Porcfest is starting to pick up some steam. The “population” seems to have doubled in the last 24 hours. In addition to new campers (and hotelers I suppose) there are also a few new vendors. I must admit that I am frequenting them a bit less than last year. I think I might have this camping thing down and have a good kitchen setup in the camp sight so we’ve been snacking / eating there a lot more.
I attended a few sessions (those are also picking up steam), the best of which has to be the one-two punch of a rousing call to personal action from Jeffrey Tucker followed by a re-enactment of Rothbard’s Mozart was a Red with Mr. Tucker reprising his role as the aliased Nathaniel Branden (who comes off as Rand’s bulldog in the dramatization).
The speech was a short recollection of the change that occurred in the liberty movement in the 70s, with Rothbard emerging as an intellectual center and the Koch brothers money providing a financial center resulting in a sole focus on the political aspect. The movement seemed to stay focused on the political domain for nearly three decades until the early 2000s when for some unknown reason (the theory was floated that perhaps it was start of porcfest) the personal element was reintroduced. Mr. Tucker’s speech (sorry for being so formal, but he does wear a bow tie everywhere he goes so it seems appropriate) really struck a cord with me. I have always been put off by the idea that the system can be used to reform the system, although I wish those that are pursuing that work the best. The call to first “be the change you want to see” (channelling Gandhi) was well needed and well heard. Look for the youtube video when it gets posted. Same for the play.
Kendall and I headed up to get some BBQ (with Bitcoin of course). I actually haven’t spent much junk silver this time around. Between more vendors taking Bitcoin and the cellular network holding together (so far), it’s been Bitcoin for everything. Mason took a break from his bracelet sales. He said he had enough to get what he needed for the day ;-). He also was the star of the show providing color commentary for the dodgeball game. I wish my phone had been charged – a video of that would be priceless.
I ended the night by the bonfire, a bit later than I had planned since I ended up meeting a bunch of new folks. Frank from Indiana, Morten (sp?) from Norway, Josiah and Mike from Virginia and Jessie from Tennessee. Great night and day 4 starts now.
Porclog day 3