[Editor’s Note: The following is by TDV Oregon Group Moderator, Josh White, and appeared in the June edition of TDV Homegrown.]
When I set out to write this article it started as a project to sell Oregon to freedom loving people, however that is a bit like trying to sell Alcatraz to a bunch of bootleggers. I am not of the same caliber as some of the other contributors. I don't have insight into investments, I can't tell you which countries are more free than others, and I can't write about the virtues of entrepreneurship. What I do bring to the table is a bottoms-up view of how the below-average earner ignores, circumvents, and undermines the state's power.
Here in the grand ole USSA, and Oregon specifically, our not so benevolent overlords often use taxation as a social engineering tool. They tax our gas so we won't drive, and then tax our ID when we choose not to drive. If there is a "Social Ill", the answer seems to be theft. One of the biggest areas that many people lose their hard-earned capital is booze. Who doesn't love a beer at the end, or in the middle, of the day? Unfortunately alcohol is not only a taxed product,but many of the companies have a state-enforced monopoly on the sale and production. The state gets a cut from the sale of the alcohol and another cut for the sale of the container, and in places like Oregon the state owns every liquor store within its territory. In the United States, buying beer is supporting the state, but all is not lost! I am sure there are a few of you who know where I am going with this, but stay with me this is only our first stop on the layman's road to autonomy. You can have your beer, wine, and even whiskey, all without giving Uncle Sam what he claims is his due.
Home Brewing
Home brewing is an easy process that is right up the anarchist alley. A whole book could be written about the art and science of brewing, and a multitude have been. I am just here to give you a quick and easy recipe to get you out the door and into a state-free buzz.
Peach Cinnamon Mead (Honey Wine)
This mead is a mixed category mead. It is a combination Metheglin (with spices) and Melomel (with fruit). If you have never tried mead, you are in for a pleasant surprise. The flavor is mild and can be as sweet or as dry as you like. For this mead the flavor will turn out rather sweet.
Ingredients:
3lbs raw local honey
2 locally grown peaces
2 sticks organic (or at least real) cinnamon
1 gallon of water (preferably spring or well, but filtered tap water will do)
2.5 to 5 grams of champagne yeast (I used lalvin baking yeast for my first batch, and it was fine)
Implements:
1 large pot
2 gallon jugs (preferably glass, but thoroughly sanitized plastic water jugs will do ONLY USE THEM ONCE!)
1 airlock (a party balloon with one or two pin holes in the top is the poor man's version)
1 cheese cloth
1 funnel
Directions:
After cleaning your work space slice your peaches into wedges, add one hole peach and one cinnamon stick to your pot with ½ of your gallon of water. Bring this to a rolling boil and reduce heat to a simmer. You are going to let this simmer until you have reduced its volume by just over half. Let this cool to room temperature. After this has cooled to room temperature it is time to prepare your must, in a cup or bowl bring a quarter cup of water to about 80°F/26°C dissolve your yeast and 3 tsp sugar, when the yeast becomes active combine your reduction, honey, and yeast into the rest of your water. Gently aerate the mixture by shaking the jug with the cap on. Put your airlock, or balloon over the mouth of your jug and store in a warm, dark dry, place for two weeks. After two weeks of fermentation filter the mixture through the cheesecloth into your clean empty jug and seal with the air lock. After six weeks your fermentation should be done, you now have a gallon of mead, without Uncle Sam intervening. For more on this you can check out any of the Homebrew forums, but my favorite is http://www.homebrewtalk.com/.
Cryptography
Home brewing is really only one way that we, that is capital-challenged people, ignore the state. Many of us use simple cryptography to hide our day-to-day conversations from any number of alphabet agencies. The crypto-anarchy community today uses things like PGP cryptography, and TOR and other methods that the average person either does not have the know how, or perhaps the time, to use. However there are some services, my favorite are free, that give easy access to real privacy. Through services such as “Redphone” for android, and “textsecure” we can cut our metadata footprint merely to a piece of data that says “an anonymous user with this app contacted another user with this app”. This security isn't needed because we are doing something untoward. It is important because our lives are our own, and no one should be privy to our conversation unless they have our express permission. These free apps may be found here.
Gardening
The third way that one can best ignore the state is in what you eat and how you get your food. I am constantly recommending to my friends and acquaintances that they begin a garden, even in a highly urban location this is easy to do. Square foot gardening is a great place to start. I have grown herbs, tomatoes, carrots, peas, and even watermelons on my apartment balcony. I don't have to worry about what the government says is safe to eat because I grew my food myself. Herbs and vegetables are also great for barter and can help build ties with neighbors and other local growers, and the best mojitos are made with home-grown mint.
Community
One of the of the overlooked parts of ignoring the state, especially by anarchists, is that of community. We live in and among statists, they are part of our community, and here is the dirty little secret: Many of them hate taxes and intrusions as much as we do. If we are to ignore, and undermine the state we need to have connection to the community. I gave a recipe for mead above, it doesn't do you any good to go to Wal-Mart and buy the honey and yeast, that is still buying into the state. You need to know your local farmer, beekeeper, and whomever else is a local producer. Many of these people are small business owners, entrepreneurs, and as free people we can help spread this by simply offering to trade hard currency, or labor, for their goods.
Many of us ignore the state already, the state plays a minor role in our day-to-day lives, we ignore laws, we ignore cops, and we live as free as we can. We can use agorism to encourage others to do so, and in doing so spread freedom. Every Saturday my town has a “Saturday Market”, a farmers market and an artisans market, and every Saturday I go down with a handful of silver and try to make purchases of fresh vegetables, honey, and crafts. As I do this people ask questions, many about why I am not giving them “real money”, and I have seen many merchants begin to accept this hard currency. It is not the lure of “tax-free income”, or “no rulers” that wins these people over, it is simply economic reliability. They can see that my silver is holding its value better than the Federal Reserve notes that others are handing them, and they want more stability in their lives. We can make our stands, and preach the virtue of non-aggression, but it building relationships locally that will cause change. It is creating free markets where there are none, that will help people free themselves.
I started this hoping to make some grandiose statements, and present new and exciting ideas to TDV readers, but I have come to the realization that I don't have more than a small town anarchists point of view on ignoring the state. I can't tell you how to live off grid, I don't have new insights on mutually beneficial exchange. All I can say is to ignore the state you need two things. Firstly you need to know how to do things for yourself, how to grow, or make food stuff, or create opportunities for those that do, and secondly you need to have community. In that spirit I hope that people reading this will take up gardening, home brewing, guitar, what ever, and use those skills to trade with and bolster the independence of your neighbors.
For more engaging and informative articles like this, geared towards fostering a healthier, happier life, please subscribe to TDV Homegrown.
Josh White is an Anarcho-Capitalist out of Eugene, Oregon. Eugene is a wonderful place for peaceful people of all stripes, Located only a few hours from Portland, and a stone's throw from the cascades the Willamette Valley is an ideal location for urbanites and homesteaders. If you have any questions about Eugene don't hesitate to ask at jwhite@dollarvigilante.com.
When I set out to write this article it started as a project to sell Oregon to freedom loving people, however that is a bit like trying to sell Alcatraz to a bunch of bootleggers. I am not of the same caliber as some of the other contributors. I don't have insight into investments, I can't tell you which countries are more free than others, and I can't write about the virtues of entrepreneurship. What I do bring to the table is a bottoms-up view of how the below-average earner ignores, circumvents, and undermines the state's power.
Here in the grand ole USSA, and Oregon specifically, our not so benevolent overlords often use taxation as a social engineering tool. They tax our gas so we won't drive, and then tax our ID when we choose not to drive. If there is a "Social Ill", the answer seems to be theft. One of the biggest areas that many people lose their hard-earned capital is booze. Who doesn't love a beer at the end, or in the middle, of the day? Unfortunately alcohol is not only a taxed product,but many of the companies have a state-enforced monopoly on the sale and production. The state gets a cut from the sale of the alcohol and another cut for the sale of the container, and in places like Oregon the state owns every liquor store within its territory. In the United States, buying beer is supporting the state, but all is not lost! I am sure there are a few of you who know where I am going with this, but stay with me this is only our first stop on the layman's road to autonomy. You can have your beer, wine, and even whiskey, all without giving Uncle Sam what he claims is his due.
Home Brewing
Home brewing is an easy process that is right up the anarchist alley. A whole book could be written about the art and science of brewing, and a multitude have been. I am just here to give you a quick and easy recipe to get you out the door and into a state-free buzz.
Peach Cinnamon Mead (Honey Wine)
This mead is a mixed category mead. It is a combination Metheglin (with spices) and Melomel (with fruit). If you have never tried mead, you are in for a pleasant surprise. The flavor is mild and can be as sweet or as dry as you like. For this mead the flavor will turn out rather sweet.
Ingredients:
3lbs raw local honey
2 locally grown peaces
2 sticks organic (or at least real) cinnamon
1 gallon of water (preferably spring or well, but filtered tap water will do)
2.5 to 5 grams of champagne yeast (I used lalvin baking yeast for my first batch, and it was fine)
Implements:
1 large pot
2 gallon jugs (preferably glass, but thoroughly sanitized plastic water jugs will do ONLY USE THEM ONCE!)
1 airlock (a party balloon with one or two pin holes in the top is the poor man's version)
1 cheese cloth
1 funnel
Directions:
After cleaning your work space slice your peaches into wedges, add one hole peach and one cinnamon stick to your pot with ½ of your gallon of water. Bring this to a rolling boil and reduce heat to a simmer. You are going to let this simmer until you have reduced its volume by just over half. Let this cool to room temperature. After this has cooled to room temperature it is time to prepare your must, in a cup or bowl bring a quarter cup of water to about 80°F/26°C dissolve your yeast and 3 tsp sugar, when the yeast becomes active combine your reduction, honey, and yeast into the rest of your water. Gently aerate the mixture by shaking the jug with the cap on. Put your airlock, or balloon over the mouth of your jug and store in a warm, dark dry, place for two weeks. After two weeks of fermentation filter the mixture through the cheesecloth into your clean empty jug and seal with the air lock. After six weeks your fermentation should be done, you now have a gallon of mead, without Uncle Sam intervening. For more on this you can check out any of the Homebrew forums, but my favorite is http://www.homebrewtalk.com/.
Cryptography
Home brewing is really only one way that we, that is capital-challenged people, ignore the state. Many of us use simple cryptography to hide our day-to-day conversations from any number of alphabet agencies. The crypto-anarchy community today uses things like PGP cryptography, and TOR and other methods that the average person either does not have the know how, or perhaps the time, to use. However there are some services, my favorite are free, that give easy access to real privacy. Through services such as “Redphone” for android, and “textsecure” we can cut our metadata footprint merely to a piece of data that says “an anonymous user with this app contacted another user with this app”. This security isn't needed because we are doing something untoward. It is important because our lives are our own, and no one should be privy to our conversation unless they have our express permission. These free apps may be found here.
Gardening
The third way that one can best ignore the state is in what you eat and how you get your food. I am constantly recommending to my friends and acquaintances that they begin a garden, even in a highly urban location this is easy to do. Square foot gardening is a great place to start. I have grown herbs, tomatoes, carrots, peas, and even watermelons on my apartment balcony. I don't have to worry about what the government says is safe to eat because I grew my food myself. Herbs and vegetables are also great for barter and can help build ties with neighbors and other local growers, and the best mojitos are made with home-grown mint.
Community
One of the of the overlooked parts of ignoring the state, especially by anarchists, is that of community. We live in and among statists, they are part of our community, and here is the dirty little secret: Many of them hate taxes and intrusions as much as we do. If we are to ignore, and undermine the state we need to have connection to the community. I gave a recipe for mead above, it doesn't do you any good to go to Wal-Mart and buy the honey and yeast, that is still buying into the state. You need to know your local farmer, beekeeper, and whomever else is a local producer. Many of these people are small business owners, entrepreneurs, and as free people we can help spread this by simply offering to trade hard currency, or labor, for their goods.
Many of us ignore the state already, the state plays a minor role in our day-to-day lives, we ignore laws, we ignore cops, and we live as free as we can. We can use agorism to encourage others to do so, and in doing so spread freedom. Every Saturday my town has a “Saturday Market”, a farmers market and an artisans market, and every Saturday I go down with a handful of silver and try to make purchases of fresh vegetables, honey, and crafts. As I do this people ask questions, many about why I am not giving them “real money”, and I have seen many merchants begin to accept this hard currency. It is not the lure of “tax-free income”, or “no rulers” that wins these people over, it is simply economic reliability. They can see that my silver is holding its value better than the Federal Reserve notes that others are handing them, and they want more stability in their lives. We can make our stands, and preach the virtue of non-aggression, but it building relationships locally that will cause change. It is creating free markets where there are none, that will help people free themselves.
I started this hoping to make some grandiose statements, and present new and exciting ideas to TDV readers, but I have come to the realization that I don't have more than a small town anarchists point of view on ignoring the state. I can't tell you how to live off grid, I don't have new insights on mutually beneficial exchange. All I can say is to ignore the state you need two things. Firstly you need to know how to do things for yourself, how to grow, or make food stuff, or create opportunities for those that do, and secondly you need to have community. In that spirit I hope that people reading this will take up gardening, home brewing, guitar, what ever, and use those skills to trade with and bolster the independence of your neighbors.
For more engaging and informative articles like this, geared towards fostering a healthier, happier life, please subscribe to TDV Homegrown.
Josh White is an Anarcho-Capitalist out of Eugene, Oregon. Eugene is a wonderful place for peaceful people of all stripes, Located only a few hours from Portland, and a stone's throw from the cascades the Willamette Valley is an ideal location for urbanites and homesteaders. If you have any questions about Eugene don't hesitate to ask at jwhite@dollarvigilante.com.
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