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In TVP #161, along with the release of the audiobook, I mentioned that a Second Edition of my book, Vonu: A Strategy for Self-Liberation, is on the way. It features a new introduction, additional chapters, reflections, experiences…and this new foreword by Ben Stone, The Bad Quaker, narrated by Sek McGora from The Agora Podcast.
He wrote it for me back in 2018 when I began work on my first book, Direct Action: The Path to Freedom, which morphed into the updated work on vonu. Other than a couple small changes (i.e. updating the book title), this foreword essentially remains as it was.
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Thanks so much to Ben for this…and thank you for being here. Please enjoy, and keep a lookout for the Second Edition.
Foreword by Ben Stone
Since I first became an activist almost four decades ago, I have watched “liberty” trends come and go; all while the State grows in size and strength. I have seen the fruit of the labor of good people be taken, misdirected, and usurped, all in the name of liberty. I have observed dedicated, freedom-minded folks deceived, fooled, and robbed under the guise of liberty. Despite the intentions, these good honest people were inadvertently advancing the cause of the State by supporting systems that underpin the Colossus.
I have watched political deceivers who have learned that a few well-chosen words will act as dog whistles, and otherwise smart people will abandon reason and logic as they cling to a politician as if he were their favorite uncle. I have watched as libertarians and others, faithfully believed the lies of politicians and would-be politicians who promised to roll back the abuses of government or restrain the advance of government.
I watched the most successful of those politicians get wealthy, embed their family members in government or party positions, and retire without shrinking government by a single penny. And as expected: government grew, spending skyrocketed, national debts exploded, and yet more liberties were lost.
Currently, there is a deafening noise from the cheers surrounding the YouTube libertarian cybervangelists, only surpassed by the unjustified reverence, awe, and blind dedication. These holy elders of liberty can only be spoken of in praise, lest their faithful minions rain Internet hate upon you for your blasphemies. Yet the best advice these cybervangelists and holy liberty elders can offer the freedom-minded individual is “vote for me,” “beg government to be nice,” “beg government to slightly lower spending,” and “beg government to audit the Fed.”
Like Emmanuel Goldstein guiding The Brotherhood in controlled opposition to Big Brother, those most revered in the so called Liberty Movement are simply encouraging their followers to continue doing the same thing that has never worked. Namely, using the immorality and aggression of government, to make the immorality and aggression of government somehow less immoral and less aggressive. It could pass as a hilarious sketch comedy if it weren’t happening in real time around us every single day.
On the other hand, something I’ve rarely witnessed is the freedom pioneer who is able to sidestep the personality cults, the con-artists, and the windbags, while sifting through the mountains of “liberty” publications to find the hidden jewels of truth left by the often forgotten or unsung visionaries who came before us.
I am speaking of that rare individual who can see that doing the same thing generation after generation is not a wise course and will never lead to freedom.
I am speaking of the few today who have made the conscious choice to abandon collectivist solutions, abandon faith in a liberty champion, and personally embrace vonu & self-liberation aimed at using the liberties we currently have to become as free as possible, as soon as possible.
In the process of compiling Vonu: A Strategy for Self-Liberation, Shane has dug through mountains of out-of-print material and works almost lost to history. He, along with a small group of co-conspirators, have resurrected a genre of the freedom movement that had all but vanished.
Shane’s timing in delivering this book could not have been better. Without the baggage of the so called Liberty Movement, waves of people are seeking greater freedom by embracing minimalist lifestyles in a variety of ways. From the tiny house movement, festival circuits, van nomadism, and even the RV lifestyle, people of every age and income classification are taking direct action in their lives in an attempt to free themselves from the traps of modern consumerism and the chains of the State.
People are tired of simply drudging through traffic in a daily commute only to waste hours of their lives banging at a virtual feed bar in the virtual cage that we call a cubical. As the bosses bark out orders, we all know deep inside, the only reward we will see is more debt and the occasional upgrade to an overpriced phone.
That is, unless we do something about it. Unless we act!
Many people have also come to this same conclusion. Their problem is in knowing what to do that will directly lead them to the freedom they desire. No thinking person wants to continue doing the same thing over and over while hoping for a different result. But few people have the time and resources to research such a wide topic.
What Shane provides for us in Vonu: A Strategy for Self-Liberation is refined information that will be extremely helpful in the decision-making process for anyone seeking the next step in freeing themselves from this self-inflicted bondage called modern society. Those in the gaming world could refer to Shane’s book as a set of cheat codes or perhaps a walk-through, designed to show the reader a path through a wide wilderness of choices, on the way to achieving a life as close to true freedom as possible today.
You could spend the next forty years of your life chasing dreams, giving your hard-earned cash to liberty cheerleaders, or convincing yourself that some politician is going to magically make government produce freedom. Or you can cut through the hogwash and empty promises and take the actions needed to live as free a life as you can as soon as possible.
I choose to stop talking, stop wishing, and stop following. I choose action.
Ben Stone
April 2018
Bad Quaker Podcast
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