My Afterthoughts of Candles In The Dark Seminar w/ Larken Rose

Are you an anarchist? You may be and not even know it. If you already know you're an anarchist, have you ever had a hard time explaining your views to someone else? @larkenrose's Candles In The Dark seminar is designed to help you persuade others into seeing things like an anarchist.

The truth is, many people are anarchists and don't even know it. Do you think we should have a ruling class that has the power to initiate force on yourself and others? If you answered no, then you're likely an anarchist.

Anarchists don't believe in a ruling class. Larken Rose's excellent book The Most Dangerous Superstition will beat the statist out of you. It's very convincing, while being very simple at the same time. He explains, in so many ways, that the most dangerous superstition is the belief in authority. We believe a small group of the population has the authority to rule over us. It's no accident either. When we're raised we're taught to obey authority from day 1. Our parents are our first authoritive figures, followed by our teachers in school, then finally the boss at our job becomes our authority. Of course, the government is the ultimate authority that all others have to abide by. Being surrounded by authority that no one questions, it's no wonder we all go through life without ever questioning the legitimacy of government.

Candles In The Dark

Candles In The Dark is a seminar created by Larken Rose after about 20 years of teaching the principles of anarchy the wrong way. I took the seminar at the 2018 Anarchapulco conference in Acapulco, Mexico. It was a 2 day event. Here 2 videos of me sharing my thoughts, each video made after each day of the seminar.

 

If you'd like to spread anarchy, I highly recommend taking Larken's course. It's very important that we learn to present our ideas in an effective way. Since we want to create peace in the world, and getting rid of inherently dangerous governments is the best way, it's up to common people like ourselves to help others see the light. If we want these ideas to spread we have to communicate them in a way that doesn't turn people off.

Larken Rose's approach is different than the way most of us go about it at first. Because we know we can't have a peaceful world with governments around, we often preach passionately to others who usually don't want to hear it. Instead, Candles In The Dark teaches us to ask a series of questions that present people's conflicting ideas to themselves, and gives them a chance to identify the contradiction.

For example, you ask someone "is it ever okay to initiate force against someone else to take their property against their will?"

If they're a halfway decent person they'll say "no."

Then ask "is it okay to hire another person to take someone else's property?"

Of course, the answer should be "no."

Another good question to ask is "Should you disobey a law that conflicts with your own moral conscience?"

If they answer "yes," ask them if they think you should be imprisoned for following your conscience. If they say "no," then their belief in government having the authority to tax you doesn't fit there morals.

After asking a series of questions like this, it becomes apparent that since you can't take other people's money and give it to someone else, neither can government. We all should be believe that right and wrong apply the same to everyone, but for some reason people think it's okay for government to do things that would be immoral for a person to do.

The important part of this process is to ask questions instead of rambling on about your beliefs. Walk them through this process so that they see the contradictions of their own beliefs.

A great analogy Larken used in this seminar was: if you break a bone, the doctor's job isn't to make it heal. His job is to align the bones so that they heal properly. The healing takes place after you leave the doctor's office. This is the same way the persuasion happens. You plant the seeds, and let me them think about it. This was a big takeaway for me because I always felt I failed when someone didn't immediately change their opinion. Now I realize as long as you get them thinking, you did your job. It takes time to come around to this way of thinking because we have to break free from our programming. I would know. It took me a long time myself. I tell the story of how I became an anarchist in the video below.