John Zube, 35 Oxley St., or<= /span> P.O. Box 52, Berrima, NSW 2577, Australia 30 January 2,000
website: www.acenet.co= m.au/~jzube (Literature list of LMP, information on microgr= aphics options, 2 essays on panarchism and 2 on monetary freedom.)
PEACE PLANS, LIBERTARIAN MICROFICHE PUBLISHING, ON PAN= ARCHY, SLOGANS FOR LIBERTY, MONETARY FREEDOM SERIES, FREE MARKET ECONOMICS, ANARCH= ISM ETC.:
Books, Magazines, Newsletters, Letters, Articles, Pamp= hlets, Dissertations, Encyclopaedias, Bibliographies, Indexes, Alternative Media for Liberty Lovers, etc., all on so far over 1600 microfiche, with ca. 70 added p.a.
DOES ANY OTHER PUBLISHER OFFER MORE FREEDOM TITLES, MO= RE PERMANENTLY AND CHEAPLY - IN ANY MEDIUM?
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D
LAZARUS LONG
Dear Lazarus,
= the name is so familiar to me, as a fan of Robert Heinlein's writings, that I thought at first that we must have corresponded before. But I could not trace you in my disordered paper and disk files.
During the last few days I have downloaded and printed= out ca. 3 dozen files from your website and browsed through or read them. Our interests do largely overlap and I am pleased with many of the stands you h= ave taken and would be interested in including even more such files in my serie= s.
There is one minor difficulty: You do not mind reprint= s but want copies of them sent. To which address? I can hardly send microfiche to= an e-mail address, nor could a reprinter on paper.=
And would you really be interested in receiving microf= iche reproductions of your articles?
If I had enough of your files, I could fill a whole
To me they are all A-Z contributions towards a very la= rge libertarian encyclopaedia, with contributions b= y many different people, often on the same subject. An alphabetical index could pu= ll them together.
Usually the pro-freedom A-Z appeared only in print on = paper, in books, and copyrights are an obstacle to combining them, when they are recent output. Others are still dispersed over many obscure magazines and newsletters or even remained unpublished sets. (E.g., I have still to microfiche many of the writings of Ulrich von Beckerat= h, on a whole range of liberty issues, and many columns by Robert LeFevre and short essays by Laur= ance Labadie.)
I would also like to fill many more LMP microfiche with discussions on the voluntary community options (My own ON PANARCHY series has so far 19 microfiche, to which can be added a few book titles on the exterritorial tradition.), and with a compilation of the best refutations to popular errors and myths and discussions on militia possibilities and traditions.
Refutations encyclopaedias= could, obviously, greatly benefit from collaboration via the Internet between hund= reds to thousands of contributors - if someone were to bother to organize this.<= /p>
The FAQs are a step in this direction - but they are still far from constituting a handy and portable encyclopedia, on fiche and text only CD-ROMs that offer= s all the best refutations so far found of all the popular errors, myths and prejudices that are obstacles to progress.
Many years ago I expressed Ulrich von Beckerath's and my own militia views in an unpublished manuscript that finally appeared= in PEACE PLANS 61-63. I still miss detailed discussions of such forces for the protection of individual rights and liberties - to the extent that they are claimed by members of volunteer communities that are exterritorially autonomous. The militia forces that were set up are often based on insuffic= ient discussion of what could and should be done in this sphere and many are eng= aged in rather unenlightened actions, contrary to the best principles and practi= ces. A kind of military academy or recognized body of knowl= ede for them does not yet exist.
My series does also try to reproduce all the writings = in favour of at least significant degrees of monetary fr= eedom - that I can lay my hands on, get permissions for or dare to pirate publish, seeing what is involved if monetary despotism is allowed to contin= ue. Not long ago I read somewhere of an estimate that there may be up to one billion unemployed to under-employed people in the world - and this indicat= es merely the deflationary aspect of monetary despotism, not the inflationary = one and the political, social, economic and military as well as revolutionary a= nd terrorist consequences of them.
Many alternative value standards have been proposed, s= o that the correct libertarian stand is, I believe, to advance freedom in the choi= ce of value standards and then make one's own personal stand, preferences or recommendations in this sphere known.
The same applies to the various issue options for exch= ange media and clearing systems that operate without such clearing certificates.=
In that sphere the insights and practical proposals of= the German Monetary Freedom School of the 30's are, I believe, still unsurpasse= d in the range, tolerance and practical details.
Does any other publisher offer more monetary freedom writings than does LMP?
In the introductory paragraph in your paper LET THE CH= IPS FALL, you seem to underestimate the role that LEGAL TENDER plays
a) in enforcing a depreciat= ing value standard in a country and
b) in forcing all people in a country to accept it as = an exclusive exchange medium for most of their transactions, at least until the system has been so run down - and the country and its people - that finally they refuse to accept it altogether.
The centrally enforced interest rate changes are not fundamental features but just tinkerings with a despotic system, a la Greenberg of the FED.
So are various changes in "asset currencies"= or even currencies that are exclusively based on gold or silver covers and redemption funds, whether fractional or 100%. They still amount to the mone= tary despotism of an exclusive currency and value standard.
In the 100% case it is honest (but still dishones= tly suppressing other voluntary choices) and no more fluctuating than the value= of gold or silver are - if they are "measured" by the values of other goods and services.
The rare metal cover and redemption obligation limits = the free clearing and free exchange options between all goods and services prod= uced and offered on a free market, including labour.= It creates a bottleneck for transactions that has enormous consequences.
A better gold standard is the gold clearing and gold accounting standard, that also uses gold weights= but does not make them demandable by every creditor. Instead, it refers every creditor to the almost unlimited redemption fund of the free gold market of= the world, where soundly issued gold value certificates can be freely exchanged= , at their face value, into their gold weight equivalent. Ra= ting the certificates on a free gold market, at par, below or above par, will te= nd to keep most of them, most of the time, at par or very close to par.= Add to this, their par-acceptance for the goods and services of their issuers, = who have priced out their goods and services in gold weight units - and the rea= dy acceptance at par by the debtors of these issuers.
With voluntary acceptance, refusals or discounting and= a sufficient REFLUX or CLEARING arrangements, gold value certificates can be = kept at par with their gold weight values to total amounts far exceeding all the available physical gold in the world - and that without reducing the value = or purchasing power of gold weight units beyond that required to eliminate most emergency sales prices of depressions.
Emergency sales prices, as a rule, are not free market prices but result from restrictions upon free markets.
Mankind has already produced millions of different goo= ds and services and could increase the quantities of each of them enormously, shou= ld that be desired. To make all these possible and desired transactions = in millions of goods and services, COVERED by equivalent values of just ONE product, and redeemable in it at any time, upon demand, is, rightly conside= red, the height of absurdity.
To use e.g. a certain gold weight and its value in a f= ree market merely as a value MEASURING standard only is quite another matter. <= /p>
Also to allow the circulation of c= ertain weights as coins and bullion among volunteers.
Like the platinum meter measure in Paris, meter measur= es can be multiplied by cheap substitute meter measures made of wood, metal or plastic, without limits, without reducing or lengthening the value of the m= eter measure in any transactions. Likewise, liter or kg measures do not have to = be made out of gold or platinum. Cheap substitutes can be efficiently used for= all free transactions - and they impose no limits upon them upon the quantities= of these "measuring sticks" and the quantities produced of them do n= ot diminish their value.
All goods and services and labour= that people are able and willing to offer to each other and that they want from each other, should be exchangeable in a free market without restrictions imposed by monopolies for exchange media, value standards and clearing methods. In a completely free system they could all be cleared aga= inst each other, regardless what physical or electronic value standards and exch= ange media or clearing avenues are taken to achieve that. The system would have the advantages of barter but none of its disadvantages and could multiply exchanges without any other limits than those set by sup= ply and demand.
In your essay THE RESPONSIBLE SOCIETY, you offer a sho= rt human rights draft. I hope to include this and others in a future edition of private human rights drafts, that I started with my compilation of about 100 such drafts in PEACE PLANS 589/590. Freedom lovers have for all too long re= lied on the flawed and incomplete Bills of Rights conceded by governments or compiled largely by unionists, statists, nationalists and welfarists like those assembled in the UN. Between them they have much better ideas to offer - but they have still to discuss them extensively.
I would be interested also in reproducing the list of = files available on THE RATIONAL ANARCHIST BBS. But you offer them only in a zipped format & I do not know whether I can handle that.
Are they automatically unzipping upon a single simple command that is mentioned? Or do I need special software for this?
In your paper: COMMUNITIES, CONTRACTS AND LIBERTARIANI= SM, first page, par. starting with Voluntary, there seems to be a typo: "<= span class=3DSpellE>wrt" - where a word like "owed" should rather stand.
Another type is in the second-last paragraph: "be= lieve" rather than "believe".
I am much impressed by your output, its range and stan= dard and congratulate you on it.
Have you got any idea on how many libertarian and anar= chist pages, e.g. in A4 format, are now altogether offered on the Internet?
Does anyone offer a close to complete listing?
I probably downloaded and printed out a few thousand p= ages so far, during the last year (most of my time is still spent upon expanding= my series) but am still unaware of what percentage of the total this constitut= es and how the total online output of this kind compares e.g. with
a) all the freedom writings, and other output, pu= blished or unpublished, in or out of print, in or out of copyrights, in paper manuscripts or reproductions,
b) hours of lectures and discussions on audio and video tapes,
c) on microfilms,
d) on floppy disks,
e) on text-only CD-ROMs
I believe that not only website options but also the microfilm, floppies and CD-Options are still vastly under-utilized - in spi= te of the advantages that they still do offer. On some aspects like accuracy of scanning, speed of scanning and print-out speed for long texts microfilm is still leading edge technology.
Alas, even on the Internet, so far no one has compiled= a table listing all the alternative media now affordable in their strengths a= nd disadvantages and comparing them with those of all others. If that were don= e, then many more would pick up their microfiche reading and publishing option= s to supplement their paper and online options. Efficient and more efficient competitors for long texts and whole small reference libraries would be flo= ppy disk books and CD-ROMs. Other electronic book options are still in the development stage and in that of promises and hopes.
Indeed, there is Gutenberg Press and Books on Line and= a few other options - but their total offer is still very small compared with the total of books that were ever written and published.
The instant availability of all texts is an ideal that= is far from being realized as yet and under these conditions the fast enough, = for most purposes, availability of all texts in affordable and efficient media = like the above c - e, by air mail, especially when they are pamphlet, magazine s= et or book-sized, would be quite satisfactory and attainable possibly faster t= han complete and permanent and reliable publishing on the IN, also more conveni= ent and cheaper for many long texts than are long downloads from the IN, often = in many segments, that cost in paper, toner and wear of the printer.
Probably no more than 100 - 300 activists like myself could provide, between them, complete, permanen= t and cheap freedom publishing, at least on microfiche. Can such a small number be found and motivated to tackle this objective? Can their efforts be suppleme= nted by onliners, floppy disk and CD-ROM freedom publishers? I hope so but can't wait forever for others to become sufficien= tly active in this way.
My annual page output increased 189 times by conversio= n from paper to microfiche. Since my fiche come to over 300 pages in the average, = my 70 fiche output p.a. comes to ca. 25,000 pages.
Naturally, that leads to the question: How many pro-fr= eedom pages were ever written and how many of them do still exist somewhere, in s= ome form?
I do believe the few people so far in the world, who h= ave voluntary community or panarchistic notions like you and me, should collabo= rate to make all the writings and discussions on these subjects sufficiently kno= wn. I recently updated my bibliography on them and it came to 56 pages. A compl= ete bibliography might come to over 500 - but such texts and references are not easy to find, not even through and on the Internet.
One part of this subject would be the recording, discu= ssion and finalizing the subject: Limited Government vs. No government, which has been relatively often taken up but nowhere concluded as yet. I know of no publication that compiled and commented upon all these discussions. Nor have many of these disputants recognized that both of them could have their way,= and the various statists as well, if they adopted the panarchistic alternative.=
Can too much be done in this sphere? I doubt it. After= all, a whole new political science is involved, a new kinds of ethics, protection and defence arrangements, a new kind of toleran= ce and enlightenment, a new kind of freedom of action and freedom to experiment.
Few human activities would remain unaffected, except p= erhaps the private actions diversity, in mutual tolerance, tha= t already largely exists now, at least in somewhat developed countries, for private life activities and private associations.
Your own writings and their style, as well as your interests, remind me somewhat of some other libertarian writers, namely And= re Spies, Frederick Mann and David T. Freeman. They might almost be pseudonyms= of the same person. You are probably familiar with them.
PIOT (Panarchy In Our Times or: To each the government or non-governmental society of his or = her dreams.)