The jackalope freedom festival, 2017. www.jackalopefreedomfestival.com
For those of you who don't already know, the unevent, is “WHERE SPONTANEOUS ORDER HAPPENS NATURALLY, WITHOUT ANY FORCE, COERCION, OR AGGRESSION.” What that means, is people from all around the country come together in a natural environment, without paying any government fees, to sleep, eat, vend, and just have a great time. Where cryptocurrency, silver and bartering is currency.
This experience was amazing!! This was the first time that my family attended. We had never been to that part of Arizona, but we were amazed at it's beauty. Upon arrival, we were surrounded by meadows, wild flowers, and big trees. Everything was green and beautiful. The day we arrived was cloudy and humid, but a cool temperature. Let's not forget, we're talking about Arizona in August! The weather was beautiful, and the environment was breathtaking.
Beside the fact that our camping set up was tucked away at the beginning of a beautiful valley full of life. The rest of the campers made it that much better. Imagine being surrounded by people who believe in living amongst others, on voluntary terms, and no threat of violence. Then imagine what it's like to feel inspired by their different levels of independence and sovereignty. Listening to everyone's story was beautiful to me. Being involved in comical and intellectual debates, was fun!! Feeling zero threat from anybody, was astonishing. My 6 year old ran free with the other life loving children, my 8 month old loved crawling through and eating dirt. It was all just freeing for us . Living in city, it was like breathing for the first time in so long.
As of late, my distaste for facebook has been on the rise. After realizing that the people I have known for years, have been swallowed up into the left right divide. Interacting with those people has lost all meaning. When talking about the obvious truth in subjects that there is so much information on, then having them slap you in the face with why that information is all bullshit because the news, or other disinformation sources have said otherwise.
That's pretty much the pivotal moment when you realize, that your friends, are not on the same page, or same universe. When you see people who are too afraid to have children, talk about why everyone should spank their child, or "Health conscious" people tell you that GMO's are not a threat to a persons well being in any way, or people with autistic children are preaching pro vaccinations and why I'm a bad person for questioning it. The next step is to threaten me and my family with violence for not forcing excessive amounts of unnatural chemicals into my newborn child. THAT, is another pivotal moment. When those same people, who claim to be your friends, are the people, crying for more laws, because "science" is their god. No, it's not science you're praising, it's what the propaganda you've been swallowing, tells you it is. LIES!!!
So the reason being around other voluntary and true freedom loving human beings is so amazing, is the fact that I know, these are people who will NEVER try to force their opinions or beliefs upon me or my family, by using aggressive methods or force. But that is for a different story.
This festival is an agorist market. If you don't know what agorism is yet, then you can rest assure that it is the simple act of bartering, trading or selling whatever you have to offer without government interference. or as google puts it:
"Agorism is a libertarian social philosophy that advocates creating a society in which all relations between people are voluntary exchanges by means of counter-economics, thus engaging with aspects of peaceful revolution."
This means that we did not have to pay to camp for 5 nights. We voluntarily contributed to having a clean and nearly personal, portable bathroom at our site. It also meant that we could buy dinner from a big beautiful family who served dinner every night. We were also able to buy medicinal salves and other things, from people who did not put money into a violent system, just to be able to sell to us. Also one of my favorites, was being able to buy some absolutely amazing coffee from a person who roasted his own beans, and had a successful business, while contributing zero money towards any wars, or aggression onto humanity.
Why is that important? You ask?
Because anyone with a conscience can feel guilt free knowing that their time and energy (money) was traded for something that went directly toward the person from whom we made the purchase, and that they will not be extorted to paying the federal thugs any taxes (war funding). Take the money (your time and energy) away from the bullies, and the bullies will lose the power. Voting with your dollars, and taking back your life, is reason enough to love agorism.
One of my favorite things that I took away from this experience, and the person I spoke to may not have even noticed the impact she had on me, but she said something very simple, that reminded me of what peaceful parenting meant. She said:
" I know, that if it's going to take my son a thousand years to clean his room, I will help him, or do it for him, because he is not psychologically mature enough to do it himself yet. Otherwise, what am I going to do? Yell at him?"
That's when it hit me, and threw me into a profound thought process, where I realized that my problem with my oldest son, is that I have way too many expectations of him. Too many unrealistic, expectations, and this has been causing a lot of friction between us. What she said seems so logical, but for me, it needed to be said. Of course!! (facepalm) Do it for him, while still teaching him!! Have patience in his learning and be persistent. All children are different, and forcing him to learn outside of his comfort rate, completely defeats the purpose of unschooling. Sure there is some outside pressure from family, trying to persuade me to put him back into school, but I will not be bullied into how I will parent my child, and I suggest ALL parents do the same. It's our job to create a better future, and by doing so, we create better people to live, teach, and grow in it.
There are a lot of different family situations, and a lot of peaceful parents. Parents who can just say how amazing their mother was, or how sweet their dad was. Did I have parents like this? NO!! But this is not about me. It has to do with the clashing of parenting ideas, types, and experience going on inside of me. All of the books I've read, the strategies I've studied, videos I've watched, podcasts I've listened too, mixing in my head with all types of abuse I've endured in my own childhood. It makes for a truly personal challenge. Which we all have to deal with that at some point or another whether we are parents or not.
Peaceful parenting, as opposed to traditionally UN-peaceful parenting, was so much easier when he was younger. Up until the age of 4, it was easy to be more relaxed with everything he did because it was just the two of us, and not only was he more compliant, being the only child in his mother's life, but I was also working a 40+ hour work week to keep us afloat.
Now, I am a devoted wife, stay at home mother, and unschooler. He has a baby sister now, who is 5.5 years younger than he is. It's predictable that he may just be adjusting. We all are!!
Moral of the story:
Being around people who practice the same teachings we wish to incorporate in our lives, helps to keep us on track toward our goals of liberating ourselves from the oppressive agenda, and raising happy, intelligent, independent children, who are free from debt. Lest we forget to remove ourselves from the sickness plaguing the people of earth with hate, and escape into the wilderness.
If this story brought any value to you, please let me know in the comments and follow for more. Thanks to anyone who gave their time of day to look in on my expressions. You are very much appreciated!!