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erebus53 's review for:
A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear
by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
slow-paced
I heard a podcast of the basic content of this book a few years back and this has been on my TBR since. The sub-title is a really good summary. I do think it was clever of the author to clarify that the unhappy outcome of a bunch of surly people refusing to pay taxes may be about them being surly in the first place, rather than the taxes not being paid... but the fact that this experiment in un-regulated Free-Living collapsed under its own disorganisation seems like an obvious outcome. It's the unforeseen effects that the project had on the surrounding wildlife that brings home what happens when humans "do what they wanna do, play how they wanna play" en masse.
From what I have read and the people I have talked to, typically communes and ideological groups go for small scale colonisation; things like encampments, forest communities, compounds, off-grid villages, and sometimes urban co-ops. The most successful of these have leadership and organisation, and can support inter-generational care and mutual aid. Anarchist and Socialist communes are often formed around core leadership or principles.
The idea of a bunch of people who innately distrust organised governance, forming a community, when the pooling of resources seems to them like the "taxation" they are fighting against, sounds like tragedy waiting to happen. I sometimes wonder how investigative journalists get away with reporting on things like this. Hongoltz-Hetling presents a sympathetic picture of the motivations and philosophies of the people he interviewed. Some of the recounting of events is delivered in a firmly tongue in cheek manner. The author became pretty anxious about knocking on doors in a Free Town full of unregulated gun toting individualists. If you ask the wrong questions people might give you some "Friendly Advice" about where to go. Highly ominous.
The author has this theory that maybe they were all mad.. humans and bears, because of toxoplasmosis.. *shrug* could be? It's a quirky detail of the book. Speculative.
There was a lot of history in this audiobook that was not covered in the podcast which was interesting. The glib humour of the author did help to smooth the bitter content of the subject matter. When you refuse to pay for a fire service, the outcomes are predictable. Lots of sad losses in this fight for Freedom. Guns scare me at the best of times; were I in a town that was colonised by these people I would be more scared of the people than the bears.
From what I have read and the people I have talked to, typically communes and ideological groups go for small scale colonisation; things like encampments, forest communities, compounds, off-grid villages, and sometimes urban co-ops. The most successful of these have leadership and organisation, and can support inter-generational care and mutual aid. Anarchist and Socialist communes are often formed around core leadership or principles.
The idea of a bunch of people who innately distrust organised governance, forming a community, when the pooling of resources seems to them like the "taxation" they are fighting against, sounds like tragedy waiting to happen. I sometimes wonder how investigative journalists get away with reporting on things like this. Hongoltz-Hetling presents a sympathetic picture of the motivations and philosophies of the people he interviewed. Some of the recounting of events is delivered in a firmly tongue in cheek manner. The author became pretty anxious about knocking on doors in a Free Town full of unregulated gun toting individualists. If you ask the wrong questions people might give you some "Friendly Advice" about where to go. Highly ominous.
The author has this theory that maybe they were all mad.. humans and bears, because of toxoplasmosis.. *shrug* could be? It's a quirky detail of the book. Speculative.
There was a lot of history in this audiobook that was not covered in the podcast which was interesting. The glib humour of the author did help to smooth the bitter content of the subject matter. When you refuse to pay for a fire service, the outcomes are predictable. Lots of sad losses in this fight for Freedom. Guns scare me at the best of times; were I in a town that was colonised by these people I would be more scared of the people than the bears.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Pedophilia