The end of authoritarianism.
It’s coming sooner than you think. Larken Rose says
Growth and progress often require experiencing discomfort, even pain. This is true of both physical and emotional growth. Often the things that grow people are pretty horrendous, and naturally people usually try to avoid them. There are exceptions, however. For example, a lot of people PAY a personal trainer to push the person to work out so hard that it hurts, during the work out and the next day. Of course, they do this for the long-term benefit (unless they’re just masochists). There is even an intellectual equivalent, where people PAY to have someone teach them difficult concepts that require serious mental effort to learn and understand, which along the way often involves mental exhaustion and discomfort. Again, people do this for the sake of the long-term results.
When it comes to philosophy, however, not many people ask someone else–much less pay someone else–to mess up their comfortable paradigms. The main reason is because, unlike with a gym membership or a college course, they don’t know that there is a positive outcome to be had. For someone to question what he knows and believes about truth and morality feels inherently scary and wrong. It basically amounts to hearing, “Consider accepting and embracing ideas that you now think are stupid or evil.”
The best solution I can see to this, when it comes to voluntaryism, is for anarchists to continually assure the statists they talk to, “Yes, I know it feels weird and uncomfortable thinking about a stateless society–I’ve been there myself–but you really will be glad you did in the long run.”
In short, the “Red Pill” needs a better ad campaign.
Yes, the “red pill” (or, in Not A Party‘s case, the “blood orange pill”, needs better marketing. And Larken Rose is leading the way. He’s actually doing a whole lot more than just continually assuring statists with the above one-liner. He’s organising and running a series of two day workshops called Candles in the Dark.
“Candles in the Dark” is a two-day event designed to teach voluntaryists/anarchists how to be far more effective in talking to their statist friends, co-workers, family members, etc., using techniques that, by taking into account the quirks and complexities of human psychology, give a far better chance of getting others to understand and accept the concepts of self-ownership, non-aggression, and a stateless society, and a far better chance of helping others to escape their own authoritarian indoctrination.
The first Candles in the Dark Seminar is in Phoenix, Arizona on the weekend of 6-7 May. You can register here. Larken Rose is the biggest voluntaryist activist out there, but of course he needs money to live and make it his full-time job to spread the word, so please consider registering to go along if there’s a seminar near you. Or buy his book, The Most Dangerous Superstition.
(Or you can simple download a copy for free here. There is no copyright on anarchist literature. You don’t need permission to copy Larken’s work. Or to copy my work. Or any anarchist’s work. But don’t be a dick. If you can afford it, try to flick us some koha. Always give due acknowledgement and attribute your source. And try to notify peeps that you’ve copied their work. They’ll be flattered.)