The white cat that waves the black flag

I and Pangur Ban my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at:
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.
The Scholar and His Cat, Pangur Ban -- from the Irish by Robin Flowers

That is the opening stanza from my favorite poem and the reason for my nom de plume. If you would like to read the entire poen click here.

Who is this white cat?

I am Pangur Ban and I run a website called Altcoin Anarchy and a Facebook page by the same name. I also began writing novels and novellas last year as a serious writer. I have written six so far; four complete and two works-in-progress. I published one here and may publish the rest. Oddly, I got started by writing custom erotic fiction for lifestyle couples years ago and had a couple political articles published here and there.

I have worn many occupational hats in my life, mostly self employed. I have been a web designer, graphic designer, text message marketer, systems administrator, underground utility locator, courier, painter, and lawn care specialist, among others. I also ran for Congress in 2008.

I am still looking for that fulfilling career, although I don't think I will find one as fulfilling as stay-at-home dad.

I got into bitcoin and altcoins in 2012 when I found litecoin. Since then I have mined and day traded altcoins. I like the wild west feel about it all. I trade on Poloniex, Bittrex, Bitfinex, C-CEX, OKcoin and YoBits. I will trade well established coins and shitcoins. Oh, I love faucets and Bitcoin Aliens.

But why wave the black flag?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the black flag (no, I'm not talking about the punk music group) it's the flag of the Anarchist, the flag of Anarchy. I am anarchy. Well, at least I try to be.

It was a long road from waving the red, white, and blue to waving the black, but then again, it was also like coming home after a walk around the block. My first foray into the body politic was in third grade when I chose Ford over Carter for our classroom project (which should tell you how old I am). My campaign sign was a car running over a peanut. I thought it was simple, but effective.

Then came the Reagan Era when I was a teen. The idea of small government always appealed to me, and while I disagreed with the Republican Party's moral authoritarianism, I figured if they were true to their word then government would be too small to really enforce their moral code. I began to get suspicious when the excuses started. It was always something: We'll reduce spending when we've defeated the USSR in the Cold War, or we'll reduce government once we control the Senate, um, I mean the Senate and the House, er, the Senate, the House and the Presidency, etc. Every time, more broken promises. It was the Contract On America, I mean, the Contract With America that was the final straw for me. I just quit voting altogether.

It was the July 4th weekend in 2000 that rekindled my interest in politics. The dot-com bubble was just beginning to burst and my small web design firm was starting to feel the tightening of IT budgets and the competition from cheap online WYSIWYG website templates that were luring in my core clients, the mom and pop shops. I was channel surfing when I saw a native american on C-span. I sarcastically thought, "This should be good", but I was in for a surprise. He didn't talk about how the government should do this or do that, he talked about being free from the government. He talked about self-determination. He talked about getting the government off the backs of the people. He talked about all the things I believed in and that there was a solution, a political solution. That speaker was Russell Means, the event was the Libertarian National Convention and the solution was the Libertarian Party. I watched the rest of the convention. I watched them nominate Harry Browne for President. That fall, for the first time in six years, I voted.

I gradually became active in the Libertarian Party. I learned about the NAP (Non-Aggression Principle). I began attending meetings. Eventually, I would help form my county's affiliate with the state's LP. I was elected chair of the county's executive committee, elected to the state's Central Committee and then elected to the state's Executive Committee. As mentioned above, in 2008 I ran for Congress in my congressional district. I did it to help the party get ballot access through a federal lawsuit. We ended up winning and I had a month to launch a congressional campaign before the November vote. I still managed to get 4% of the vote and doubled the amount of votes for any Libertarian candidate in my district before or since. But it all came with a price. I couldn't square the circle of the NAP with having the reigns of the force of government. I struggled with this throughout my campaign, in every town hall, and debate, and meet-n-greet. Sure, I could use force to defend those who wanted government off their backs, but what about those who didn't. Could I force them to accept a Libertarian government? It was for their own good, but wasn't that exactly what they would say when they were forcing their pet government program down my throat? It was thoughts like that and discussions with Anarchist that I had met along the way that finally turned me off to a political solution. It was then I picked up the black flag. It was then that I was truly free.

Don't get me wrong, I will still try to convince you that I should be left alone and free from your government, that I want to live in a voluntary based society, that we should not initiate force against each other, and if you think about it, maybe that is what you truly want too, but I will never try to get elected over you, or elect someone else as proxy, and force it upon you. All I ask is that you do the same. You believe in equality, don't you?

I was going to say "final thoughts" but...

I plan to say more. Much more. I'm not sure what it will be about, my interests are varied, but I will spout them here. Some may be uncontroversial, others...not so much.

I appreciate the developers of Steemit.com and I want to thank all of you who made it this far in my verbose articulation. I think this is an amazing site and concept. I am spreading the word to all my friends.

If you would like to read a booklet that I wrote and published here, please read The Tao of Anarchy or download a PDF from my website Altcoin Anarchy