The 2016 Porcupine Freedom Festival

For almost three years, I've been trying to convince @corinnestokes to take a trip to PorcFest. Finally, in June of this year, we rounded up the kids (we have three), and made the ~20 hour drive (split over four days) to Roger's Campground in Lancaster, NH for the Free State Project's 13th Annual Porcupine Freedom Festival.

The Drive

The drive, though long, had an amazing view.

My friends describe PorcFest as a glimpse into another world where people respect eachother on a level seldom experienced anywhere else. I finally understand what they mean.

I'll never forget going through this bridge because it seemed like I was entering through a portal where the other side would lead to freedom and a voluntary society I had only previously imagined. I was not disappointed.

The Campsite

When we finally arrived, the venue was incredible. It's a week long camping event with most everything outside. Though it rained one of the days, for the most part the weather was beautiful.

I liked how the registration involved getting a bracelet and a magnet for the car (the featured image for this post). Even the kids got snap on bracelets and magnet pins which said something along the lines of "free range child" so parents would know the kids had permission to be wandering around without supervision.

We set up camp, and the first morning I actually tried to get some work done. That morning it was pretty damn cold, compared to the south.

As the week went on, I attended some excellent lectures, met some amazing people, and the kids had a ton of fun. It's hard to describe what it's like meeting people at PorcFest. You can jump write into very deep philosophical discussions about government, authority, economics, or psychology. In some ways, you feel like you're hanging out with a bunch of adults, for the first time every, and they are all completely awake whereas everyone else up to that point has been asleep. You feel at home.

The Kids

Our kids also had an amazing time making new friends and wearing themselves out.

The kids' activities were fantastic all week and the two oldest built their own checkers game they still play with today. There were so many cool things for them to do.

My son spent most of the week running around with some new friends, hitting the pool, and, on one occasion, getting into trouble. I won't embarrass him here, but I will say he and two buddies had to do some trash cleanup at the campsite on Sunday morning.

The Lectures

The lectures were fantastic, and I don't plan on summarizing them all here, but I will highlight a few things which stand out in my memory.

Hearing Lyn Ulbricht in person tell the story of her son Ross and how completely screwed up the United States Justice system is really got me fired up. The things done to Ross make me sick. Visit https://freeross.org to learn more.

One of the neatest highlights was meeting Bernard von NotHaus, the inventor of the Liberty Dollar.

If you're not familiar with his story or that of the Liberty Dollar, I highly recommend learning about it. During his talk at ProcFest, he told a wonderful story about how he learned Satoshi Nakamoto had been influenced by his work when creating Bitcoin. He brought with him a case showing all the various Liberty Dollars which he created.

The always well dressed Jeffrey Tucker gave an amazing series of lectures. In one, he quoted a very old economics textbook about the eugenics program of those in power at the time who planned to use economic models and minimum wage systems to eliminate "undesirables" and prevent the "mongrelization of the races." It was eye-opening and a bit sickening to see what the original intentions were of the failed government social programs we have today.

I didn't even realize my friend @kenj took this picture until he tweeted it later (all other photos are from my phone--sorry, I'm not a photographer like my wife). I was having a fun discussion about the emergent properties of large groups of human beings, something, IMO, the liberty movement should address if we want to be taken more seriously by intellectuals and culture shapers / policy makers.

Hanging with Larken Rose

I didn't get a picture with @larkenrose at "his rock" at PorcFest (though you can find videos and pictures of him there from 2015). Hanging with him for almost a whole day was probably the top highlight for me. We had so many interesting conversations ranging from free will, determinism, artificial intelligence, simulation hypothesis, quantum theory, religion, parenting, education, emergent properties, and so much more. Of course, we talked about the standard Voluntaryism stuff too. Many people throw around the "guru" term too loosely, but I feel it's completely justified regarding Larken Rose. He is a guru, and someone I was privileged to hang out with and even get to know a bit.

Are you coming to New Hampshire?

My post on PorcFest wouldn't be complete without including a blurry picture of the porcupine made of wood and sticks which was submitted to the flames on the last night of the event.

There's so much more I could talk about ranging from the great friends we made, to spending bitcoin every day at Agora Valley for food and beer, to my bottomless mug of root beer, to my first ever inhalation of a certain vaporized plant substance, to interesting philosophical debates, to the results of free-range parenting for a week... but I'll end it here and just say, if you have a chance to attend PorcFest, I highly recommend going. Hopefully it won't take you three years to convince your spouse. :)