How Preparedness and Self-Sufficiency Turned Jack Spirko Into An Anarchist

By Vin Armani

In this video, Vin Armani interviews Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast about how preparedness and self-sufficiency feeds his political philosophy as an anarcho-libertarian voluntaryist. Spirko’s 5-day-a-week podcast is about managing his homestead in Texas, practical prepping, permaculture and self-reliance. It receives a remarkable 150,000 downloads per day.

Visit Jack at http://www.TheSurvivalPodcast.com/

Watch the full broadcast here
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Vin Armani is the host of The Vin Armani Show on Activist Post, TV Star of Gigolos on Showtime, Agorist entrepreneur and co-founder of Counter Markets. Follow Vin on Twitter and subscribe on YouTube. Get the weekly podcast on iTunes or Stitcher. Vin is available for interviews at email Vin (at) VinArmani.com.

The Alternative Currency of a 19th Century Abolitionist

Via The Daily Bell

Have you ever had the dream of starting your own society? What about introducing a new currency? Turns out Bitcoin was far from the first private currency.

Josiah Warren didn’t like the political system, and he didn’t like the economic system, so he started his own little alternative community, with a unique medium of exchange. Warren actually started multiple “anarchist” micro-societies, with varying levels of success. Although he never called himself an anarchist, he believed in individual freedom to the point that he argued government was inherently a violation of rights.

Warren said that when laying out laws and constitutions, governments always present the problem of interpretation. The power of the interpreter of laws becomes unlimited power. Because of this, attempts to fit everyone under one unified umbrella of law and order will inevitably cause schism, disappointment, and resentment.

To be harmonious and successful we must begin anew; we must disconnect, disunite ourselves from all institutions or rise above them.

But how, you ask, can this be, where each is a member of the body politic–where obedience to some law or other is indispensable to the working of the political machine? If every one was the law unto himself, all would be perfect anarchy and confusion. No doubt of this. The error lies further back then you have contemplated. We should be no such thing as a body politic. Each man and woman must be an individual, no member of any body but that of the human family. Blackstone says, “It is the wants and the fears of the individuals which make them come together,” and form society.

In other words, it is for interchange of mutual assistance, and for security of person or property, that society is originally formed. Now if neither of these objects has ever been attained in society, we have no reason for keeping up a body politic…

With regard to security, we see that in the wide range of the world’s bloody history, there is not any one horrid feature so frightful, so appalling as the recklessness, the cold-blooded indifference with which laws and governments have sacrificed person or property in their wanton, their criminal, or ignorant pursuit of some blind passage or unsubstantial phantom of the imagination.

Governments have failed in their expressed purpose, so why bother preserving that failure? After all, people will voluntarily come together when they need mutual assistance, which is supposedly the entire point of government anyway.

Before the Civil War, many prominent abolitionists were basically total anarchists, because they saw the injustice perpetrated by the government on the black slaves.

Frederick Douglass spoke about slavery in a way that is impossible not to draw parallels between government citizens and slaves.

To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must not depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his master’s will.

And many people do repeat like sheep, “Because it’s the law!” without ever analyzing whether such laws are just and moral. Henry David Thoreau argued that the moral thing to do is break unjust laws and make an effort to pay as little taxes as possible, lest one be a party to injustice.

If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of government, let it go, let it go; perchance it will wear smooth,-certainly the machine will wear out… but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn.

Lysander Spooner, another 19th-century anarchist, perfectly summed up the blaring inconsistency of government policy just after the Civil War:

There was no difference of principle—but only of degree—between the slavery they boast they have abolished, and the slavery they were fighting to preserve; for all restraints upon men’s natural liberty, not necessary for the simple maintenance of justice, are of the nature of slavery, and differ from each other only in degree.

Lysander Spooner actually started a service to deliver mail to compete with the U.S. Postal Service.

Likewise, Josiah Warren was not simply satisfied with criticizing the government; he invented ways to compete with the government. One of his ideas was an attempt to wrest the control of money away from government power. His ideas for currency were aligned with the value of labor.

Time Stores

In 1827 Warren introduced his own currency called a labor note, linked to a “Time Store” he set up. The idea behind the time store was that one should charge an amount for goods based on their labor in bringing the goods to market, versus supply and demand.

Clearly, this only really works for goods in sufficient supply. He bought flour, for instance, and charged customers the price he paid, plus a fee for the amount of time it took him to purchase the flour, store it, and bag it to sell to the customer. In turn, the customer would agree to trade their labor for the same amount of hours or minutes. So if the total cost for Warren to supply them with a pound of flour was ten cents and an hour, then the customer owed Warren ten cents and an hour of, say, sewing or wood splitting.

It was a slightly more advanced form of barter. But in a sense, it was also too simplistic. Warren asks, why should someone get a large sum for digging up gold when the labor is the same to dig a ditch? He failed to take into account the scarcity of the resource. Prices rise as goods with a limited supply become in comparably higher demand.

At one point, Warren even refused to sell his entire supply of grain to a speculator, because he wanted to be able to sell smaller amounts of grain to whoever needed it. Even when the businessman offered him more than just the cost of Warren’s labor for the grain, he still refused.

The Time Store did seem to be successful, however. Warren was able to keep it running, and the customers loved it because they could get goods for a better price. Then the labor notes could be traded so that if Warren didn’t need an hour of sewing, but a lumberjack did, Warren could get the labor from the lumberjack in exchange for the sewing labor.

Of course, the internet makes Warren’s ideas about human capital more viable. A website called Simbi.com allows users to offer their services in exchange for others’ services. Like the Time Store, if you provide a service, but aren’t interested in the services of your customer, you can earn Simbi credits instead, and spend these elsewhere. Services offered range from marketing help, athletic coaching, recipes, training to create products out of shopping bags, logo creation, relationship advice, and so much more. There are reviews, stats, and badges to help you know who is best to work with.

But Simbi is far from the only bartering service on the web. This MoneyCrashers article highlights 34 different web platforms for trading vacation accommodations, rides, clothing, children’s toys, books, and more.

Utopian Societies

Josiah Warren wanted to create a Utopian society. While he never fully succeeded in creating the perfect society, let alone separating one from the United States, his writing, and experiments in governance has influenced the efforts to create a more fair and just society.

Warren’s Time Stores didn’t stand the test of time, nor did his mini-societies which fell victim to land speculation. But his ideas have stood the test of time, and likely influenced others who came after him, like Lysander Spooner and Henry David Thoreau.

His contributions are little known and oft overlooked by those who fight for freedom. But he offers a unique perspective that differs from the typical libertarian or anarchist thinking. I certainly don’t agree with all he wrote, but his perspective offers an interesting challenge to entrenched beliefs about the market and serves as a churn to test their validity.

Portland Anarchists Begin Fixing Roads & Potholes (Because the Government Won't)

Authored by Derrick Broze via TheAntiMedia.org,

“Who will build the roads?” The question is a common response to the proposition that human beings can coexist peacefully in the absence of a government or even the concept of a State altogether. Anarchists often claim that in the absence of an institutionalized State, people will voluntarily organize and discover solutions to the problems they face, including the construction and maintenance of roads. One such group of anarchists decided to put their beliefs into action by repairing potholes in Portland, Oregon.

A Facebook page called “Portland Anarchist Road Care” claims PARC is an anarchist organization dedicated to putting “the state of the roads of PDX into the hands of the people.” The group’s page says they “believe in building community solutions to the issues we face, outside of the state.” They say they are working to change the stereotype of anarchists as road blockers and window smashers. PARC also accuses the city of Portland of failing to repair roads in a timely manner and failing to provide adequate preventative care for winter storms.

“Portland Anarchist Road Care aims to mobilize crews throughout our city, in our neighborhoods, to patch our streets, build community, and continue to find solutions to community problems outside of the state,” their Facebook page reads.

Dylan Rivera, a spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Transportation, told Anti-Media he can empathize with those who are frustrated. “We have a backlog of more than 1000 pothole requests,” Rivera said over the phone. “That work has been frustrated by a wet spring, with very few dry days for potholes.”

Rivera says the city has held a “Patch-a-thon” where they quadruple their staff working on potholes. He stated that during a recent “Patch-a-thon,” the city had 29 crews fix more than 900 potholes. In contrast, The Portland Mercury reports that PARC has patched five potholes in Portland. While those differences may seem stark, it is worth mentioning that the anarchists fixed the potholes via voluntary direct action while the city of Portland is using money stolen from the local community via taxation.

Rivera warned that Portlanders who choose to privately maintain the city streets without the approval of the government are doing so at their own risk. “Portlanders maintaining city streets is not safe and it’s not allowed,” Rivera stated. “It’’s not safe for the people doing the fixes because they are working in traffic and they are not trained to have the right procedures, barricades, and that sort of thing, to have a safe work zone.” Rivera also warned that individuals who choose to fix the roads could face potential civil liability if someone’s car is damaged. The irony is that, currently, if an individual’s vehicle is damaged due to government inaction on potholes, the government is rarely held accountable.

Whether Portland Anarchist Road Care will continue to fix potholes and eventually outcompete the City of Portland remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the community is a shining example of what a determined group of individuals can do when working together on a common goal.

Portland Anarchist Road Care’s profile picture on Facebook.

Even more so, they are a powerful example of how the people can accomplish both mundane tasks like building and maintaining roads, and more complex issues like how to organize our lives in the absence of the State. The beauty is that we each have the power to be an example of what a world without theft, institutionalized violence, and force can look like. We can choose to live lives that do not rely on the force of government and instead use our individual power to work towards collective liberation.

Anarchists Gather in Acapulco to Take over the World…Then Leave You Alone

(ANTIMEDIA) Anarchists have gotten a bad rap. From the self-described anarchists who riot in the streets to the doomsday Hollywood franchise The Purge, many have been led to believe anarchy is synonymous with chaos, terror, and violence. President Trump even chimed in recently, referring — without evidence — to “professional anarchists” who were paid to protest his reign.

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Few people associate anarchism with consciousness, spirituality, veganism, music, meditation, yoga, peaceful parenting, homesteading, and cryptocurrencies. Few associate it with peace, non-aggression, and basic respect for human life and individuality.

But that’s what a recent days-long conference in Acapulco, Mexico, just sought to challenge.

The Anarchapulco conference recently held its third annual incarnation in the city of Acapulco, located in the drug war-riddled state of Guerrero, Mexico, a region where soldiers patrol the streets armed to the teeth. But in a city that beams vibrancy and vitality in spite of a visible police state, hundreds of anarchists from around the world have found a home.

The festival is put on at the end of February by Canadian expat Jeff Berwick, who hosts a podcast called Anarchast, where he interviews prominent anarchist intellectuals and activists. The event is a culmination of many of the ideas discussed on Berwick’s show.

Some of the speakers at the event focused on the political — or rather, apolitical — nature of anarchism. Renowned anarchist Larken Rose, author of Most Dangerous Superstition (hint: it’s belief in government), tackled some of the most fundamental reasons to embrace anarchism in his tongue-in-cheek-titled talk, “Sacred Cow Shish Kabob.” By breaking down many of the myths and misconceptions surrounding what many anarchists refer to as “statism” (the belief in the need for government, or the State), Rose made clear the problems with central authority.

Larken Rose gives his “Sacred Cow Shish Kebab” speech. Photo credit: Eric Mccool for Permagora.

He addressed a wide variety of misguided beliefs about the State, including nationalism and saluting the flag, an act he noted amounts to a pledge of allegiance to the government, itself. “I pledge allegiance to the flag…and to the republic, for which it stands,” he explained, is a phrase that blatantly professes loyalty to the institution — not the ideals of freedom.

This led him to one of his most salient points: Rose argued that despite a country’s adoption of a constitution or label like a “republic,” gross oppression still occurs in the name of representation and liberty. He cited the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, noting, “Yep, has a constitution, yep, allows them to vote, yep, has a bill of rights,” noting the same is true for the People’s Republic of China, the historical Weimar Republic, modern-day North Korea, and numerous other seemingly democratic governments that have all the trappings of “freedom.” They have all severely oppressed individuals, just like the United States, yet another republic, has.

Speaking on oppression, Lynn Ulbricht, mother of imprisoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, spoke about the dangerous precedent set by the U.S. government in its prosecution of her son. Ross, who founded a dark web marketplace that, among many other things, allowed for the sale of illegal drugs, was sentenced to life in prison though he never actually sold narcotics.

Mother-turned-activist Lynn Ulbricht with event photographer and activist Avens O’Brien. Photo credit: Avens O’Brien & Judd Weiss.

Pointing out that major corporations have also sanctioned “illegal” activity with no legal repercussions, she highlighted the dangers Judge Kathleen Forrester perpetuated in Ross’ conviction. Among them was the unquestioning acceptance of digital evidence, which Lynn pointed out is easily manipulable. She noted one expert witness on this topic was barred from testifying in the case. Most chilling, however, were the judge’s words to Ross, which Lynn presented on a slide:

“Silk Road’s birth and its presence asserted that its creator, you, and its operator, were better than the laws of this country, and there are posts which discuss the laws as the oppressor and that each transaction is a victory over the oppressor. This is deeply troubling and terribly misguided — and also very dangerous.”

Los Angeles-based artist Mear One working on a painting, which was auctioned in support of Ross Ulbricht’s legal defense fund. Photo credit: Avens O’Brien & Judd Weiss.

Forrester objected to Ulbricht’s subversion of the war on drugs, and explicitly expressed her disapproval not of his actions, necessarily, but the beliefs that inspired them:

“It’s notable that the reasons that you started Silk Road were philosophical and I don’t know that it is a philosophy left behind,” she told him.

The judge’s thought-policing, control-seeking attitude is perhaps the most precise reason anarchists oppose the State.

Rooted in the non-aggression principle, the basic tenet of the anarchism represented at Anarchapuclo is the notion that humans are free to do as they wish as long as they are not using violence against others. All human interaction should be free of force, fraud, and coercion, and all human interaction should be voluntary.

As such, it follows that because no one is asked to pay taxes, but rather forced, the government represents an inherently coercive system. Similarly, tax payers are not asked what programs they’d like to fund. This relationship between government and subject is coercive specifically because what ultimately defines the institution of government is what many anarchists at Anarchapulco might refer to as a “monopoly on violence.” Any regular citizen is barred from stealing or committing violence, but if the government does it, it is considered “taxation” or “protecting and serving.” This is the fundamental authority and double standard anarchists at Anarchapulco reject.

Youtube personality That Guy T with FEE Director of Content Jeffrey Tucker. Photo credit: Avens O’Brien & Judd Weiss.

While most of the speakers at Anarchapulco subscribe to this basic philosophy, at least one did not; Lauren Southern, for example, a Canadian activist and author of Barbarians: How The Baby Boomers, Immigration, and Islam Screwed my Generation, seemingly fits in more with the alt-right movement than peaceful anarchism that universally condemns the State. So does Milo Yiannopolous, the controversial political personality who attended the conference last year but was removed from the list of speakers this year due to, as Berwick simply put it, his “statism.” Southern’s presence this year prompted at least one challenge from the audience questioning her continued belief in government and left some questioning why she was a featured speaker in the first place.

Nevertheless, the vast majority of speakers espouse the philosophy of anarchism. But rather than simply focusing on the negative aspects of State control, many focused on the beauty and possibilities of freedom and the ways to attain it in our own lives.

The political focus of intellectuals like Rose and Edward G. Griffin, author of the Creature from Jekyll Island, Foster Gamble, director of Thrive, and FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) Director of Content Jeffrey Tucker provided the foundational philosophy of the conference. But what stood out most to many attendees was the commitment to higher consciousness, self-healing, and compassion many of the speakers articulated. Sterlin Luxan focuses on psychology and the need to cultivate compassion, improve interpersonal relationships, and improve our own well-being to ensure anarchism is a viable system. He gave a speech on these issues and the power of MDMA, a drug increasingly used to treat PTSD, to attain these goals.

Anti-Media journalist Derrick Broze and founder of the Conscious Resistance Network, spoke about his own path to freedom, through which he overcame drug addiction and developed his own model for sustainable anarchism; at his Houston-based Free Thinkers activist house, members grow their own food, volunteer in the community, and detach from established systems by withdrawing their resources from banks and other modes of control perpetrated by the establishment.

This exit from the system, or counter-economics, constitutes agorism, a strategy Broze adheres to and writes about in his forthcoming book, Manifesto of the Free Humans. Broze also hosted a meditation event blending his solution-oriented approach with finding internal peace.

Journalist and activist Derrick Broze discusses solutions outside the matrix. Photo credit: Eric Mccool for Permagora.

Another speaker offering solutions was Vit Jedlicka, the founder of Liberland, a sovereign state located between Croatia and Serbia that “prides itself on personal and economic freedom of its people, which is guaranteed by the Constitution, which significantly limits the power of politicians so they could not interfere too much in the freedoms of the Liberland nation.”

Dayna Martin, who spoke about peaceful parenting and held a “family camp” day, also held an evening for women. In her Women’s Circle gathering, she stressed the importance of the feminine presence in promoting freedom and anarchism and held a ceremony to foster solidarity. One of the attendees to the circle, Lisa Freeman, organized daily activities for children throughout the conference. Both Martin and Broze participated in a panel on veganism.

Children and their parents release baby sea turtles into the ocean during Dayna Martin’s family camp. Photo credit: Eric Mccool for Permagora.

The focus on self-healing to promote external peace was palpable. (Full disclosure: last year I attended the conference and spoke about yoga and freedom and how the two are synonymous. This year I taught a yin yoga class focused on releasing deep tension in the connective tissue and fascia to counter the stress and hysteria of the past election year.)

Other topics included the power of ayahuasca to heal past trauma and promote gentleness and compassion (the festival also hosted a shaman-supervised ayahuasca ceremony for attendees, which has been viewed with skepticism by some but embraced by others). One performance, by Benny Wills of the political satire group Joycamp, used spoken word poetry to satirize the anarchist experience and the broader rabbit’s hole of “waking up” to the many injustices perpetrated by those in power He earned two standing ovations and consistent waves of laughter.

The comedy was a welcome addition to a conference that often must focus on violence and corruption to convey the coldness of the State. So too was an evening concert featuring artists and bands with conscious lyrics. Truniversal, a conscious hip-hop group, sang about “universal truth, love, and freedom,” while heavy metal rap group Backwordz offered harsh indictments of statism and promotion of non-aggression, self-ownership, peace, and self-defense.

Despite the many varied topics speakers discussed — and the many workshops, which included education in cryptocurrencies, media activism, and homesteading — the conference presented several overarching opportunities and sentiments: first and foremost, the possibilities of a world without the State to restrict freedom, but equally important, the vital role of the individual in bringing about change within themselves so they can participate in realizing this vision.

Perhaps most valuable, however, was the chance for anarchists from around the world to meet up in person — as opposed to connecting on the internet — to feel a real sense of community. As many of us spend our time online debating authoritarians, it is easy to feel alone, isolated, and that our desire for peace and freedom is a faint, distant, unattainable fantasy.

But in Acapulco, whether out by the hotel pool, out to lunch, or at the speeches and workshops themselves, this isolation transmutes into optimism. The best illustration of this positivity is perhaps the artwork by L.A.-based anarchist artist MEAR ONE that surrounded the main stage: to one side was a grim painting of a crumbled city and broken roads with a sign that read “Evacuate the State.”

Artwork by Mear One frames the main stage. Image provided by conference organizers.

To the other side was a warm portrait of a smiling young woman with her third eye wide open, surrounded by rich colors and cosmic auras. To one side was the failure of the current system, and to the other, the inspiring potential of freedom, love, and consciousness.

Throughout the conference, eager attendees smiled at each other in the halls of the convention center, happily exchanged bitcoin for pesos, and found solace in their peaceful advocacy for anarchism.

Attendees share music together in the convention hall. Photo credit: Avens O’Brien & Judd Weiss.

As Larken Rose observed of last year’s conference, “If nothing else, it can sometimes be an existential psychological relief to be around a bunch of people who DON’T want you to be enslaved by a ruling class.”

FEE (Foundation for Economic Education) director of content, Jeffrey Tucker, a longstanding voice of reason and optimism, perhaps best captured the essence of the conference during his keynote speech.

Jeffrey Tucker speaks on the history and dangers of right-wing fascism. Photo credit: Avens O’Brien & Judd Weiss.

Tucker recently made headlines for kicking white supremacist Richard Spencer out of a student libertarian event in Washington D.C., and in Acapulco, he spoke about the historical threats to freedom from both the left and the right (he expanded his talk into a must-read article, “The Pre-History of the Alt-Right”). But even as he noted the many threats to freedom humanity has faced and continues to face, he reminded the audience of the great power of anarchism and freedom:

“Ideas are eternal. They’re immutable. They’re infinitely reproducible to every single person who’s willing to listen and willing to try. And you know how many of those people there are? Seven billion.”

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Tonight: Micah Naziri vs. Larken Rose

(ANTIMEDIA) Micah Naziri and Larken Rose will be debating the tenets of left and right within anarchist thinking tonight on Anti-Media Radio. Also joining the conversation will be Justin King representing the centrist argument. Anti-Media’s Nick Bernabe will be moderating.

The show starts at 11pm EST/8pm PST and can be heard live at TheAntiMedia.org/radio and UCY.tv/TAMR. An archived version of the debate will be available on YouTube and will be embedded here following the radio show.

Please download and share the flyer below and this article to spread the word!

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Politicians Are Now Making Plans in Case the Public Turns Against Them Violently

February 9, 2017   |   James Holbrooks

(ANTIMEDIA) Washington, D.C. — As protests continue to break out all around the nation over President Donald Trump’s desire to scrap Obamacare, Politico reported Tuesday that many politicians are beginning to worry about their own personal safety — to the point where some are having private sessions to discuss the matter.

Citing sources who were in the room, Politico writes:

“House Republicans during a closed-door meeting Tuesday discussed how to protect themselves and their staffs from protesters storming town halls and offices in opposition to repealing Obamacare.”

Some of the suggestions, the news outlet reports, include “having a physical exit strategy at town halls, or a backdoor at congressional offices to slip out of, in case demonstrations turn violent; having local police monitor town halls; replacing any glass office-door entrances with heavy doors and deadbolts; and setting up intercoms to ensure those entering congressional offices are there for appointments, not to cause chaos.”

While protests are popping up all over, the Republicans’ private session was no doubt prompted by events that happened over the weekend. While speaking before a raucous crowd in Roseville, California, Representative Tom McClintock had to be escorted from the stage and away from the event by local police officers.

McClintock, who held town hall meetings during the politically volatile days of both the Tea Party and Occupy movements, told The Hill he’s never seen anything like it:

“This was something very different. After an hour, the incident commander for the Roseville Police Department advised us the situation was deteriorating and felt it necessary to get me out of the venue. That’s never happened before.”

This sentiment appeared to be echoed at Tuesday’s closed-door session. Commenting on the meeting, Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker of North Carolina stated:

“The message was: One, be careful for security purposes. Watch your back. And two, be receptive. Honor the First Amendment, engage, be friendly, be nice. Because it is toxic out there right now. Even some of the guys who have been around here a lot longer than I have, have never seen it to this level.”

Sources told Politico that the potential for violence is serious enough, in fact, that the House sergeant-at-arms has asked congressional offices to report any threat. That office is also passing out manuals on best practices to keep staffers safe.

Ironically, the backlash over the possible repeal of Obamacare that Republicans are facing now is similar to the backlash faced by Democrats years back as they were trying to force Obamacare into law.

“It’s not that you run from protesters,” Representative David Reichert of Washington said during an interview after the meeting, “but if someone presents some sort of physical threat or are espousing a verbal threat that could lead to a physical threat, if you feel that you’re in danger and your staff is in danger, call 911 and leave and go out the back door.”

In other words…run. Call the cops and run.

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This article (Politicians Are Now Making Plans in Case the Public Turns Against Them Violently) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to James Holbrooks and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.

After AirBnB Ban, New Yorkers Show The Country How to Stand Up to Government

January 5, 2017   |   Alice Salles

(ANTIMEDIA) — Tacitus, a senator and historian of the Roman Empire, once wrote that when “laws were most numerous, … the commonwealth was most corrupt.”

Much like the people of the Roman Empire, United States residents now suffer due to the country’s overly-regulated system. Too many rules, Tacitus would have repeated, indicate corruption. But America’s love for crony capitalism is deep-rooted and allows special interests the means to leave nothing to chance. The result? Government and its representatives now have more power than ever, and the young individual is poorer today than those of past generations.

As local and state governments chase the same unattainable goal, passing more laws to keep the individual beholden to powerful interests, people working in the shadows seem to thrive — at least, that’s what recent reports on AirBnB hosts in New York suggest.

In October 2016, New York City banned short-term rentals, imposing “fines of up to $7,500 for advertising rentals with a term of less than 30 days.” Feeling that the punishment would target AirBnB users the hardest, the company hit back. They filed a lawsuit claiming the law imposes “irreparable harm.” But shortly after, the company decided to drop the case, promising to avoid retaliating “as long as New York City only enforces the new law against hosts and does not fine [AirBnB] itself.”

As the ban was signed into law, the future seemed uncertain for New York hosts using the home-sharing app. After all, many could drop their listings altogether due to the city’s threat — and worse, nobody would blame them for it. But as the holiday season approached, AirBnBers remained defiant.

According to the company, there were more than 55,000 rentals in New York City “on the final night of 2016, up from about 47,000 on last New Year’s Eve.” All in all, the AirBnB added, “[t]here were more Airbnb rentals in New York City than anywhere else on the globe as 2016 became 2017.”

While this defiance represents a success for the San Francisco-based short-term rental service, it also demonstrates how much individuals are willing to risk in order to handle their property as they see fit.

But while many still believe the massive demonstration could help persuade local officials to change their minds on the ban, local and federal lawmakers are used to passing — rather than repealing — legislation. Unless something major changes, it’s unlikely that locals will succeed in undoing this ban following the company’s abandonment of the cause. Nevertheless, as the city of New York adds yet another pile of laws to its already heavy books, law enforcement continues to claim is lacks the resources to actually enforce these local rules.

If the goal is to live freely, breaking the laws in such a saturated environment may not be a responsible action if you’re unwilling to spend time in jail or pay a fine, but it is the action many choose to take, anyway. After all, if law enforcement cannot enforce new, invasive laws, locals are better off ignoring them.

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This article (After AirBnB Ban, New Yorkers Show The Country How to Stand Up to Government) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Alice Salles and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11 pm Eastern/8 pm Pacific. If you spot a typo, please email the error and name of the article to edits@theantimedia.org.

Political Party of Anarchists, Libertarians, Hackers, and Computer Geeks to Take Power in Iceland

In a country continuing to shirk the ordinary, Iceland’s Pirate Party — an amalgamation of anarchists, libertarians, and hackers, who want to ban digital surveillance — is predicted to win the country’s national elections this Saturday.

This collection of free-thinkers have upturned the traditional Western political paradigm and hopes to use online public polls to shape governmental policy and end all Internet spying.

Although the Pirate Party formed just four years ago, its popularity has skyrocketed — most likely for unconventional tactics aligning loosely with libertarianism — the promotion of privacy rights and personal freedoms, and simultaneous shrinking of Big Government.

Edward Snowden has been offered the safe haven of Icelandic citizenship should the Pirates likely victory come to fruition — which makes sense, given the party’s anti-establishment roots.

In fact, the Pirates have experienced astonishing success in a short time — taking the nation’s longstanding political traditionalists off-guard in the process — even the group’s founder, a programmer and former Wikileaks activist, is stunned.

Asked whether she expected the explosion of enthusiasm for the nascent Pirate Party — which now leads in public polls with 22.6 percent — founder Birgitta Jónsdóttir decisively told the Washington Post, “No way.”

But considering growing frustration with ever-increasing Western governments — and all of the surveillance programs, police state tactics, and chill on personal liberties — the rise of the Pirates, who describe themselves as neither right nor left but a radical mix of both, hardly seems too shocking.

“People want real changes and they understand that we have to change the systems,” Jónsdóttir asserted, “we have to modernize how we make laws.”

According to the Pirates’ website, “The Icelandic Pirate Party was founded on November 24th, 2012 based on the political ideology of the Swedish Pirate Party, which Richard Falkvinge founded in January 2006, to bring about internet copyright reform.”

Obviously, the message is resonating — one in five Icelanders now favor the Pirate Party, according to the Iceland Monitor.

Indeed, Iceland’s tendency toward the radical first became apparent in the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. Instead of bailing out the Big Banks who’d sent untold numbers into economic ruin as the United States and European governments decided, Iceland jailed its crooked financiers. And although the move — which created additional hardship for years — wasn’t unanimously favored, the bold act opened the door for what happened next.

In April, the release of the notorious Panama Papers revealed Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson and his wife held stakes in an offshore secret investment company allowing them to profit enormously from the downfall of those Big Banks.

Though he denied all the allegations against him, dismissing the profiteering to, in essence, a years-old clerical error, Icelanders took to the streets en massed to protest the glaring conflict of interest. In fact, 6.6 percent of the country flooded streets around government buildings — a number equivalent in the U.S. to 21 million people, reports the Post — demanding Gunnlaugsson’s ouster.

“What would be the most natural and the right thing to do is that he resign as prime minister,” Jónsdóttir told the Guardian at the time. “There is great demand for that in society; he has totally lost all his trust and believability.”

Not long afterward, the embattled prime minister resigned. New elections were announced. But the people of Iceland had grown suspicious of political insiders and elites ruling the land, and worried electing candidates from traditional parties might yield the same corruption.

Enter the Pirate Party’s nontraditional platform.

“The distrust that had long been germinating has now exploded. The Pirates are riding on that wave,” University of Iceland political history professor, Ragnheithur Kristjánsdóttir, told the Post. “We’ve had new parties before, and then they’ve faded. What’s surprising is that they’re maintaining their momentum.”

Iceland has been the first of nations with Pirate Party presence to elect members to government positions — two Pirates serve as Members of Parliament. Ásta Guthrún Helgadóttir, one of the two and just 26-years-old, succinctly described what might be the key to the Pirate Party’s astounding success:

“We are not here to gain power. We are here to distribute power.”