Read the soon to be updated first edition of the only FS book so far:
Free State PorcFest 4 (2007) Temp File
I'm using this location to post some incomplete thoughts about the FSP/M and some reflections that are simply personal—also incomplete yet less so.
A Modest Proposal for the FSP/M
This to follow on from some of the thinking and conversations at the 2007 Porcupine Festival; also from my experiences with the Libertarian Party nationally and in Michigan.
Personal Reflections on the Road
Disclaimer: the following opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of others in the FSP/M movement, opinions which I thoroughly respect. I also want to note my own "rational libertarian humanist" worldview is constantly changing and I have no doubt that some religious sentiments can be a force for good.
Whither "die Luftmenschen?"
It's been my experience that any broad, open social movement that seeks freedom above power tends to attract a fair share of marginal people. I use marginal to mean a) people who throw themselves into the cause to the severe detriment of their own material well being and b) people who
don't really contribute but hang around because it's "a group that will have them as members."
The FSP/M by virtue of its intrinsic incentives for personal activism—moving here and participating in the political process (or "a" political process) typically requires a solid connection with real life—has far fewer Luftmenschen (literally 'air people') than most pro-liberty operations. Still I feel the L-people are particularly well represented at Porcfest 4 for some reason.
I'd like to propose not that we
kick out or somehow discourage the small number of L-people we have, rather that we self-consciously make subtle changes in the psychology of the movement. Jason touched on it at PorcFest 2 in 2005 when he said we should promote quality of life in the Free State, not simply moving here to slake our personal libertarian cravings and addictions.
Believe me, I know that achieving quality or abundance in life is difficult when the corrosive waves of the Leviathan state crash down upon any honest undertaking. But quality/abundance is a positive message for most people, as opposed making a last stand at the Alamo for the sake of being well remembered. Let's stress the freedom=abundance equation, and vice versa, as Luftmenschen remediation.
Finally, abundance is a big word embracing, to my mind, sustainable
living, activism in community, alternative technologies and economies, voluntary simplicity, quality of life. Emerging life-enhancing understandings of the sources of true wealth, like the vision of Catherine Austin Fitts and Solari, will lead many of us to a prosperous future. It's the idea of living well that we're selling, whether as someone like Ghandi, an earth-sheltered home developer, or a financier of regional wind and solar energy farms.
Whither Reason?
Lord knows I hate to pick on the Christians, but I'd really like to see the natural reason and science crowd—heck, even the neo-Objectivists—rise up and lay down the Rama Lama Ding Dong on those who keep pushing the Message of Supernatural Jesus. (Or Mohammed, Yahweh, Buddha, etc.)
"Faith-basing," meaning proudly believing in something grandiosely intolerant without evidence, enables the scourge we're seeing now in the White House responsible phenomena such as Dick Cheney, George Bush, and exorbitant profits for ExxonMobil, Lockheed Martin, et al, realized in the process of killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of, like, you know, human beings.
Along with the faith-based pro-warmachine sentiments shared by too many of the Free State minions, I sadly witness a combination of anti-immigrant paranoia, extolling of fossil fuels, and a fanatic advocacy of the inalienable rights of blastocysts. These positions, too, are mostly insusceptible in the minds of their proponents to appeals from reason. Oddly, these same people also seem to feel freedom is uniquely consistent with their articles of faith.
I don't think so, Tim.
I guess the best we can hope for is their faith will be "rational," but how hard is it to hoe that row?
To me, the freedom movement needs to distinguish itself by attracting the most rational—independently thinking, problem-solving, contradiction-eschewing—people we can find. I don't really have a bug up my butt about people who entertain ghosts in the sky—some of my best friends, pro-liberty or otherwise, are Christians—just that blind faith seems to tragically encumber our fundamental argument that freedom makes sense.
ExxonMobil, Lockheed Martin, et al, realized in the process of killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of, like, you know, human beings. 
