Officially Declaring March 6th as My Anarchiversary
I am declaring March 6th as my Anarchiversary.
"What's an Anarchiversary?" you ask. It is the date you became an actual decent human being and realized all human interaction should be voluntary and begin the principled practice of living that (Voluntaryism) in your day-to-day interactions with other peaceful people. Meaning you would never threaten any initiation of force, let alone actually defraud, steal, rape, kidnap, assault, or murder (murder does not include killing in self defense). It also means you cannot advocate or participate in government in anyway shape of form because government is predicated on taxation. And taxation is theft because one cannot opt out of it.
But don't feel bad if you have never heard of an Anarchiversary (or Voluntaryism for that matter) before, I completely made Anarchiversary up; as I often do (that's what language is: an assortment of random sounds assigned a specific, agreed upon meaning).
I chose today as my Anarchiversary because Facebook reminded me that on this day, 7 years ago, I became friends with Janaia Donaldson, producer and host with her partner Robin Mallgren (videographer and editor) of Peak Moment TV whose videos played a seminal role in me becoming a Voluntaryist; albeit I doubt she would at the point consider herself a Voluntaryist; if ever.
Janaia Donaldson
I actually watched these 2 Peak Moment videos last night to find relative content from that era. The first one hit me right in the feelz!!!
Considering our Facebook friendship happened in early March 2011, after I finished Oaksterdam University, this very well may have been the actually day I realized that the only way to be a moral person was to be an Anarchist and declared myself so. (albeit the title of Voluntaryist wouldn't come til a little later, when I really understood Anarchism). The Facebook reminder took me back to they time in my life. And reminded of the very poignant question @jeffberwick asks of his Anarchast guests: "How did you become an Anarchist?"
Do you know know your Anarchiversary?
Feel free to leave it in the comments and even a brief description of the day.
Are you a fan of Peak Moment TV?
Please leave your favorite episode in the comments.
PS Janaia if you are reading this, you should really consider posting your content to DTube!
Happy anarchiversary!
I love this Jeff. Your teachings have really caught on. As you said when you started 10 years ago, nobody was talking about this. I love your daily walk and talks man with your dogs - I watch your videos all the time! I work for a big bank and want out of the USA. I want to move to Mexico or Puerto Rico and live off of the Internet. You are an inspiration Jeff. Thanks man! @dollarvigilante
Thank you all at @dollarvigilante!
Happy anarchiversary! Your article got me thinking about it and I don't think I can ever put a date or even a time frame on my own. Rather I think it was a gradual evolution resulting from a lifetime of events, friends and realizations(to put it positively). Either way, it's cool you have a date to assign it to!
I couldnt pick a moment/ date. It was rather a process for me.
It would have been in June or July of 2009. I'd have to trawl through old Facebook photos to get the exact date. But it was on the second to last day of the week-long Mises University summer program. I had heard folks like Robert Murphy, Tom Woods, and HH Hoppe speak all week, and was drifting farther and farther from my belief in minarchism. But I think it was during a small breakout session with a young economist named Art Carden that I had my revelatory jolt. I can't even remember now what his talk was about, except that during it he really drilled down on how free markets disincentivize bigotry. I left that event a newly-minted anarchist, and I've never looked back.
Happy birthday