New mover Chris Cantwell reflects on his first month in the Shire:
A few weeks ago, my shotgun would have subjected me to years in a state prison, I paid an 8.625% sales tax on nearly everything I purchased, and a progressive state income tax made every effort to steal from me the fruits of my labor. Finally, a local municipality driven mad by xenophobic anti-immigration activists declared my apartment illegal and threatened to evict me from my home. Thanks for that, no, really, thank you, because coming to New Hampshire is the single greatest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.
So I fit what I could in my van and fled the criminal gangs calling themselve The State, operating inside the arbitrary geopolitical boundary commonly known as New York. 5 hours north, I find myself in Marlborough, New Hampshire, just outside of Keene.
The move couldn’t have gone smoother. I made a forum post on the Shire Society website describing my predicament, and within hours I was contacted by a man who rented rooms in his house, a few message exchanges and a deal was made. I had become quite used to living alone, and had a bit of hesitation about living with 3 other guys, but as it turns out I really like the people I live with. Privacy is respected, but we’ll frequently find ourselves in common areas of the house hanging out, laughing, and discussing a wide range of topics.
On my first day, I was introduced to something of a private club we have not far from here. I can’t go into great detail on that in public, but suffice to say it is a place for freedom loving people congregate nearly any time, day or night. We eat, drink, inhale, exhale, watch movies, sing karaoke, plan activities, have deep philosophical discussions, and more. I was instantly plugged into a network of dozens of very serious liberty activists who are some of the coolest people I’ve ever known.
We exchange goods and services as free people should, by voluntarily exchanging value for value. This can be sort of offputting at first to some, when an individual is making dinner, offers you some, then asks for payment. But it didn’t take long for me to see the benefit to this. Sharing has its virtues, but a person is not going to be inclined to make free food every day, and even in the most giving of circles, someone is at some point going to feel like they are giving more than they are getting. By exchanging value for value, everyone is made whole all the time, nobody is ever losing, nobody is ever made to feel like they are carrying anyone else. Unless of course, that is what they desire to do, and people who are otherwise productive do get helped if they hit a rough spot. We’ve all known “that guy” who comes to the party to drink other peoples beer and eat other peoples food, but never brings anything to the table, or always comes away with more than he brings. “That guy” is unable to exist that way here for any significant period of time, his choices are only to produce more than he consumes, or find other people to leech off of. With value and production being the only available means of survival, we need not be surprised when there is lots of value and production going on. Within our small community, there is always food and drink, and other things, available. People are anxious to help eachother, for a small fee, and so whatever it is you need help with, someone is always ready to help you. With every new person who arrives, and every new skill and resource acquired, it becomes less and less necessary to go outside the community for the things we need, the inevitable outcome of which, is a self sufficient voluntary society where The State has no role to play.
We even have our own money. Sure it doesn’t have fancy designs with questionable meanings or pictures of dead tyrants on it, but I rather enjoy the sound of 0.1 Oz silver bars clinking about in my pocket, and the honest feeling of exchanging real value as opposed to the grim depressing knowledge that my primary means of exchange is the cause of so much human suffering.
People seeking to be free are unfortunately the frequent victims of armed men in costumes with tacky lights on their cars. In response to this, we have “Shire 911”. If you are threatened by individuals in such disguises, if they flash those ugly lights at you, call, txt, or transmit over your two way radio if so equipped, and available liberty loving people will come with the cameras, making every peaceful effort to hold them accountable.
In the event that you are kidnapped, or handed a threatening note by these mislead, theft fed aggressors, people will come to your court dates, offer you advice, tell you what to expect, and offer you moral support. Being a guy who has had his fair share of conflicts with the law, I can tell you it would have given me a great deal of joy to know a dozen or more people were outside my court dates with signs saying “Free Chris”.
Luckily I haven’t personally had any adventures in legal land since my arrival in The Shire, but observing, and talking to people about their adventures has been informative. As a man with no respect for fictional authority figures, I’m pretty much certain that this information will come in handy at some point.
The activism is energetic, fun, and frequent. If you haven’t read my previous note about the 4/20 rally in Concord, NH, I strongly suggest you do so, smoking pot on the steps of the State House in full view of the police before walking into the building and singing drug war parody songs was quite the thrill. But not everything need risk arrest, just the other day some of us went down to the local High School with signs and “Philosophy of Liberty” brochures. My sign said “Don’t let school interfere with your education”. The week prior I was sad to have to miss a visit to the University in Keene. There is some sort of outreach effort, rally, or civil disobedience sort of event happening pretty much at least once a week since I’ve been here, and I haven’t even bothered to look outside my local area. If one wanted more action, there are things going on in other parts of the arbitrary geopolitical boundary commonly known as New Hampshire, but I find that just hanging out with my new friends and being part of the counter economics is powerful action in and of itself.
I can hardly believe I spent so much time swimming against the tide in New York. I miss my friends and family there sometimes, but I can’t imagine going back. If you’re in a place like New York, and you feel the way I do about government coercion, you know that you’re in the wrong place. You know that the taxes are too high, you know that the cameras they are putting up on your streets are intrusive and unnecessary, you know that checkpoints and arbitrary searches are unconstitutional and invasive and wrong. You know that the gun restrictions are absurd and dangerous and contribute to a high crime rate. You know that your political systems are so terribly broken and corrupt that you have no hope of fixing them within your lifetime. I imagine if you know all of these things, you might, like me, find yourself pondering “Why do I tolerate this?”, and if you do, I imagine the only conclusion you could come to is “I shouldn’t tolerate this”.
So don’t tolerate it. Leave. Flee your oppressive governments and join us in New Hampshire. Why struggle to convince your neighbors to be free, when you can come to a place where your neighbors already so desire? Let’s trade freely, let’s speak freely, let’s enjoy beautiful scenery, let’s make one last stand for human liberty on planet earth. You see how bad things are getting, you know you can’t stop it doing what you’re doing. Dispersed across the country and planet the way we presently are, things are going to get much worse much faster and it could be generations before we can right the ship. But if we are concentrated in one place, working together against the forces of statist aggression, there really is a chance for Liberty in our Lifetime. Come and be a part of it.
