Freedom Fest 2016

After a red-eyed overnight flight from Las Vegas back to the Twin Cities, a seat covered in dried vomit, guy sitting next to me who couldn’t sit still, and a twenty dollar Lyft ride, I am back home safe and sound.

As exciting as all of that sounds, Freedom Fest was–in all seriousness–probably the coolest experience that I have ever had in the liberty movement, if only for the very fact that I was surrounded by people who knew Ludwig von Mises. I guess I don’t get out much.

I had a lot of good conversations with a lot of very interesting people–including listening to an Objectivist Randian bash Murray Rothbard extensively during the first day of the conference. (Didn’t enjoy that so much, but gave me perspective).

All things aside, while I still identify as an Anarcho-Capitalist, I have gained some very keen insight to the practical aspects of bringing about a stateless society–that may involve some small participation in the political process. (Voting is still aggression).

Quick side note: this topic makes me think about a Mises Weekend podcast in which Jeff Deist interviews Michael Boldin from the Tenth Amendment Center about grassroots activism (with a touch of Agorism). Check it out here. It is very hopeful and an all-around good listen.

In other news, I got to meet economists Bob Murphy and Peter Schiff as well as senators Ben Sasse and Rand Paul. There were many other big figures in attendance whom I didn’t get a chance to meet personally, including: Reason Magazine’s Nick Gillespie, Steve Forbes, Austin Petersen (not a big fan), Gary Johnson (who’s festival exploits I heard some gossip about), Bill Weld, Judge Napolitano, and Jeffrey Tucker etc . . .

Of all the figures I met, Ben Sasse and Bob Murphy were by far the most friendly and personable. Although I am still a big fan of Peter Schiff, the few words that he said to me involved investing with EuroPacific Capital. (I am enjoying his book “The Real Crash,” but am finding that it is blemished with grammatical errors and typos). Rand Paul was also distant, but not outright rude. I’ve heard that he is just a very reserved guy.

Although I have mostly been involved with Young Americans for Liberty at the University of Minnesota, I attended the conference with Students for Liberty, an international liberty organization, and found them to be a genuine pleasure to work with.

I was able to leave the conference with a sense of community, new friends, and a literal tote bag full of books, all of which I should eventually discuss on the blog as I read through them.

Most encouraging at all, Liberty Weekly has seen a huge jump in subscribers and traffic in the last week as a result of networking, a retweet from Bob Murphy, and continued support from my friends at @Catoletters and @AnarchoNerdist! Thanks guys for the support.

Yet another note! I received news on Friday that I have been accepted as a writing associate with my law school’s public policy journal. My write-on submission has now taken the form of the anti-minimum wage E-book that I give to every new subscriber. Subscribe and check it out if you haven’t already.

As always, thanks for reading, and I will be in touch later in the week!

 

 

 

Source: Liberty Weekly