Claire Wolfe - the freedom community

[MamaLiberty]

On not leaving the country http://www.clairewolfe.com/wolfesblog/00002414.html
Wolfesblog
by Claire Wolfe

?So many things can bind us to a place. Family. Work. Inertia. Fear. History. Money is a big factor, considering leaving the country. But the ties can be so intricate, so multi-layered, so difficult to convey to anyone who isn?t walking that mile in one?s own moccasins. Being part of a community like this one ? where people help each other so freely and with such enthusiasm ? is a little miracle (especially for people like me who grew up rootless and unattached to the places we lived and the people who lived there). So I speculate often about getting out of this going-to-hell country. Then I think I?d have to be mad to leave a place like this, a place that embodies the essence of real, old-fashioned community, a place that is what America was at its best and ought to be again.? (01/28/07)

[planetaryjim]

Dear ML,

I agree with Claire.  She's very wise.

Moreover, I have spent a lot of my time traveling.  I've visited Asia, Africa, Europe, central America, Canada, Quebec, the Coast Salish territories, and I don't think there is a Galt's Gulch anywhere else.  Galt's Gulches are in this country, and for good reasons.

After all, Ayn Rand wrote the character John Galt as an American, living in America, recruiting people to a Gulch out in the Free Mountain West (as I've come to call it) and hidden in some valley deep in the Rockies.  So, of course, her ideas resonate with people who live in the USA more than in other places.  As well, the spirit of the people here is identifiably freedom oriented, as a young lady from Soviet Russia could tell when she arrived.

There are reasons I don't think England is a free country.  My ancestors got cleared out of the Scottish Highlands in 1746 after the failed Jacobite uprising and the defeat of Bonnie Prince Charlie.  The record isn't especially clear about whether we were supporters of his lot, but it is very clear that the brutal British and their pawns in Scotland wanted us out.  So, we took ship to America.  As did many others.  And, getting here, we went West.  My father was born in Glendale, California, in the 1920s. 

Well, I've been to England, to Holland, to France, Germany, Italy, Padania - I really don't expect the same kind of culture there that we have in Wyoming.  I don't expect people in those places to believe, as I do, that they should be free to pick up a gun and defend life, liberty, and property as they see fit.

Somalia, on the other hand, has lots of guns.  Everyone had a rifle in his home.  The wealthier folks had more impressive weapons, yet.  But, Somalia is not multi-cultural.  It is a country for Somalis.  I am very proud of their accomplishments and determination, and I respect my Somali friends.  But, there is no Galt's Gulch there for people like me and thee.

Lately, I've been a little more impressed with Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and I've spent some time up there.  It is pretty rugged country, lots of gun culture, and FSP, NH Underground, and the Maine state legislature have been doing some standing up for freedom.  Good for them.  I also know that New England isn't going to be my home.  I'm not a Yankee by inclination.  I'm not Down East.  I'm Out West.  So, while I welcome their determination and seek to help their cause as I'm able, I don't expect to make that part of the world my home.

It is not wrong to flee.  I know many dozens of ex-patriate Americans in various parts of the world.  I do what I'm able to help them, as well.  It is not mistaken to think that conditions are so bad here that one would not be safe writing about freedom, here.  But it is also the case that leaving the country permanently is not my choice.

I mean to take my place in the Free Mountain West.  I mean to make a home in Wyoming.  And, if conditions require it, flee from my home to some other part of the Rockies.  But, I don't think it makes sense to travel far from my home and supply. 

Chacun a son gout the French say.  Each one to his own taste.

FSW and HiSovs for me.

Regards,

Jim
 http://hisovs.org/

[Boston]

Anybody who leaves the USA will miss a very interesting time, one way or another!

________
FWIW, "Galt's Gulch" in Atlas Shrugged was based on a real place in Colorado.

Ouray, just south of Montrose on Hwy 550.
A marvelous little town, nearly totally boxed in by towering peaks.
I've spent many nights there and around.

Ayn Rand passed through Ouray in the 1940s while researching the railroads for AS.
(This info came from Barbara Branden's The Passion of Ayn Rand, who misspelled Ouray as Eurey.)

Boston

[Wyowoman]

Ouray - the Swiss Alps of America!? Beautiful place.? We've been there a time or two and it's absolutely gorgeous.? Driving up towards the old mines is a bit of an adventure but well worth the trip?


Here's a link http://www.ouraycolorado.com/   

[electrum!]

So, where exactly is Claire living that is so good?  I've got to see that!  I am one of those who have been wondering what the  hell I am doing in the USA for about 2 years now (which is why I am interested in this here FSW thing).

[planetaryjim]

So, where exactly is Claire living that is so good?

Claire is an exceedingly private person, to my knowledge.  I would hope that the people who know her exact whereabouts would do her the courtesy of not sharing such info.

[Danl]

Claire is an exceedingly private person, to my knowledge.  I would hope that the people who know her exact whereabouts would do her the courtesy of not sharing such info.

I concur with Jim.  Claire will be more than happy to share her own whereabouts without input by others in her own time.  You might say that she likes Wyoming really well.  It is high on her list.

Regards, Danl

[Boston]

Yes, she is a private person.
If she wants to disclose her state or area, she's capable of doing so herself.

Boston

[electrum!]

I suppose that when soneone makes a rather big deal about where they live and how that place is so good for liberty, it naturally arouses a feeling in kindred spirits of "Where is that?".  I certainly respect anyone's right to privacy, God knows!  I am new here and will occasionally make the little error, but it is no big deal.  electrum!

[ricwoz]

As far as I know there is no other country that will let me bring my FN-FAL and a 1911 with me when I move.   Therefore, I'm not considering moving. 

[planetaryjim]

I suppose that when soneone makes a rather big deal about where they live and how that place is so good for liberty, it naturally arouses a feeling in kindred spirits of "Where is that?".  I certainly respect anyone's right to privacy, God knows!  I am new here and will occasionally make the little error, but it is no big deal.  electrum!

Electrum, you are right, Claire's writing does invite the inquiry you made.  Which is why it seemed important, to me, to mention that she actually doesn't want to share her exact location.  One of the interesting things about "Hardyville" which is at least partly based on her real life experiences, is that it would not be the same place were it to become a tourist haven or Mecca for all liberty enthusiasts.

Let me add that I think most of the Rocky Mountain range gives good value for the liberty enthusiast.  I have seen and lived in communities from Alaska to Durango state in Mexico which offer the kind of home town values Claire describes in her stories on Hardyville.  I call the zone in question the "Free Mountain West."

As far as I know there is no other country that will let me bring my FN-FAL and a 1911 with me when I move.   Therefore, I'm not considering moving. 

An excellent point!  I agree completely.  "Being disarmed, among the other harm it brings you, causes you to be despised," wrote Machiavelli several hundred years ago.  A great truth.

[Richard]

Great posts everyone.  I've been thinking about this too.

At what point does it become suicidal to stay in the US?  I mean if you were a Jew in Nazi Germany, and knew what was coming.  Would it have been smart to flee the country?  To wait until it was over and then possibly come back?  Or would it have been better to stay where home is, hoping to fight against it?  Even though everyone else was oblivious to it?

At what point would staying and "weathering the storm" make you about as significant as an insurgent martyr in Iraq today?  When all the time you could have fled for a decade to wait it out in peace and come back to start over?  Thereby giving you a better chance to have real freedom in your lifetime?

Any thoughts?

[MamaLiberty]

When all the time you could have fled for a decade to wait it out in peace and come back to start over?

Might work if there was some place free to flee to. As far as I know, there isn't.

Not to mention that I've worked all my life for what I have, and love where I am. Damned if I'm going to let anyone take it away from me without one hell of a fight.

[bobcat]

As far as I know there is no other country that will let me bring my FN-FAL and a 1911 with me when I move.   Therefore, I'm not considering moving.

Similarly inclined.  Often thought about Canada, but that is just laughable from a political perspective.  Maybe Alaska, but I'd be going by myself so that's a no go.

In the case of the Jewish folks in Europe, there was a chance to flee for those that could afford it and those that believed it would get as bad as it got.  Pretty tough to break up families, and leave everything one has built.  And there are some that probably just figured it was worth the apparent risk.  Hopefully we'll never see that here. 

I have personally met refugees from Communist Hungary, Romania and Poland.  The families from Hungary and Romania actually escaped from behind the Iron Curtain by nefarious and dangerous means.  Incredible stories.  All were charged and driven folks with no illusions about what is in the USA.  Interesting. 

Guess I'll just stick around the USA.  Boston is right, it's going to be interesting here, why miss it?  We have charged and driven folks right here.

[TreadCarefully]

Switzerland? gun culture, moderately oppressive gov, still might stand against loss of sovereignty
Eastern Europe (Romania, Czech Repub etc.)? Very disorganized gov, no gun culture, but everyone has them

A Libertarian friend of mine who has been to easter Europe insists that that is where the next free society will be created. They have had their taste and they like it

Will Switzerland let you emigrate with your rifles? It would be an expensive proposition in any case.

Plus it feels like quitting.

T