My original approach to the blog would have been to document daily how each day was, however, I decided to do something else instead an talk about my general impressions with Anarchapulco 2017. I want to touch on some interesting talks and concept that I picked up over the week, share with those that were not able to attend this year's conference and give my personal opinion on the issues at hand. I also want to highlight some book recommendations that I received and which I am planning to read up on.

G. Edward Griffin

On the first day, one of the talks that stood out to me was the one by G. Edward Griffin. To my shame, I have to admit that I have not read

The creature of Jakyll Island - G. Edward Griffin

(yet).

G Ed talked about the battle of Collectivism vs. Individualism. He gave an enlightening example:

Groups dont exist.

You can touch a tree. But "a forest" is an abstract, non-existent in the real world concept.
You can touch an individual. But you can't touch a group. Groups don't exist. It's an aggregation of individuals.
Coming from that perspective it is vital to recognize that a group, being the aggregation of individuals, cannot - CAN NOT - hold more rights than the individuals that make it up.
Integrating that idea into the real world: If any individual does not have the right to initiate the use of force, no group can have that right either.
Ask a statist: Where does the government get it's power from? The (governed) people. When is it justified to use force? To protect the individual's rights (life, liberty, property).
More information here: https://www.freedomforceinternational.org/creed-of-freedom/

Adam Kokesh

Adam talked about censorship in social media and his experience with services like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. What I suspected, but didn't know before, was that SJWs specifically target speech that they disagree with and flag the content on the platforms. Coming from the paradigm of "guilty until proven innocent", the companies usually end up taking the content off the website.
In retaliation, Adam proposed an interesting idea: flag "offensive" (i.e. statist) content yourself and just wait and see. I think it is interesting, since flagging content is not initiating force and feeds the statists some of their own medicine.

The statist flagging is bound to happen on April 1st

Foster Gamble

The second day started out with a talk from Foster Gamble. Another name I have not heard much about before the conference. Foster blew my mind however with the innovations that he presented (for example, restoring rivers and corral reaves in an incredibly short amount of time.

I really enjoyed his "wholeistic" approach to the matter of life. I think about it the same way, that EVERYTHING in the world, in terms of what makes up a "good life" and such plays in the same direction. I have also come to appreciate yoga, nutrition (cutting out sugar), fitness, philosophy, consciousness

Bob Podolsky and Octologues

A lot of talk at this year's Anarchapulco revolved around how to get organized and establish a functioning anarchy somewhere in the world. Bob Podolsky has a rather interesting technology as he calls it: The Octologue. An Octologue is a group of ideally 8 people, half men, half women, who gather around an idea and want to implement it in the world. It follows simple guidelines, namely that you want to increase and maximize four resources: (1) Truth (2) Awareness (3) Love (4) Creativity. As a byproduct one achieves (1) Prosperity (2) Peace (3) Freedom (4) Happiness. Every decision the group makes has to be consented to by every member of the group - decisions have to be unanimous. Each member of the octologue has the power to veto any decisions of the group, there is no such thing as majority rule. You either all agree or no decision is made.
A powerful technology in my opinion and I will write more about it, once I have implemented it in my own life and experimented a little.

Amanda Rachwitz

Amanda, apart from looking stunning, had an excellent talk as well. First off, she recommended the book

The underground history of American education by John Taylor Gatto,

which I will read as soon as I get around to it (there has been A LOT of books recommended so my reading list is full for the next year :D). I learned about the concept of chronological snobbery - which is the idea that your knowledge about the world is superior to any other point in time, just because it is more recent.

We need to reconnect with our core! The thing that has been taken from us by schooling and the hierarchical structure of society. I could not agree more. The more I expose myself to anarchy, the more I realize just how broken I am. I want to be human again. I don't want to become a robot that has no primary knowledge, but is fed by an external authority.

I don't want to be another brick in the wall.

I hope the talks will be available online soon, so you can see them yourself!

Going from here

The wish to relocate to Acapulco is stronk. I really want to go. Meeting so many awesome people over the past week has strengthened this dream even more. My aim is it to establish a bootcamp, a retreat for anybody in the world to come by and learn about
• Diet
• Fitness
• Philosophy
• Psychology
• Economics
• Business
• Self-awareness
• Homesteading
• Cryptocurrencies
• The whole stick
I think it would be helpful to a lot of people, who lack orientation in life and are confused by all the statist talk. There is an answer to the question "How are we going to organize society?" - and it ain't the initiation of force.

Evacuate the state, brave the future

Some more book recommendations from the conference:

So good they can't ignore you - by Cal Newman
The obstacle is the way - by Ryan Holiday
War Is a Racket - by Smedley Butler
The most dangerous superstition - by Larken Rose
Swarmwise - by Rick Falkvinge
Flourish - by Bob Podolsky

Impressions from Anarchapulco 2017