Over the past week and a half I’ve been on the road and camping out. And while I’ve gotten more than a few interesting stories and anecdotes driving through upstate New York and the haunted rumour shadowed mountains of Pennsylvania....
I cannot remember Irving Fisher turning up in the debate. Insofar as anyone can be credited with neoclassical economics, it's Alfred Marshall. I agree, however, that it was a poorly chosen proposition and said so in my most recent Substack post, where I proposed a better one for next year.
I agree with your point about the kids. Two or three years ago I encountered an entrepreneur selling, among other things, blowguns made of PVC tubing covered with colored tape and provided with 3D printed darts of several sorts. He was ten years old. This year he was making and selling mango lassis as part of his family's food stand selling (good) Indian food. Re your ethnicity point, his mother is Indian.
You didn't mention all of the dogs, strikingly well behaved. I think the kids still outnumber them, but they outnumber the babies, of which there were also a substantial number.
Yes! I'd meant to mention your piece, just edited the link in!
As for the dogs, I was in the far RV section and there were several dramas about two or three panicking and running wild during the thunderstorm... Admittedly I didn't hear them causing problems when they were escaped and unleashed. But I saw enough people chasing after dogs that refused to be governed that I'd say the dogs were like the festival attendees in more ways than one.
Shows that too high iq has marginal benefits and some actual costs, one of the more interesting ones of course being a tendency to overvalued that which makes you special, and thus fall into the trap of believing in mental models over the real.
The real stuff, like raising and educating your kids, or the children of others. Not as a tranny teacher obsessed with grooming other people's children for gay space communism but as an actual parent raising children to become the capable and autonomous individuals of tomorrow.
There is a lot of power in minding your own business.
“This extreme bifurcation and assemblage of extremes was expressed right down to their vehicles… Walking through the parking lot there were $100,000 CyberTrucks and sportscars, whereas 1-2 cars down the line from them there were vehicles practically ripped apart with the engine showing under bodywork that’d long ago been scattered across some guardrail, reassembled just enough to (somehow) get back on the road but with not a dime spent on restoring it’s appearance. This wasn’t 1 car, this was a TYPE of car at the festival. Denoting in the owners some combination of MacGyver resourcefulness, Chadlike indifference, autistic obliviousness, and Victorian Frugality that I can’t but admire… “
This is great stuff. I’ve read it out loud to several people already and everyone laughed, including me, a person reading it for the fourth time.
Porcfest is great and having gone twice. I refuse to say otherwise. I went to that debate and I agree that the question was bad; It still was a great discussion.
Great writing. Growing up I thought libertarianism was cool (you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone...sounds good to me!), wasn't impressed with what I found in real life (seemed to be a dilettante philosophy for programmers), but I'm excited to see people are making it work and passing it on to the next generation! I had read the reviews of 'A Libertarian Walks into a Bear' and thought the whole thing had collapsed...looks like it's alive and well and growing. One of the few whitepills I've read in a while.
I'm much like the tech nerds in your vibecamp after years in those sorts of environments...my youth is gone, but I still should draw breath for about three to four decades, and I now have enough to survive a firing indefinitely. Wondering what to do for a second act in life.
Actually, I have known similar libertarians further south in Appalachia. Frontier mindset libertarians have a more promising future than the Randroids and Cosmopolitans. (And yes, home schooling gives many kids super powers.)
Robert Heinlein wrote about Small Mouthed Anarchists vs. Large Mouthed Anarchists. I suspect that the Free State Project appeals more to the former. I'd consider heading that way myself, but I'm hot weather adapted, having grown up in the South without air conditioning much of that time.
Nice. I used to live in Vermont right on the Connecticut River, which defines the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. The homeless would walk across the bridge to Vermont to get welfare and other benefits, and walk back across the river to buy liquor and cigarettes due to NH not charging sales tax.
I spent my summers growing up on the other side of the river, in the town (but not the village) of Orford, N.H. It was a long time ago and I don't remember noticing any homeless people.
He's probably talking about Hinsdale, NH - Brattleboro. I cross that bridge everyday, and it's kind of terrible once you hit the Vermont side. Begging homeless people will be the first thing you see, every single day. The first thing you see on our side of the river are 3 fireworks stores, two gas stations, and a state liquor store.
I cannot remember Irving Fisher turning up in the debate. Insofar as anyone can be credited with neoclassical economics, it's Alfred Marshall. I agree, however, that it was a poorly chosen proposition and said so in my most recent Substack post, where I proposed a better one for next year.
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/austria-vs-chicago
I agree with your point about the kids. Two or three years ago I encountered an entrepreneur selling, among other things, blowguns made of PVC tubing covered with colored tape and provided with 3D printed darts of several sorts. He was ten years old. This year he was making and selling mango lassis as part of his family's food stand selling (good) Indian food. Re your ethnicity point, his mother is Indian.
You didn't mention all of the dogs, strikingly well behaved. I think the kids still outnumber them, but they outnumber the babies, of which there were also a substantial number.
Yes! I'd meant to mention your piece, just edited the link in!
As for the dogs, I was in the far RV section and there were several dramas about two or three panicking and running wild during the thunderstorm... Admittedly I didn't hear them causing problems when they were escaped and unleashed. But I saw enough people chasing after dogs that refused to be governed that I'd say the dogs were like the festival attendees in more ways than one.
Shows that too high iq has marginal benefits and some actual costs, one of the more interesting ones of course being a tendency to overvalued that which makes you special, and thus fall into the trap of believing in mental models over the real.
The real stuff, like raising and educating your kids, or the children of others. Not as a tranny teacher obsessed with grooming other people's children for gay space communism but as an actual parent raising children to become the capable and autonomous individuals of tomorrow.
There is a lot of power in minding your own business.
“This extreme bifurcation and assemblage of extremes was expressed right down to their vehicles… Walking through the parking lot there were $100,000 CyberTrucks and sportscars, whereas 1-2 cars down the line from them there were vehicles practically ripped apart with the engine showing under bodywork that’d long ago been scattered across some guardrail, reassembled just enough to (somehow) get back on the road but with not a dime spent on restoring it’s appearance. This wasn’t 1 car, this was a TYPE of car at the festival. Denoting in the owners some combination of MacGyver resourcefulness, Chadlike indifference, autistic obliviousness, and Victorian Frugality that I can’t but admire… “
This is great stuff. I’ve read it out loud to several people already and everyone laughed, including me, a person reading it for the fourth time.
Porcfest is great and having gone twice. I refuse to say otherwise. I went to that debate and I agree that the question was bad; It still was a great discussion.
I guess Porcfest attendees know how to pork, but Vibefest attendees only know how to vibe
Porcfest attendees also know how to vibe.
Very interesting. I went to both SSC meetups and David Friedman house parties in the Bay Area and can confirm this is a real difference.
Mfw no stinky, unshaved armpit having, libertarian, "free range children" raising gf.
How do I find events like these to attend?
Seriously tho, how do you find these kind of irl activities? Sounds like fun!
www.fsp.org
LOL. I attended Vibecamp this year, last year I attended both Vibecamp and Porcfest. Thanks for writing this.
Well there's a whitepill. Thanks for the writeup. I'd really like to come to porcfest sometime.
Typo
"And I missed a good chunk of it, having to leave before the largest night when the festival reached it Zenith."
Should be "its Zenith".
Great writing. Growing up I thought libertarianism was cool (you leave me alone, I'll leave you alone...sounds good to me!), wasn't impressed with what I found in real life (seemed to be a dilettante philosophy for programmers), but I'm excited to see people are making it work and passing it on to the next generation! I had read the reviews of 'A Libertarian Walks into a Bear' and thought the whole thing had collapsed...looks like it's alive and well and growing. One of the few whitepills I've read in a while.
I'm much like the tech nerds in your vibecamp after years in those sorts of environments...my youth is gone, but I still should draw breath for about three to four decades, and I now have enough to survive a firing indefinitely. Wondering what to do for a second act in life.
Well, I'm going next year.
Libertarians with mojo. Who'd 'ave thunk it.
Actually, I have known similar libertarians further south in Appalachia. Frontier mindset libertarians have a more promising future than the Randroids and Cosmopolitans. (And yes, home schooling gives many kids super powers.)
Robert Heinlein wrote about Small Mouthed Anarchists vs. Large Mouthed Anarchists. I suspect that the Free State Project appeals more to the former. I'd consider heading that way myself, but I'm hot weather adapted, having grown up in the South without air conditioning much of that time.
Tons of our Florida libertarians are quite well adapted to the cold. Many love and embrace it.
Sounds like quite the experience, I should take the trip over the atlantic next year to check them out.
Nice. I used to live in Vermont right on the Connecticut River, which defines the border between Vermont and New Hampshire. The homeless would walk across the bridge to Vermont to get welfare and other benefits, and walk back across the river to buy liquor and cigarettes due to NH not charging sales tax.
I spent my summers growing up on the other side of the river, in the town (but not the village) of Orford, N.H. It was a long time ago and I don't remember noticing any homeless people.
Given the severity of the winters, it's amazing that the homeless exist in the New England states, but exist they do, in shocking numbers.
He's probably talking about Hinsdale, NH - Brattleboro. I cross that bridge everyday, and it's kind of terrible once you hit the Vermont side. Begging homeless people will be the first thing you see, every single day. The first thing you see on our side of the river are 3 fireworks stores, two gas stations, and a state liquor store.
I'm not sure you're gonna get invited back! 😁