The Porcupine Freedom Festival, or
PorcFest, is a festival put on by
The Free State Project where liberty lovers from all over the world gather in Lancaster, NH, for one week and have a philosophical meeting of the minds. There are many different types of people that come to PorcFest. Some are scholars in economics, politics and science. Some are artists and agorists-in-action selling and trading food and wares. Others are just there to participate in one of the largest Freedom festivals in the USA. One thing these people all have in common is individuality. They think for themselves. They don't need to be TOLD how to think and aren't there to become part of a collective of people that all think the same. The refreshing thing that I love about the diversity of people participating in the liberty movement is there is always someone to challenge your ideas and help them evolve. The things they have in common are their individuality and the desire to live free from authority.
It reminds me of
Stanley Milgram and his published research
Obedience to Authority and The Perils of Authority. In his experiments, he was attempting to measure the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure that instructed them to perform acts that would conflict with their conscience. His experiment showed that 37 out of the 40 participants in his experiment would deliver an increasingly larger dose of electric shock to another human just on the command of someone they deemed an "Authority" figure. 37 of those participants delivered, upon command of the "Authority" figure, the maximum dose of 450 volts to a person they could not see, who simply answered questions wrong. While there never was any other person being shocked, the participants in the experiment overwhelmingly obeyed the "Authority" figure regardless of the screams of agony coming from the person being "shocked." The participants were described as having varying degrees of tension, sweating, and lip biting but continued on, regardless of their personal stress level. They lacked the ability to think or ACT for themselves against AUTHORITY.
Milgram found through these and other experiments that between approximately 61-66% of all people will do what is told of them by an "Authority" figure without question. Another approximate 30% will do what is told, then question, then perhaps refuse to take orders but that only about 3-7% of people have the ability to refuse orders. It is my belief that a large portion of liberty participants fall into this 3-7% category. Most show a capacity for free will, self-ownership AND the ability to act according to their own conscience experience.
The attendees of Porcfest come from all over the world, cultures and religions. Whether they call themselves Libertarian, libertarian, Voluntaryist, anarchist, minarchist, etc., they don't need to wear matching uniforms or attend the same religious ceremonies to be accepted by their peers. You don't have to fit into a certain demographic or socio-economic class to take part in the debates and discussions. The main difference between most of these people and the rest of the world is their capacity to welcome, embrace and LOVE YOU, for being UNIQUE. Come to PorcFest and experience the freethinking 3-7% for yourself. You can attend speeches, question and answer sessions, and other forums that expand and challenge the traditional-thinking mind. You may also get more free hugs than you know what to do with. I know I did...and I liked it.
Ruby Nicole Hilliard is an artist and author living in Savannah, Ga. Ruby writes, edits and illustrates the "Pirates of Savannah" historical novel series and stays busy on the side taking commissions for fine art portraits, and cover art illustrations. See some of her work at LupoLit.com and SamAndRubyArt.com.