Podcast 416 – AgoraFest 2015

AgoraFest 15. Live from a gathering of Anarchists and a few Libertarians in Frontenac, Minnesota at the Villa Maria Conference Center and Retreat, better known as Hogwarts. One thing missing from politics these days is fresh ideas. It doesn’t matter whether you are on the right, or left, it sure seems like political parties are peddling stale and recycled ideas from a time when Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ was brand new. In this podcast AgoraFest attendees explain what Agorists are all about and in the process throw out some ideas that are unsettling to some. One of those ideas is to reject politics and political involvement completely, in the process of creating a community of anarchists with a free market entrepreneurial focus. One might think Agorafest is a gathering of eccentrics who spend time thinking and talking about things that don’t matter to people involved in traditional politics. To a certain extent that is true, but it is also true there is more going on here than talks about Austrian Economics and Home Brewing. At a time when traditional politicians claim an economic policy is either another tax cut, or another program to redistribute the fruits of an individual’s labor, maybe some of these ideas about self sufficiency, government power and volunteerism have some real value. Some people in what we might call traditional politics reject this kind of thing out of hand, and they might suggest rejecting political involvement is nihilistic, but it is also true that traditional politics has been unresponsive to the point where people feel their so called leaders are not listening to voters, and are more interested in retaining power. It’s this kind of behavior that adds credibility to the idea of withdrawing, working on building a community and setting an example. Podcast listeners and subscribers will have to decide whether this example is valid for them. At the very least though, they might listen and think about something besides what the bouncing news ball says they should think about. Sponsored by X Government Trucks and Pride of Homes. 

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Podcast 412

Dream It Do It. Thanks to all the beta testers of the Bob Davis Audiobook ‘The Chieftain 2021’ delivery systems. If you have not received an email download link yet, let us know. Advising beta testers of some of the issues related to the audiobook and how they’re solved provokes a discussion about creativity, what a dream is, and living the dream. We live in a society that increasingly seems as though its trying to tell us why we can’t do something rather than encouraging us to try. Some people who mean well, are really dream killers. What it would be like to make one tiny part of your dream come true? How would you feel? How would your life change? Technology makes it easier than ever to make our dreams come true. Now, all we have to do is create a structure that encourages people to make their dreams come true, rather than an aging structure that kills dreams. One way to make dreams come true would be to encourage economic growth. Republican candidate Jeb Bush says he has a plan for four percent economic growth, achieved through ‘cutting taxes’. ‘Cutting Taxes’; the holy grail of Republican politics. The thing is, growth won’t happen if you cut taxes on one group and raise taxes on the other if you don’t cut spending too. All you’re really doing is gathering water from the deep end of the pool and pouring it into the shallow end. Here’s a dream for you; A government that spends less every year and taxes less because of it. A government that doesn’t spy on its citizens because it needs to focus resources on existential threats. A government that doesn’t pick winners and losers, all the while adding to its own payrolls and growing larger and more dangerous every year. Guess what? None of the Republicans and certainly not the Democrats are talking about doing this. Meanwhile, the state of Illinois — the national financial basket case — is giving its lottery winners IOU’s; There isn’t enough cash in state coffers to pay them. Maybe its time to think differently about what government does, and what it costs us. Sponsored by X Government Trucks, Pride Of Homes and Luke Team Real Estate.

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Sunny Lohmann

Podcast 409 – Sunny Lohmann

Sunny Lohmann. Sunny is back making videos and getting trolled. As always she is uncompromising and thought provoking, from the Blood Moon, to the Trump candidacy, to free speech, racism and the Paleo Diet. Back for a weekend chat on the heels of two new You Tube videos which generated surprising controversy and response. First up is her satire of the Trump candidacy, followed up by a discussion of reaction to another video lampooning the Hollywood videos complaining about the lack of make up choices for people of color. These days it seems like it doesn’t matter what side your on, the trolls come from all sides. If someone doesn’t like what you say, they want to destroy you. It doesn’t matter that every liberal democracy in history has guaranteed free speech, with the US going so far as to actually amend its constitution to guarantee said speech (it is, of course the first amendment). The cyber equivalent of street thugs are out there, ready to pounce if you say anything that might offend their sensitive psyche. Then there’s the question of racism; Sunny suggests that some black activists are racists themselves, or at least that’s the impression she was left with from comments on her videos recently. In the end its pretty clear people aren’t very interested in working together in this country to solve any problems. Has diversity and political correctness destroyed free speech? Everyone seems to want to start their own activist group, attack the Facebook posts of someone they don’t agree with, or protest somewhere. Against something. Hence, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, or any other candidate that ‘tells it like it is’, which is really just screaming, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore”. Now, if everyone says they’re mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore, but no one really knows what they’re mad about, or they’re all mad about different things … well you can see what kind of problem that presents to actual governing. Sponsored by X Government Cars and Pride Of Homes. 

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