Hi Steemians
This is our first time at Anarchopulco. I only heard about it a few months ago when my husband was diligently watching The Dollar Vigilante and he got us tickets to this event. I guess you could call us Anarchopulco Virgins.
It is probably one of the more unusual corporate events that I have been to - there is a broad cross section of society here - all colours and flavours of anarchism. We certainly got our cherry popped here.
I wouldn't describe myself as an anarchist and my last job was working for the Australian Government for almost a decade - until they fired me for having a nervous breakdown during a nasty custody battle with my ex-husband - where he took my kids.
WHY I SHOULD BE AN ANARCHIST
To be honest, there are lots of reasons why I should be an anarchist. I got totally shafted in my last (Government job) - by sociopathic managers - after a decade of loyal service. My husband and I have been manhandled by the Australian Police at our home in Katoomba - I won't share that story here - but it cost us $5000 to legally fight the false charges and we were dragged out of our home in the middle of the night - because of something I posted on Facebook which was misinterpreted as a threat of self-harm.
The Family Court system in Australia has totally wrecked my life as my ex husband has full custody of my children - now aged 11 and 12 and I have no access to them - none. For no reason. My ex husband is a malignant narcissist and he brainwashed my kids when I was married to him and working in the horrible Government job. I followed all the rules, got the lawyers, did everything right - or so I thought - and I fell down the rabbit hole. My children are now unretrievable. From being an educated professional with a top secret security clearance - the system essentially treated me like a criminal - even my own lawyers - who we paid in excess of $60K.
I have been totally shafted by the system. But I refuse to be a victim. Because of the way the Australian Government has treated us, my husband and I are relocating permanently to Belize in about May to run our Amazon business. Taxation is theft.
I have a healthy dose of scepticism about some of the information delivered. I am not anti-vaccination. I believe vaccination saves lives. Both my kids were vaccinated. I cannot believe there are so many gullible people who believe the discredited Wakefield Study linking vaccines to autism. The prevalence of this view by many of the attendees of this event really diminished the credibility of the anarchist movement for me.
The cult of celebrity at these types of conferences is also a little irritating - not so much from the actual speakers - who I think were generally quite good, but from the sheeplike audience - who clap and yell out "Yeah" at random times - for no apparent reason. It reminded me of my student days working at 2SERFM in Sydney in the 1990s.
I missed some of the morning's presentations but managed to get to Larken Rose's energetic talk: "The Nature of the Beast" which likened the state to a malignant narcissist. I have to agree, having experienced that first hand - and as individual from my ex husband and my former Government employer.
My husband Hans and I had lunch with a French gentleman, Amaury Sechet, who is a really interesting guy. There are lot of really young bright entrepreneurial people at this event who are digital nomads. The whole way people are working now is becoming transformed by all these wonderful disruptive influences - the ability to make money creating content and by trading in digital currencies and bypassing the government regulators and the banking system, for now.
I also think there may be some dodgy individuals on the fringes of this event, flogging their services, ICOs or whatever. Put it this way I won't be investing in the escort bitcoin venture - which I like to call "TITCOIN" - although it will probably be quite lucrative. Crypto-gambling leaves a bad taste in my mouth as well. I also wasn't comfortable with the amount of drug use being openly promoted - its just not my thing - but live and let live. I was quite amused when a kind of wasted looking guy offered to sell me "party supplies" as I was on my way to the gym after the day's events.
As a feminist, I was offended to see the clantily scad Bitcoin girls getting their breasts signed - and posing for pics. I get it that sex sells but if that's the case they should have had hot young guys there in their budgie smugglers - showing off their six-packs. I felt like we had just popped to Vegas or the Gold Coast - tacky.
Today's talks were varied. Mark Passio's talk on "Anarchy and the Occult" was interesting - but getting a bit dry after a while, although I mostly agreed with his position. Very philosophical. We are going to a whole day of seminars on this topic in a few days.
Tomorrow's sessions are on crypto mostly - and I am keen to learn as we have been dabbling in crypto since late last year. I only ever trade what I can afford to lose. I am fascinated by the opportunities that crypto offers people as a way of bypassing the fascist bastard banks.
However, I am not certain if this week is more about the journey or the destination.
And we had a a big earthquake yesterday - it was awesome. But glad no tsunami, or deaths and such.
