribe on Pocket Casts.

If you enjoyed the episode, don’t keep it a secret! Feel free to share it on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Reddit, or your office bathroom wall.

Without government, wouldn’t warlords take over?

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If you believe government is needed, and someone suggests that it isn’t, you might be rather distressed. You might start to picture bands of rogues roving the land without cease, raping and stealing. In the minds of many statists, this fear is so real that it seems certain. But of course, little is certain in life, and we can no more say for sure that warlords will take over than we can say that they won’t. However, we can at least begin to estimate the likelihood.

If you’re like most people, it’s almost certain that you are threatened by group of people which claims to help you, a group which takes your money without asking first. Just as we can’t be sure that warlords won’t take over in a stateless society, it’s not certain that this violent group won’t grow larger, to expand to a level of control where many are fearful and even people with friends in high places can be destroyed without anyone being punished. In fact, such a case is much more likely to be found in a society with a state, than a society without a state, as the power structures are already there. In a stateless society, if these structures form, they’re likely to be smaller. It’s easier to go from 8 to 10 than it is to go from 0 to 10.

warlordsmight8eb17.jpg
To get to a society that has no rulers, first there has to be a cultural change. People have to learn to do things without the help of their rulers, and instead depend on each other. The less they can solve problems on their own and working in teams, the more chance they have to be seduced by a person offering easy answers, or threatened by someone who comes along with a few guns and a few demands. If certain states vanished tomorrow, there would be a 99% chance that warlords would take over. However, the more the people learn to support each other, and the more people love liberty, the less chance a tyrant has of taking hold. The tragedy is, the more people cling to these concerns about warlords, the less people who learn to love liberty.

In the end, the reason cling onto these ideas is because of a deep-seated fear. People want to feel like everything is under control, even if it’s by a someone who, in their hearts, they know is a devil. Their fear leads them to fearmonger, spilling endless “what if” cases, none of which can be allayed by logic alone. As I said, nothing in life is certain. Yet, by embracing our uncertainty, and our fears, we can learn to overcome them. It’s scary to stand at the edge of darkness, not knowing what lies within. It takes heart to put your foot over that threshold, yet, that is the only way that humans grow – by putting ourselves in realms where nothing is sure, but everything is possible. Screw your courage to the sticking place, and feel just for a moment, what it would mean to be free.

Four kinds of leaders – Luis Fernando Mises

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Luis from Emancipated Human​ explains the four kinds of leaders that have existed throughout history, about his experience meeting business leaders, and how we can move into the future.

Transcript

There’s been four kinds of leaders throughout history.

First was the religious leaders. They had their religious entities which were able to tell people how to act. But now, those guys cannot necessarily agree with one another – two leaders of religious sects – because they either merge, discombobulate or whatever. So they can’t.

You move to the idea of the militant or military leader. The health of the state is through war or through coercion and all of that, so they can’t, or they will lose their space, their reason for being.

Then you move to the democratic leadership where, through politics, they’re not allowed to have a lot in common with other states – “I always have to be on top.” That’s not ideal, but you don’t see a lot of eye to eye contact. “I’ll help you and I’ll get a bunch of resources…” They just take advantage of each other.

So then we move to the fourth kind of leadership, which to me seems the most spiritually aware and I’ll tell you – it’s the business leader. The business leader is willing to do a deal with the devil if it’s good for all parties involved, because the business leader is not going to lose – but it’s willing to give as well. So it’s a voluntary exchange for mutual benefit.

But a lot of people say “the business leaders are greedy; they’re in it for themselves.” Well, yes and no, but that’s the hurdle that we have to jump. We have to let people see that the business leader is not just there to make a buck and go to the beach – I mean everybody loves the beach right – but the idea is that, when you’re working from purpose – like all these 201 CEOs that I was with, all those guys, they have enough money; they don’t need to work; they have enough resources and influence. They really don’t need to work any more. A lot of people say “They’re just greedy; they just want more.” Well, a lot of those guys stopped taking salaries. They’re just doing it because they love the work they do.

The idea is to help us see, and this just comes with maturity, how the business leader would be able to help eliminate the state, because if you think of international companies, somebody can be in the US, Mexico, Amsterdam, it doesn’t matter what country you’re in, we’re in the same company. Even if you’re Australian and I’m Mexican, and I’m in the states and you’re in Mexico, we’re connected through that link. Screw borders.

So the idea is to help us understand and find our own purpose. The one thing that can save humanity, in my perspective, is raising consciousness in humans. It’s not hating the state, it’s not creating wars. It’s just working on our own individual selves.