Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

"A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them."
—Carl Jung

Recap part one: Things are falling apart, are not well designed, and their swift demise would be less harmful than their long slow dissipation. Nothing we do within the existing political system is sufficient to resolve its inter-tangled problems. Hastening its end isn't possible either. Lacking resilience, the natural disasters which can be readily anticipated won't be overcome effectively. In order to build a better world, we can only begin in certain ways. To fix things we have to survive what is happening and what is coming and be here to build well in the aftermath.

Recap part two: PHOM CAGES are a set of tools, equipment, knowledge, and understanding that may allow you to go it alone, or with a small group of others, to build a reasonably comfortable situation for yourself while you grow a family and find other survivors. Plan to build a civilisation once the current monstrosity falters and fails and goes to pieces. Preparation takes time, thought, and budget. But the lives you save may be your own and those of your family.

Recap part three: Power structures reaching their end are capable of great violence. We may expect more wars, more torture centres, more death camps, before the existing system collapses. In the depths of the Second World War some people in Germany formed a White Rose Society to share knowledge about the horrors of war and the death camps in Poland and the mass exterminations in Russia. Each person can consider being a White Rose, committed to abolition of slavery, degradation, and war. Together we can free the slaves, stop the wars, and end oppression.

Peace Seminars
"Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it."
—Psalm 34:14

In the last few weeks I've had a number of email exchanges and conversations with a very wise and good former model, actress, producer, and musician named Christy Bella Joiner. We first encountered one another on a Twitter direct message discussion group called "Voices for Peace" organised by our mutual friend Marchella. As a result of these discussions, we came up with the idea of creating a series of Peace Seminars. The first of these seminars will be later this year, feature two speakers and at least one musician, and include a catered after party. Subsequent seminars this year and next are intended to focus attention on wars and on violence in our homes and communities, including especially violence toward those least able to defend themselves, and slavery. By holding these seminars during 2020 and bringing attention to their topics, we may expect to encourage candidates in the presidential election to feel obligated to speak on the issue. Moreover, we expect to bring together people who identify as White Roses, seek peace, and do good.

 

Violence in Our World
Christy Bella writes, "I was red-pilled in my existential crisis of life by Marchella and Ron Paul. That's when I truly awakened. My research showed me that our own government has caused the very problems we have today. They certainly will never give the people a solution to the problems they created.

"It became clear as I looked closer that the lies of promising free college, free healthcare, or anything for free is another prayer altar asking us to worship the state. Every politician promising more free gifts is another puppet leader who will raise our taxes and take away more of our freedom. In my lifetime, I have witnessed so much freedom being taken away.

"For example, on 11 September 2001 when the attacks occurred, I was in Atlanta and could not leave as all flights were grounded and we were under martial law. Ever since that evil day, flying has never been the same … anyone who travels know things were so much better for travellers before.  

"Another example of my awakening is when I was abused by my ex fiancé and I walked outside his home with a glass of wine in one hand (for the pain) and a phone in the other. I called the police because I was impressionable and thought they would protect me from the man who gave me a black eye, broke my nose and my upper lip. My fiancé at the time warned me that he had connections. I still believed that any human being would see me as the evidence, broken down with bruises and bloody and help me. However, when the police arrived, instead of arresting him, they arrested me.

"I will never forget sitting in one of the worst jails of the country for over 24 hours waiting for my dad to come bail me out and take me to get the medical attention I desperately needed. That's how I learned never to call the police, no matter how bad things got for me.

"My final example of how I learned how horrific the state is came a few years ago when I caught fire and suffered from 3rd degree burns from an accident. I was taken to a burn center, and I was told that it was out of my hands due to government control of healthcare. I had no choice but to do as the doctors told me. I had several skin graft operations against my own will, and I learned that we now have Orwell's 1984 in the burn hospital. These are just a few examples of how the state failed me. Big government and false promises have destroyed our freedom. In many ways, today we are in the dystopian future Orwell warned us about and that is why I have been so fearful."

 

Swords to Ploughshares
Jim writes, "Back in 1968, when I was only 5, my dad bought the family a 14-inch diagonal black and white television set. He felt it was a good thing to watch the political conventions that year. We also saw coverage of the riots, demonstrations, assassinations, Vietnam war, and other events. I well remember watching coverage of the Apollo 8 mission at Christmas 1968, when Frank Borman read from the book of Genesis while orbiting the Moon. I remember thinking that trips to the Moon would be common when I got older, and that maybe one day I would visit there.

"In the mid-1970s there was great interest in my family in space travel, especially the concept of building artificial space habitats the size of cities in various orbits from lunar and asteroidal materials. After the revelations of the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate hearings, the Select Committee on Assassinations hearings, and the Frank Church committee hearings on intelligence agencies, there was great interest in America in fewer wars, ending the draft, pardoning the draft avoiders, curtailing the powers of the CIA and its tendency to assassinate domestic and foreign political leaders, and in making our environment better. The space settlement movement was about "turning our swords into ploughshares " by using missile technology not for delivering explosions to other people, but for moving people and equipment into space.

"And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they study war any more." —Isaiah 2:4

"A great deal of research was done between 1968 and 1975 on the topic, including quite a lot by Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill of Princeton. His ideas included space solar power satellites to create concentrated power that could be beamed to Earth much as Tesla had envisioned fifty years earlier. Many dirty industries such as mining and refining would be moved into space, where there are no endangered species of plants and animals to disturb. I've read dozens of novels and thousands of science and engineering papers on these proposals, and been active in groups like the L5 Society (from 1977, two years after it was founded) and the National Space Society (from its inception in 1988), as well as working in the commercial space satellite launch industry. And I tried my hand at space tourism in 1990 with rather depressing results brought on by the excesses of government resistance to change.

"As a result of that work, I created with several friends in Houston a group called the Houston Space Society, Inc., which we founded as a Texas non-profit in 1988. Thanks to the work of our board member Jerry Drake, a geophysicist who was working at the time for Phillips Petroleum, we received a "status letter" from the IRS in November 1990 accepting our petition to be a 501c3 organisation, which we've kept ever since. The good thing here is that if people contribute to the peace seminars by way of the Houston Space Society, they would be able to receive a tax deduction for a charitable contribution."

So we are creating a "Swords into Ploughshares" project to describe how war among humans might be ended forever, how people might come to occupy our place in the Solar System, have access to the cornucopia of resources in our universe, and cooperate on the grand adventure of exploring and understanding where we are in the vast scheme of things. We think this project might be a suitable foundation for operating the peace seminars.

It seems to us that the first big step is to build a single seminar with two speakers, some music, an audience of perhaps 1,200 to 1,500 persons, catered food, a venue in, say, Las Vegas where people frequently travel for events, or, say, in Atlanta which is also a travel stopover, especially for folks who fly on Delta Airlines, or wherever it seems most appropriate. Our preliminary calculations on this topic suggest that gate, sponsors, merchandise, and other revenues might bring in a total of $300,000 before film rights and other fees, and so it would be possible to generate net cash flow of perhaps $50,000 from this first event.

Over the course of 2019, we might plan one major peace seminar, perhaps in conjunction with some other event, this coming Summer say, or in the Autumn. Then, depending on how successful we are at organising the first one, we could make plans to continue the series once every 90 days and, during 2020, perhaps increase their frequency.

Obviously 2020 is an election year, so by making this series of events about peace we are talking about potentially generating a political conversation that would necessitate the candidates in 2020 to take a position on war, perhaps on each war now involving the USA. For examples: Korea, which still hasn't ended; occupations of Germany and Japan which still haven't ended; occupation of Guantanamo, Cuba dating to the 1898 Spanish-American war; Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and many others. Why shouldn't candidates feel obligated to at least speak briefly about wars?

Who would you choose to hear from about war, about peace, about being prepared for the future, about space settlement, about domestic violence, about sexual violence, about the predatory child trafficking in Hollywood, DC, New York, London, and elsewhere? Please write to us or join the conversation on Twitter, and share your thoughts.

Two of the speakers we think would be really good are Ron Paul and Kathy Ireland, both of whom have a sound moral compass. Whether they agree to speak at our first event, we don't know yet. We'd love to hear other suggestions.

War and violence affects everyone. It is time to end the strife in our world. Please join us.

 

Christy Bella Joiner adorns magazines around the world, wins national attention, and receives recognition for her acting talents as a promising star. At age five, she played classical piano that progressed into playing with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Concerto Group Charities in high school. A graduate of Henderson High School in Atlanta, Christy Bella attended the University of Georgia and Valdosta State University. At the University of Georgia, she was an active member of Kappa Delta Sorority, where she remains alumni. After college, she signed with Elite Modelling Agency and Click modelling Agency, gracing magazines, such as Maxim, Stuff, Hawaiian Tropic, Emerald Coast Magazine, Tallahassee Magazine, numerous advertisements, billboards, and television commercials. The all-American beauty received national attention for being named the 2008 International Spokesmodel for Nevichi Cosmetics by C.E.O. and Founder, Charles Nevichi. She appears in ads, commercials, and print work around the world for various products, campaigns, and name brands. In 2009, Christy Bella was named "Top Model" by high-fashion designers. She continued to actively pursue her roles in modelling and television. In 2010, Christy Bella focused on her charity work around the world. She is involved in Stand Up To Cancer, PETA, Greenpeace, ONE Campaign, and many other charities. She is making people aware of the life-altering diseases which she tells in her public service announcements. She actively has teams making a difference with Cancer charities, ONE Campaign, Greenpeace, PETA, Animal Activism, Climate Change, and Make A Wish. She is known as a humanitarian.

Jim Davidson is vision director for HoustonSpaceSociety.net and founder of Individual Sovereign University and the Resilient Ways Foundation. He is currently chief financial officer for a start-up social networking and talent agency company and chief executive officer for a self-storage structure start-up. Please don't send him PayPal he won't accept their terms.