Welcome!

This blog is inspired by my favorite novel, Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The sci-fi story is a tale of the fight for freedom of Luna colony, a fight which closely mirrors America's own struggle for independence circa 1776. (The novel is even set precisely 300 years later, in 2076.) In the story, however, America has taken on Britain's role of the oppressive imperialist. Many of the "Lunies" of Luna colony are, like early white Australians, convicts shipped there for assorted crimes on Earth, both real and merely political.

The real meat of the story though, are the political theories and discussions bandied about in shaping Luna's new independent society. Lunies are a broad mix of races, nationalities, and political persuasions, but they are united in their hatred of their Terran Authority oppressors.

Professor de La Paz (aka "Prof") is the "thinker" of the Revolution. Luna society is mostly libertarian by default, and this provides fertile ground for his ideas. He seeks to probe the possibilities of ways and methods to set up a society that is not only free, but one which is structured to remain free. Of course, in order to make a society free, first you have to figure out how to get rid of the government oppression & bureaucracy that weigh it down. These are the goals of this blog site.

One of my first articles will be a "critique of a critique" of the novel. The novel's critique I'll be looking at is by a British publishing house, Infinity Plus. As such, the critique comes from an obvious British point of view/bias, and as such leads to a number of misunderstandings and assumptions owing to the wide gulf in thinking between critic and author. My critique of his critique will hopefully clear up these misunderstandings while also adding an additional point of view.

Future articles here will revolve around, but not be limited to, various themes and political & socioeconomic ideas presented in the novel, and their application to modern society. I hope to cover such topics as:

• encouraging the use of cryptography,
• covert cell structures,
• covert communications,
• intelligence and counter-intelligence methods for the Aspiring Revolutionist,
  
• alternative political and societal models,
• means of bypassing, disrupting, and/or non-violently overthrowing authority,
• means of keeping a society free,
• links and resources to other sources of info on stuff covered here,
  
• and general concepts of what it means to be free.

That last point is something I will probably not focus too much on; it is not my intention for this site to be another political blog comparing the relative merits of libertarianism vs. statism or capitalism vs. socialism. There are plenty of those types of sites already. It is assumed that if you are reading this, you already have an appreciation for the concepts of liberty, both personal and economic. This site is not intended for those seeking violent overthrow of the government (peaceful overthrow, however, is another matter ;-) ), nor anyone who seeks to have government play a bigger role in our lives or the economy. (Even if for the supposed benefit of "the people;" TANSTAAFL!) On the other hand, neither is it my intention to limit this site's readership & participation to just dyed-in-the-wool libertarians, Objectivists (which I do not consider myself to be), capitalists, and certainly not just Americans.

So welcome to my blog!