Bretigne Shaffer's Blog, page 5

 

Image: Public Domain

 

"After taking the Common Law class, I feel more independent: I see my rights as a human being in a new light and understand the power/limitations of the government in ways that I hadn't before. Every US citizen needs to understand the common law principles. Thank you!"

– A student ("Our Common-Law Foundations", Fall 2021)

Last month, we finished our first-ever semester of classes. We only had two at that time: "Our Common-Law Foundations", and "Propaganda and the Personal."

Next week, we'll be starting our next session, with several more offerings. In addition to our first two clases, we will also offer:

The Constitution
Introduction to Austrian Economics
Early American History
Personal Finanace for Teens
English Literature
Creative Writing

You can see the class schedules here. Classes start on Monday and Tuesday, but we will be accepting enrollments through the end of the week.

In addition to our full-semester (13-week) classes, we will also plan to offer some shorter classes, including some single-session classes. Stay tuned for more information on those!

And please feel free to drop us a line to let us know about any other subjects you'd like to see, or any thoughts you may have about what we're doing. We would love to hear from you!

 

 

         

 

Image: Public Domain

 

 

Joyce Beckett is an Oxford-educated professor of literature who will be teaching a class in English and Irish literature for Freogan Fellowship Learing - the education arm of the private membership association that I recently started.



Here, Joyce speaks about the experience of poetry as a bulwark against the cultural and spiritual "colonization" that is the effect of mass media and culture.



Most of Freogan Fellowship Learning's classes are designed for teens - however this one is also open to adults. As Joyce says:



"Anyone, at any stage of their lives, with an interest in the profound effect

of words on the senses will be most welcome."



Joyce will also be offering a free sample class on Monday, January 4th at 5:00pm Pacific Time. To sign up for that class, or for more information about her full-semester class, visit Freogan Fellowship Learning.

 

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Image: Public domain.

 

This is my favorite winter image this year. It's from The Public Domain Review's "Snowball Fights in Art (1400 - 1946)". Check it out. 

 

 

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I appeared on Millenniyule with Millennial Woes yesterday, to talk about "rebuilding civilization." I think Woes and I recognize many of the same problems, and we both recognize the magnitude of what it is we are up against, but we have very different ideas when it comes to solutions. 

We discuss, essentially, what civilization is, and what is needed in order to protect it from those who might destroy it. I explain why he's wrong, he explains why I'm wrong, and we manage to have a civil conversation for about an hour and a half, wherein nobody gets cancelled, no epithets are hurled, and nothing gets flung around the room (although my cat does start to get nervous near the end.)

I doubt that either of us changed the other's mind much, but I did come away with a clearer understanding of his position - something the social-media moguls would really rather I not do. Why? Because if people can engage directly with those of a different viewpoint, if they can come to understand their position, instead of some distorted charicature of their position... then we might be a little less afraid of each other. And that doesn't help those whose very survival depends on the rest of us being at each others' throats all the time.

A healthy civilization - one that can thrive and endure - requires these kinds of conversations. It requires people to engage with ideas they do not agree with, even ideas they may find uncomfortable. That we are so far away from this as a norm, and that intellectual elites, those who run social-media platforms, and much of society itself are all actively working to squash this kind of conversation, tells us a great deal about the state of our own civilization and its prospects.

 

 

        Related StoriesWTMWD #76: Christmas in the Darkness / The Rules of ChristmasLooking Forward to Appearing on Millenniyule 2021!Free Introductory Class: Austrian Economics for Teens, from Freogan Fellowship 

 

 

 

I've recently started posting on Substack. (You can see my stuff here.) A lot of what I'm posting are articles and blog posts that I wrote many years ago, but that are still (sadly, in many cases) very relevant today.



This is one of them. I wrote it at Christmastime five years ago, and it is even more true in today's world.



Following my piece is my husband, reading the timeless "Rules of Christmas."



Enjoy. And Merry Christmas.

 

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From the Freedom's Phoenix Online Newspaper.

 

"Paradise is exactly like where you are right now… only much, much, better."

Laurie Anderson

 

What if I told you that we're already living in Galt's Gulch?

What if I told you that we don't actually need to find a bunch of like-minded people and go in on a big piece of land together, far away from everyone else, and build our own societies from the ground up?

Not that there's anything wrong with that of course.

But it's not necessary. We already have the tools at our disposal - most of them anyway - to create and maintain free societies right where we are.

COMMON LAW:

Volumes have been written, some of them very very good, about how a stateless society might operate, how rights might be protected and crime dealt with in the absence of a monopoly on violence and the justice system.

But we already have a body of law that upholds the rights of individuals, protects their property, and defends contracts. It exists in stark contrast to the multitudes of laws created by politicians and their cronies – laws that often directly violate this older and more fundamental body of law. And it is enforceable.

Dale Brown, founder of the Detroit Threat Management Center, understands this. When he saw police failing to protect people from crime in one of the worst neighborhoods of Detroit, he moved in and started doing it himself. As he told Tom Woods, back in 2016:

"Any citizen can take someone into custody if they commit a violent act,” said Brown. “(I’ve learned better ways of crime prevention) because I have to. I'm accountable. I have no qualified immunity. That means, if I put my hands on someone it has to be legal. There has to be a way for me to explain it as a civilian. As a result, we've had no court date in 20 years. No lawsuits... in 20 years.”

Brown's methods rely on common-law principles. He and his Threat Management team only take action against those committing genuine crimes against people or their property. Because they are not agents of the state, they do not enforce laws against drug use or other victimless "crimes." And they employ the power of citizens' arrest, which is available to all of us.

Imagine how our world might look if there were Threat Management-like operations in every city. With the abject failure of police departments to protect people and property, their willingness to commit violent actsagainst those they are sworn to protect, and their inherent lack of any real accountability, private solutions like this have never been more necessary.

Others are using principles well established in contract law to hold accountable those in positions of power, using tools such as the Notice of Liability to stop city governments, school districts, and other entities from committing acts of trespass, for example; or

We do not need to establish a brand-new system of laws in order to begin protecting ourselves from political aggression.

PARALLEL INSTITUTIONS:

Likewise, we do not need to isolate ourselves in order to create parallel institutions and services to replace the crumbling state-dominated ones. Nor do we need to isolate ourselves geographically in order to build real, in-person communities based on a respect for individual liberty.

For many years, alternative-medicine practitioners and others have operated under private membership associations (PMAs), serving members only and not the general public. Their PMA status places these operations outside of the jurisdiction of much of the regulatory state, creating a space within which free-market activity can flourish.(For more information about PMAs, or to establish one yourself, see here and here.  Here's ours.)

Meanwhile, creative ways are emerging to assist people in exiting broken systems, forging new ones, and connecting with others who wish to do the same.

 

 

Read the rest here.

 

 

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Image: Public Domain.

 

Christmas has come a little early this year.

The editors of The BMJ have published an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg today, calling him to account for the abomination that is Facebook's "fact-checking" enterprise.

There's really nothing that needs to be added to their letter as it provides the full context for their complaint. And it is a thing of beauty. It's not long, and deserves a full read, but here are some highlights:

 

We find the “fact check” performed by Lead Stories to be inaccurate, incompetent and irresponsible.

-- It fails to provide any assertions of fact that The BMJ article got wrong

-- It has a nonsensical title: “Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials”

-- The first paragraph inaccurately labels The BMJ a “news blog”

-- It contains a screenshot of our article with a stamp over it stating “Flaws Reviewed,” despite the Lead Stories article not identifying anything false or untrue in The BMJ article

-- It published the story on its website under a URL that contains the phrase “hoax-alert”

We have contacted Lead Stories, but they refuse to change anything about their article or actions that have led to Facebook flagging our article.

We have also contacted Facebook directly, requesting immediate removal of the “fact checking” label and any link to the Lead Stories article, thereby allowing our readers to freely share the article on your platform.

 

Merry Christmas!!!

 

         

 

I only found out about Millennial Woes because my friend Radical Liberation was going to appear on Millenniyule 2021. I checked out Millenniyule, and what he was talking about really seemed to fit with a lot of the things I'm doing and writing about, so I wrote and asked if I could be on this year, and... Woes signed me up to come on the show on Dec 28th!



Now, after listening to RadLib's Millenniyule episode, I'm even more excited. Nearly everything (of course not EVERYTHING because that would just be spooky) they talk about resonates with me, and much of it is stuff I've written or spoken about over the years. For example, this, and this.  This,  this, this and this. Also this. And especially THIS!

...and it just reaffirms my belief that this is a time when many of us are finding our true tribes. Not necessarily the ones we were born into, or even the ones that we thought lined up with our ideologies or spiritual beliefs... but the ones that really DO line up. And what I think it is is that a whole lot of us have a pretty good idea of what the big problem is. Maybe none of us perceive it completely, but a whole bunch of us have a good rough idea. And we are passionate about finding solutions. So here we are, coming from different directions, right, left, libertarian, Christian, not Christian... and we're all aiming at the same thing while at the same time trying to formulate in our own minds what that thing looks like. And it's pretty awesome.

Anyway, this is well worth listening to:

 

 

...and be sure to listen to my episode on Dec. 28th UK time, (4pm the 27thPacific Time.)

 

 

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From Freogan Fellowship:



Have you been hearing a lot about the "Austrian School of Economics" lately? Are you interested in finding out more, but not yet sure about committing to an entire semester-long course?



Join us next Tuesday, December 21, at 6:00pm Pacific Time, as instructor Josh Mawhorter takes students through an issue that is central to the debate between free markets and a centralized economy, and that illuminates some of the key distinctions of the Austrian School: The labor theory of value.

To sign up for this free class, just send us an email!*

Here, Josh explains one of the fundamental problems with the labor theory of value:

*Note: Because we are a private membership association, students who take our classes must become members of the Freogan Fellowship. This is free, easy to do, and can be revoked at any time!

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What are some of the techniques that have been used to control large numbers of people through the manipulation of information and mass media, and what makes us susceptible to it? How can we avoid falling prey to propaganda?

Join Lila Stone for a free introduction to her course "Propaganda and the Personal", on Wednesday, December 22.

Visit www.FreoganFellowship.org to sign up.

 

 

        Related StoriesMike & Vanessa Colomb on PMAs for Healthcare, and "Healing Hubs" Starting up Around the Country"A Change in the Weather", VideoOur Classes Start Next Week!