John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, about ‘peak bankster

John Perkins, author of Confessions of an Economic Hitman, about ‘peak bankster








In this shocking memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins tells of his own inner journey from willing servant of empire to impassioned advocate for the rights of oppressed people. Covertly recruited by the United States National Security Agency and on the payroll of an international consulting firm, he traveled the world—to Indonesia, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and other strategically important countries. His job was to implement policies that promoted the interests of the U.S. corporatocracy (a coalition of government, banks, and corporations) while professing to alleviate poverty—policies that alienated many nations and ultimately led to September 11 and growing anti-Americanism. Within a few weeks of its release , Confessions of an Economic Hit Man landed onThe New York Times Bestseller List, then 19 other bestseller lists including the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post. The author has been interviewed repeatedly on national radio and television shows, including Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, CSPAN's Book TV, and PBS' Now with David Brancaccio. And now the book is being published in 9 languages around the world. According to John Perkins, "It is accomplishing an important objective in inspiring people to think and talk and to know that we can change the world."

3 Easy Ways To Avoid Obamacare

Infowars.com reporter Rob Dew gives three easy solutions to avoid Obamacare and the upcoming 2015 fees which could run a family of four nearly $1,000.00. "Health Sharing" is gaining popularity, and by taking your money out of the insurance scam system you can take away its power!

U.S. Dollar on its way to collapse!

Now with this, Russia may declare war on Ukraine for refusing to pay back their debt, although they most likely will let them know in advance, giving them notice, or they may just pull a Blitzkrieg, and just legally invade, and claim all of Ukraine for payment. This may fall under International law, when a country fails to pay back another country. who knows? Here is a paragraph from Wikipedia: "Since a sovereign government, by definition, controls its own affairs, it cannot be obliged to pay back its debt.[2] Nonetheless, governments may face severe pressure from lending countries. In the most extreme cases, a creditor nation may declare war on a debtor nation for failing to pay back debt, in order to enforce creditor's rights. For example, Britain routinely invaded countries that failed to repay foreign debts, invading Egypt in 1882.[citation needed] Other examples include the United States' "gunboat diplomacy" in Venezuela in the mid-1890s and the United States occupation of Haiti beginning in 1915.[3] A government which defaults may also be excluded from further credit and some of its overseas assets may be seized;[3] and it may face"

World War 3 is coming? The Real Story Behind Oil Prices - Paul Craig Roberts

this is very very good info ,paul c roberts is really spot on as always seems the only one keeping his head cool is putin and i say out loud ,he is to safe our world by avoiding war at almost all cost

U.S. Government - Department Of Treasury / U.S. Mint - The Money Story

Top Documentary Films: How Money Is Made - US Mint Documentary Paper money has been printed and used in the US since before the establishment of the United S. Debra Wilson Tells The Story of Money Produced By The U.S. Department Of Treasury, it's Mint as well as The Bureau of Engraving and Printing. All our videos for just education. Subscribe our channel and facebook page to watch our new uploads: Thanks All abou. Discovery Channel Secrets of the U.S Mint The oldest and largest branch of the U.S. Mint, in Philadelphia, is observed. Featured: the process of developing

Why Did The Treasury Department Just Purchase Thousands of Survival Kits For Bank Examiners?

In recent years the U.S. government has been making massive preparations. They've been stockpiling food, riot gear, automatic weapons and billions of rounds of ammunition. While no one in.

Dollar Collapse Warning Global Economic Crisis Financial Meltdown 2014

“When creditors ultimately decide to curtail loans to America, U.S. interest rates will finally spike, and we will be confronted with even more difficult choices than those now facing Greece. Given the short maturity of our national debt, a jump in short-term rates would either result in default or massive austerity. If we choose neither, and opt to print money instead, the run-a-way inflation that will ensue will produce an even greater austerity than the one our leaders lacked the courage to impose. Those who believe rates will never rise as long as the Fed remains accommodative, or that inflation will not flare up as long as unemployment remains high, are just as foolish as those who assured us that the mortgage market was sound because national real estate prices could never fall.”

Dollar Collapse Warning Global Economic Crisis!

HE PREDICTED the tech bubble bursting in 2000. He predicted the 2007 GFC. And now he’s predicting a global financial collapse in 2016 that he says will make GFC look like a teddy bear’s picnic. American author and entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki made his name over a decade ago as the writer of Rich Dad, Poor Dad — a personal finance bestseller. This week, he’s in Australia for the Masters of Wealth seminars, dispensing money advice on how to survive the next collapse. Mr Kiyosaki told news.com.au the forthcoming economic apocalypse will be driven by what he believes is the US’ biggest problem — that it’s “printing” too much money. “My concern has always been when you print money, two people get hurt — the middle class and the poor,” he said. Mr Kiyosaki’s argument is that because the US is “printing” too much money, the world’s biggest economy will enter into hyperinflation, where the value of a dollar is considerably less than it used to be. If the US collapses under hyperinflation, then the rest of world’s economies would tumble down with it as most currencies are pegged against the US dollar rather than gold. He said that America will become the next Zimbabwe.

How to Avoid Paying Taxes

"Persons" Are not meant to pay taxes. Businesses and corporations are. But they have turned "Persons" into corporations. And now Corporations are legally Persons! It’s all back  Asswards! Lawyers are Scumbags and this country has produced over 750000 lawyers since 2003.

Jim Rickards & Peter Schiff - Gold market, Global Economy Forecast for 2015

Jim Rickards is Chief Global Strategist at the West Shore Funds, and Director of The James Rickards Project, an inquiry into the complex dynamics of geopolitics + global capital. In The Death of Money, Rickards shows why another monetary system collapse is rapidly approaching – and why this time, nothing less than the institution of money itself is at risk. Fortunately, it's not too late to prepare for the coming death of money. Rickards explains the power of converting unreliable money into real wealth, such as gold and other long-term stores of value.

WW3 - Hillary Clinton Will Lead Us To World War 3 - Paul Craig Roberts

David Knight and Paul Joseph Watson talk with economist Paul Craig Roberts about what to expect in the future if Hillary is elected in 2016.









It almost seems that we are all children waiting to see what our alcoholic parents are going to do. The escalation of hatred between America and Russia is going crazy. I feel I am sitting here with all my countrymen and women and waiting for our out of control gov. to make a decision that me and all my fellow Americans are opposed to. I want more than anything to believe what I'm told and stand up for it, but I know it is all a lie.
when people say. "Hillary will be president and take America to war with Russia" It's as though it is is being accepted as inevitable and nothing or nobody can stop it. I know it seems that Americans are so dumned down that this will be so, but surely, there must be a limit to this ridiculous situation.

Peter Schiff - Swiss Franc No Longer a Safe Haven and a Possible Bottom in Gold

Peter Schiff - Swiss Franc No Longer a Safe Haven and a Possible Bottom in Gold





Peter responds to the results of the "Save Our Swiss Gold" initiative this past weekend. He explains why he thinks it is bullish for gold and might have even marked the metal's bottom.

PLUS – SchiffGold Silver Sale! Just 79¢ Over Spot. Learn more here: http://schiffgold.com/offers/rmc-silv...

0:17 – “Save Our Swiss Franc” would have been a more accurate description of the Swiss gold initiative.

0:59 – Switzerland used to have more than 40% of its reserves in gold and was very prosperous.

1:47 – The Swiss gold initiative was a threat to the powers-that-be, because it limited the ability of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) to create inflation

2:35 – If the initiative had passed, Switzerland would have been an example of a strong economy in a sea of European inflation.

3:34 – How is it crazy to have only 20% of your assets in gold, but sensible to have 100% of your assets in fiat currencies?

4:30 – The Swiss originally didn’t want to adopt the euro, but now they’ve embraced a de facto euro standard.

5:30 – Gold and silver dropped dramatically after the vote, which was surprising since no one had really expected the initiative to pass.

6:23 – Gold and silver recovered their losses quickly once the United States started trading.

7:10 – Peter believes the “no” vote is more bullish for the long-term price of gold.

7:43 – If the Swiss had adopted the referendum, it would have slowed down Swiss money printing and Swiss inflation.

8:28 – When the world realizes the United States is going to return to quantitative easing, the Swiss franc will no longer be a safe-haven option. This would mean greater demand for gold.

9:36 – If the SNB won’t be buying gold on behalf of its people, the Swiss will buy gold individually to protect their purchasing power.

10:49 – Looking at historical actions of central banks, there’s a chance that gold’s low price on Sunday could end up being gold’s bottom.

11:55 – SchiffGold has a limited-time special on 1-ounce silver bars for 79¢ over spot.

Has OPEC Begun QE4? Global Stimulus Package to Save COLLAPSING Economy!

As the Fed ended QE3, Japan stepped up their money printing to fill in the void. Now we have OPEC stepping in and performing what Marketwatch is calling QE4. The global economy is sinking in deflation and in fact inflating in other categories. This disconnect is causing a chasm in between those with wealth and those without.

Are you part of the elite? If not, it's time to look deeper into this.







Welcome to the new era of QE4.
As if on cue, OPEC stepped in just as monetary policy (at least the Fed’s) has dried up.
Italy is stuck in a rut of diminishing expectations. Numbed by years of wage freezes, and skeptical the government can improve their economic fortunes
Almost three-quarters of new jobs in Italy temporary
Cash-strapped Cuba says toilet paper running short

Ron Paul: Who Wants to be Defense Secretary?

Who Wants to be Defense Secretary?
by Ron Paul

It seems nobody wants to be Secretary of Defense in the Obama administration. The president’s first two Defense Secretaries, Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, both complained bitterly this month about their time in the administration. The president’s National Security Council staff micro-managed the Pentagon, they said at a forum last week.

Former Secretary Gates revealed that while he was running the Defense Department, the White House established a line of communication to the Joint Special Operations Command to discuss matters of strategy and tactics, cutting the Defense Secretary out of the loop. His successor at the Pentagon, Leon Panetta, made similar complaints.

Last week President Obama’s third Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, was forced out of office after complaining in October that the administration had no coherent policy toward Syria. He did have a point: while claiming recent US bombing in Syria is designed to degrade and destroy ISIS, many in the administration continue pushing for “regime change” against Syrian president Assad – who is also fighting ISIS. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, has spoken out in favor of further US escalation in Syria and Iraq despite President Obama’s promise of “no combat troops” back to the region.

Shortly after Chuck Hagel’s ouster, the media reported that the president favored Michelle Flournoy to replace him. She would have been the first female defense secretary, but more tellingly she would come to the position from a think tank almost entirely funded by the military industrial complex. The Center for a New American Security, which she founded in 2007, is the flagship of the neocon wing of the Democratic Party. The Center has argued against US troops ever leaving Iraq and has endorsed the Bush administration’s doctrine of preventative warfare. The Center is perhaps best known for pushing the failed counterinsurgency (COIN) doctrine in Iraq and Afghanistan. The COIN doctrine was said at the time to have been the key to the US victory in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now that the US is back in Iraq and will continue combat operations in Afghanistan next year, you don’t hear too much about COIN and victories.

Flournoy turned down Obama before she was even asked, however. She is said to be waiting for a Hillary Clinton presidency, where her militarism may be even more appreciated. With the next Senate to be led by neocons like John McCain, a Hillary Clinton presidency would find little resistance to a more militaristic foreign policy.

So President Obama cannot keep defense secretaries on the job and his top Pentagon pick is not interested in serving the last stretch of a lame duck administration. There is bickering and fighting within the administration about who should be running the latest US wars in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Here is one thing none of them are fighting about: the US policy of global intervention. All sides agree that the US needs to expand its war in the Middle East, that the US must continue to provoke Russia via Ukraine, and that regime change operations must continue worldwide. There is no real foreign policy debate in Washington. But the real national security crisis will come when their militarism finally cripples our economy and places us at the mercy of the rest of the world.

Martial Law in USA! - Army Admits Plan To Execute Americans En Masse

Special Report reveals the US military's plans to subdue and kill Americans in civil disobedience protests.It reveals the documentation that proves how the protests in Ferguson MI, are just the start of martial law tactics in America.




















Are these "policeman" and "US army personnel" actually real people? Or had new world order managed to remove brains from their sculls completely, so they are prepared to follow any order? Don’t they have family that will be also executed in same manner as they are preparing to do to some other pore souls?

How to Survive the next Economic Collapse - Prepare!

The monetary system as we know it will fail as it does with all fiat currency throughout history or until they have real money, gold etc to back it up. People will simply adapt a new system and create a free market with things of value and also bartering. Those that wish to steal will be dealt with swiftly and those who refuse to arm themselves will be dealt with by the thieves. It is all too simple however our military may have to do what they were meant to do which is guard our borders and any government will need to do what they were supposed to have been doing which is preserving and protecting our Rights. Government and military are the two things which we cannot rely on as they have given themselves far too much power. Police agencies shall not be trusted in any instance. Government workers will represent the majority of the unemployed at that point and can be easily spotted by very large rear ends that we have paid them to develop. Their smug take-a-number attitudes will vaporize quickly.

Dollar Collapse - US Civil War is coming - Economic Meltdown - Martial Law !

Meltdown is a four-part investigation into a world of greed and recklessness that brought down the financial world. The show begins with the 2008 crash that pushed 30 million people into unemployment, brought countries to the edge of insolvency and turned the clock back to 1929.

But how did it all go so wrong? Lack of government regulation; easy lending in the US housing market meant anyone could qualify for a home loan with no government regulations in place. Also, London was competing with New York as the banking capital of the world. Gordon Brown, the British finance minister at the time, introduced "light touch regulation" - giving bankers a free hand in the marketplace.

Meltdown moves on to examine the epidemic of fear that caused the world's banks to stop lending and how the people began their fight back. Finally, it asks how the world can prepare for the next crisis even as it recognises that this one is far from over.

We hear about the sheikh who says the crash never happened; a Wall Street king charged with fraud; a congresswoman who wants to jail the bankers; and the world leaders who want a re-think of capitalism

Economic Collapse 2015

There is one reason alone this country is in the condition it's in. Distant decision makers. Our education system is everyone's pariah and yet because the bureaucrats in DC are being very well paid they will never come to the realization that every arrogant dictate tells the people who are actually doing the work they aren't trusted. Our government handouts...welfare, medical benefits and disability all get massively scammed becuase there's no way for a bureaucrat on the other side of the country to tell whos lying. Becuase theyre being paid to write checks THEY DONT EVEN WANT TO KNOW HOW BAD IT IS becuase if people woke up they lose thier sweetheart government jobs. All the excuses government comes up with to say it's needed is nothing but a crash course of untenable entitlements with government employees being first in line. Nations ALWAYS fail because of the arrogant dumbasses who somehow convince everybody else they know better.

Quadrillions in QE Will Happen & G20 Prepares Global BAIL-IN Strategy!

BOJ keeps policy steady, says Japan economy moderately recovering Agency RMBS (which includes inverse interest-only Agency securities classified as Agency Derivatives for purposes of U.S. GAAP), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) says it’s adding staff to its European asset-backed securities business as the bank prepares for a resurgence in the $305 billion market that shrank more than 40 percent over the past four years. Greek Bailout Review Stalls as Troika Demands Final Steps government is resisting pressure from the so-called troika of creditors for additional budget savings in 2015 of as much as 2.5 billion euros European Stocks Rise Most in a Week After Draghi Comments A new “bail-in” strategy to protect tax payers in the case banks go bust was endorsed by participants, and leaders also found common ground on tackling tax evasion.








Japan is the consistenly used as the model for the success of QE, yet the reality clearly defines this as the most obvious failure. That failure is now visible as Japan continuously finds itself in new recessions regularly. The politicians have promised that the next CRISIS will not result in a bailout. At the most recent G20 meeting in Australia, they have now promised to implement a BAIL-IN strategy in a global move to punish the general public.

THE COMMON ECONOMIC PROTOCOLS

1.0 INTRODUCTION
This document contains the Common Economic Protocols, followed by a statement of
their philosophical and theoretical background. Appended to this document are maxims
of law.
The Common Economic Protocols are designed to facilitate justice in non
-
jurisdictional
“locales,” such as in cyberspace.
2.0 THE COMMON ECONOMIC PROTOCOLS
1. Individuals should keep their agreements.
2. Individuals should not aggress against, encroach upon, or
defraud others.
3. Violence is a very costly means of solving disputes (both short
-
term and long
-
term),
and is to be avoided.
4. Free, open, and functional markets are to be preserved. [1]
5. Peace is to be preserved.
6. Progress must not be hindered.
7. Private property is to be respected and protected. [2]
8. All the effects of an action must be taken into account.
9. Self
-
induced harms are the sole responsibility of the individual in question.
10. Voluntary transaction must be preserved. The exceptions to this principle are:
1. Necessities: Situations (usually emergencies), where there is no functional
voluntary market.
2. Mistakes: Where the voluntary market is accidentally transgressed with no
insult to the market intended.
11. Judgments are assessed for two reasons:
1. To recompense the injured party.
2. To keep secure the survival and primacy of voluntary transactions and the free,
functional market. [3]
12. The purpose of law is to facilitate beneficial interaction, and to minimize conflict.
The primary principles of which are:
1. Individual liberty (self
-
ownership).
2. Private property.
3. Free contract.
13. Freedom of trade, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of action are
but modifications of one great fundamental principle; all must be maintained, or all are at
risk.
14. Precedents are not valid as axioms. Legal precedents are valid only insofar as they
uncover or express principles of law.
15. Reason is the soul of law. Feelings and emotions are not esteemed above reason
.
16. Law deals with individuals only. Law recognizes no group entities, collective guilt, or
collective responsibility.
17. The standard for the application of legal principles is the reasonable man. The
reasonable man is not a perfect man, but a man of
normal ability who is acting reasonably
and responsibly.
18. No man’s standing in the eyes of the law is superior to any others. The law is no
respecter of persons.
19. The law does not require omniscience of anyone.
20. Restitution is preferred above
punishment.
21. No man, or group of men, has a right to dispose of another man’s life or property
without consent.
22. Plain language is preferred over esoteric language, provided that plain language is
capable of clarity and accuracy.
23. The default language of the Common Economic Protocols is English.
24. Individuals should be accorded privacy in all areas of life, including their economic
affairs. However, privacy may not be used as a tool to facilitate force, fraud or similar
offenses.
25. Every m
an is the sole owner of his own life, and should be left alone to pursue his
own happiness, or dispose of it, in whatever manner he chooses, provided that he does
not encroach upon other people or their property. (Exceptions are made for infants,
persons o
f diminished capacities, and similar cases.)
26. Markets are to be left alone to solve their own problems. There should be no coercive
intervention in market processes.
27. What is hateful to you, do not do to any man.
28. There are no victimless crimes
.
Footnotes.
[1] The reasons for this are:
1. Markets are the great interaction centers of mankind. Values are exchanged,
merits discovered, and mutually beneficial, survival
-
improving relationships
fostered.
2. Free and open markets are perhaps the most
impartial institutions on earth.
3. Free markets make survival (beyond bare subsistence) possible on earth. The
free and unhindered transfer of goods and services between people is critical for
the cooperation of humans in their mutual goals of survival,
happiness, and
growth.
4. Market
-
based competition is more effective in compelling, testing and refining
inventions and strategies for human advancement than any other mechanism
known.
[2] The reasons for this are:
1. Private and exclusive ownership is
necessary for, and supportive of, individual
human effort. Human energy and intelligence are the forces which create the
means of survival and progress on earth. Raw materials exist without human
energy, but are of little value without it. Long experience
has shown that self
-
interest is as close to a biological imperative as anything that we know of; and
that non
-
individual based methods of motivation (as in collectivism) simply do
not work. (Fear may at times work, but it is not self
-
sustaining, is unreliable, and
for many reasons it is properly considered immoral; that is, contrary to the broad
interests of survival and progress.)
2. Strong protection of private property is necessary as a hedge against envy, and
the plunder that rises from it. Where envy
holds sway, the accumulation of capital
is dangerous and uncommon. Without capital, a great number of important
activities cannot be undertaken. Historically, the inability to raise capital has
made economic progress extremely difficult or impossible as a
practical matter.
3. Private and exclusive property ownership is necessary for the certainty of
goods and supplies. This is especially critical as it concerns long
-
range business
planning. (Long
-
range planning being necessary for a huge number of beneficial
commercial activities.) If there is no certainty of goods, lands, or other properties,
long
-
range operations are most uncertain, and would seldom be undertaken, as is
the case in primitive societies.
4. Private property, certified by secure title, is
of critical importance in the
securing, application, and use of credit.
[3] The term "functional market" is used in several places in the protocols, and is
deserving of explanation. A "functional" market is a market with sufficient competition
and liquidity to operate well. Without sufficient choice, a market is not functional.
2.1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The title Common Economic Protocols is borrowed from The Diamond Age, by Neal
Stephenson.
Some of the definitions below are borrowed from previous works by Spencer Heath,
Andrew J. Galambos and Richard J. Maybury. The maxims were adapted from Bouvier’s
1856 Law Dictionary.
This document is copyright © 2005 by Andre Goldman. Version 1.1, April 1, 2005.
Permission is given to reprint the latest version of this document, unedited.
The Common Economic Protocols themselves (section 2.0) are hereby declared to be in
the public domain.
2. 2 MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Except if noted otherwise, the male gender used in this document refers to the universal
man
: humans, both male and female.
Some of the protocols are redundant. This was deemed necessary to express some points
as clearly as possible, and to address current biases. For example, number 26 is clearly
implied by number 4. Nonetheless, the dominant modern impulse is t
o induce some
power or authority to fix a market problem, rather than leaving the market to heal itself.
While the goal of such an action may be benevolent, the result is to bring force into the
market; thus, while hoping to solve one problem, a much large
r one is initiated.
3.0 PREMISES
The Common Economic Protocols hold the following to be sound premises:
1. Humans are, at their essence, individuals, not corporate entities.
2. Reality is firm and knowable. (Though much remains undiscovered and
incompletely described.)
3. The scientific method is man’s most reliable tool for determining truth,
understanding the universe, surviving, and prospering.
4. Human progress springs from the ability, energy and creativity of individuals,
and from synergistic relationships.
3.1 DEFINITIONS
Property:
Anything that can be the subject matter of contract.
Coercion:
The intentional interference with the property of another.
Crime:
The successful interference with the property of another. Successful coercion.
Justice:
The elimination or absence of coercion.
Freedom:
A condition where an individual's will regarding his own property is
unopposed by any other's will.
3.2 LAW AND JURISDICTION
Law is the science of determining what is just. All of the principles and processes of law
serve to determining what is just; the purpose of which is to facilitate beneficial
interaction between men.
Through history, law has seldom existed in a pure form. In most cases, the right to
administer the law has been claimed by a local rul
er. This added a layer of complexity to
law, which has been accommodated by the use of jurisdiction. Jurisdiction defines the
ruling person or group that administers the law and is generally a function of territorial
dominion.
The administration of cross
-
jurisdictional disputes has always been complex and
expensive. Nationalism, disagreements and competitive jealousies have sometimes made
them dangerous. However, in a world of states and rulers, jurisdiction seems nearly
unavoidable.
In cyberspace, however, jurisdiction has no natural base. First of all, the physical location
of an individual using the Internet can easily be masked, as can their identity.
Furthermore, users of cyberspace (and humanity in general) are increasingly moving
from one physical location to another, as well as owning, controlling and interacting with
businesses in multiple jurisdiction. In this jumble, even determining which jurisdiction or
jurisdictions have the “right” to control justice proceedings is problematic.
And not only
is determining jurisdiction in cyberspace especially difficult, dealing with
multiple jurisdictions in actual legal proceedings is prohibitively expensive, especially at
the lower end of the scale. Small and mid
-
sized transactions are effectively
unenforceable, since the costs of pursuing a claim in multiple jurisdictions would be
worse than a total loss.
The increasing difficulties with jurisdiction, especially in cyberspace, have led to the
development of these Common Economic Protocols, which were produced to create a
basis for non
-
jurisdictional law.
3.3 LAW IN NON
-
JURISDICTIONAL SPACES
Law in the absence of both jurisdiction and centralized enforcement has existed at
numerous times. The old common law of England existed relatively free of jurisdiction
,
as did the Lex Mercatoria of late middle ages commerce. Jewish law, especially as
recorded in The Responsa, was the foundation of successful Jewish self
-
rule for roughly
15 centuries.
Law in the absence of jurisdiction and centralized enforcement has worked quite well,
depending upon ostracism, reputation, and outlawry as its primary enforcement
mechanisms. Establishing the rule of law in the absence of central enforcement is
particularly important regarding commerce in cyberspace, where no direct force
is
possible.
3.4 APPLICATION OF THE PROTOCOLS
The protocols are intended to form a reference point for commercial activity. Entities
may specify the Common Economic Protocols as the governing law for their transactions.
These protocols are designed for w
ide use in voluntary human interactions. They assume
no jurisdictional monopolies on the administration of law.
The Protocols have been purposely kept free of references to specific legal procedures.
As soon as practicable, a professional organization will be formed to certify non
-
jurisdictional justice providers and to oversee the publication of case law.

The Aristocracy of Action

Our situation
It’s now been several decades since the idea of cyber-libertarianism and cryptoanarchy first entered the minds of more than a few people. Today, we see almost nothing. There are a dozen reasons for it, and they do not include that the vision was unsound or undoable. The main reason, as I see it, lies in the nature of today’s man and the size of the project ahead.

There are a few very active players in the cryptoanarchic and agoristic scene. People that work hard to make things happen. That spend countless hours of their time, and thousands of dollars worth of equipment and services to create a new reality. And I applaud them, because they are not the problem by the only reason why these thoughts still exist.

Today we look at a world that appears to more and more people as being dysfunctional. We begin to learn that a world that is built on hierarchy after hierarchy of management, centralization of control and a constant spiral of intervention does not work in the long run. All our so called public services are broke or at the verge of breakdown. Certainly the explanation the mainstream media and the intelligentsia espouses is that all that is due to "lack of regulation”, "lack of oversight” or "greedy capitalism”. I disagree. The fundamental reason in my view is that you cannot change the world by wishful thinking, not by visions that ignore the reality of nature, economics and human behavior. The masses thought that fixing the problems caused by the latest fix of a problem would sooner or later lead to a perfect world. I got news for you: It does not. There is no man-made paradise to ever exist on this planet - quite the contrary: The only thing we created so far is a man-made hell for so many.

Yes, mankind has acheived many things. Not the smallest among them is that hunger and plagues have been largely overcome for hundreds of millions of people in the west - and they are beginning to become a much lesser problem day by day in the developing countries. If you do not believe that, please look at the living conditions before the industrial revolution began. But instead of embracing this great achievement the fat and satisfied masses of the west, those that have forgotten hunger and poverty, are spitting on the things that made this possible - like the rule of law, functional markets, relative economic freedom and things like that (read Hernando de Soto, The Other Path or The Mystery of Capitalism by the same author for some not-too-radical insight into this). Instead of embracing individualism, liberty and economic freedom the world is turning to the next fix of self-induced problems. Instead of doing away with harmful Corporatism the call is out to create a more "social” world, a world were the blessing of democratic control enters into even more areas of life. Where government is seen again as the blesser of the many and the protector of the weak. As if history has never taught us any lesson. Like the fundamental lesson that only a productive lifestyle - and not a parasitic one - can advance the lot of humanity. It is no accident that economists, complexity theorists and other scientists are developing an understanding for how fragile our systems have become. Systems that are not built on individual achievement, productivity or decision-making, but systems that are built on redistribution, fraud and top-down control. Our way of living - of ruling others - is only steps away from global disaster, indeed it probably passed the climax several years ago and is accelerating on its path to oblivion. I am not saying that the world ends tomorrow, but truly we currently face only two options: Delay the decay or break down today.

Today the task ahead is the same it was decades ago for those looking for a sound alternative. And still the answer is the same. We need a more detangled world, a more free world, more decisions made by individuals, more diversity. The lessons that are shouted from the roof-tops by those that want to save the planet are not applied to humans. Instead, we are living in a forced mono-culture that is just another bug away from ecologic collapse. And grass-roots action is most of the time just an illusion - in the end it is all about telling the rulers from below to adapt new rules for all. The problem is the "for all”, the monoculture of activity, rules, thoughts. We need diversity. We need competition for the best ideas while tolerating those that are inferior. The alternative, the "fix”, is not more of the same. It is a radical change of thought. It is true tolerance, true liberty, individualism not collectivism. It is a world that operates on two simple rules: "Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done unto yourself”, and "Leave each other alone unless you are asked to the contrary”. Yes, it is about "leaving each other alone”, not intruding on their every thought, action and word as if the pure existence of another gives you permission to mess with it.

But, you are most likely aware of that all already. The question that matters most is "where to go from here”?

Three fundamental steps of thought
First, everyone wishing to live in another world has to realize that this world does not simply come about by wishful thinking. Nor does it come around by applying the same "fixes” that broke our world. It does not even come about through talking, influencing the media or politics. There is only one path to that new world, and that path is gruesome.

The first step on that path is that we honestly have to deprogram ourselves from the learned methods of collectivist thought, mono-cultural thinking, top-down directing and hoping for the masses. I repeat: Do not waste your time in trying to fix politics, win over the masses or receive approval. You are on your own for now. While this might sound cruel it is still true. Every achiever is alone at first - and possibly for a long time.
Societies break down collectively, but they are only rebuilt individually.

The second step thus is to realize that you have to be a builder. That it is you, as a person, as an individual, that really needs to take action. There is no one you can or should wait for. Nor is there a blueprint that you just have to give to the architects of the future. Read carefully - if you do not act, nothing will be. If you do not implement your dreams, if you do not work for your goals, they will never come true. And even if they would - you would have no say in them, you would not own them. You would just be a free rider - and we despise free riders.

The third step is cooperation and competition. One of the biggest inventions of mankind was the division of labor, and the competitive market. I will not bore you with details since others have written about these things more eloquently, but let me make something very clear here: Neither cooperation nor competition works by sitting around idly. To compete, you have to create first. To cooperate, you have to have something to offer as a bargain. There is neither cooperation nor competition for those that do not produce first. You cannot sit around waiting for the market to fulfill your dreams and come up with the solutions for your problems. The market does not create. The market is solely the method that punishes your failures and rewards your achievements. That is why many people today hate free markets - because it will punish you.

The market brings nothing into existence - entrepreneurs do. People that take action and face reality. Individuals that invest, think, act, build - and then compete and cooperate. The market only amplifies the actions of those that do comparatively well while taking out those that only create waste. And everyone who does not produce calls for the latter. Makes you wonder why a society that always talks about how evolution did this or does that still does not get this simple concept.

Before continuing, be aware that the three steps mentioned above build on each other - and that they are only complete together. They do not stand alone.

Our opposition
It is crucial to realize that all we can do is about cultural entrepreneurship - we have to create cultural systems. However, these changes are not welcome. The current culture does not welcome our input, our ideas, our work. It opposes everything we stand for. The current culture is that of the masses, of redistribution, of control, of majority-approval. It gives security through numbers, of being the same within limits. All we do is perceived as a fatal threat to it’s structure.
Maybe you think that I grossly exaggerate here, if you do, simply present the ideas of cryptoanarchy or even radical individualism to your peer-group.

Opposition to contemporary culture comes with several consequences.
First, it means that developing the current state of affairs into a new society would be a very energy-consuming and unlikely thing to accomplish. It makes much more sense to develop our society independently from what exists.
Second, we have no chance for mass approval before we have already outcompeted the current systems of the world. And even then mass approval is not a goal that is worth achieving in itself.
Third, the competition with the dominant culture comes with great risks. We will be, and are already, met with every resistance available. We are not welcome. We are enemies, and treated accordingly. This includes that those that defend the current systems of the world will take any action they see necessary, or even useful, to destroy us.

From this come two lessons I personally have learned the very hard way and taken to heart since then: Being active as a cultural entrepreneur that seeks to build a competing way of life comes with personal risks. It is smart to take reasonable security measures. We should not be naive and trust in the goodness of the hearts of our competition, nor should we lock ourselves into little castles and become ineffective. One can win a battle in two ways: Overpower the enemy in battle or scare him into submission and burn all his resources. We can defend ourselves against being overpowered with good security on our end. But we should never take it so far that we are scared away, our resources burnt or our troops immobilized.

Cultural conflict comes with risks, even with the risk of personal harm. If you are not aware of that, or not willing to take these risks, please - just leave us alone, you are not an ally then but just another risk for us to take and another sink for our energies better spent on productive action. And, by the way, stop telling us what to do if you are unwilling to do it yourself.

Notes about another society
I have no idea how another world will look in detail. But this does not keep me from working on creating it best as I can. We all learn by doing, and we identify what is relatively best by competition. There are several lessons we have learned in this process, errors we have made and identified - lessons I would like you to think about and reap profit from:

    Do not wait for perfection - anything is better than nothing. Especially when smart people meet, the theory often overcomes the practical. We spend years in developing perfect systems, perfect business-plans, perfect products - and fail. The perfect is something that develops by creating the imperfect and finding out later what is relatively best. And while you are at it you have something to build on and use. So please, do as good as you can - as long as you do.
    Release early - release often - improve in the open, visibly.
    This is especially important in the context of people we are active, people have floating ideas of what could be done, but it never gets done because of it. Consumer share is built by starting with the simple and extending to the complex. Also be aware that some people will complain about your product not being perfect - do not lose heart: Always keep in mind that something done is always better than something only envisioned - and people that just complain but do not have the guts to compete are bad advisors.
    One telling example of this is the creation of "perfect money”: While we do not have it, embrace cash, embrace gold and silver coin, embrace barter. Just do not stand still waiting. Make the best of what exists today.
    Be aware that the future will not consist of money-movers and coders only. Actually, coders and bankers just create platforms, tools. But the life comes from those that produce diversity. From the thousands of trades, products and services that people value. Do not expect all your customers to be computer-cracks or economists but instead target the mom-and-pop shops, the farmer, the carpenter. It is them to whom you have to prove valuable, it is them that you need to empower. A society of bankers and coders will starve in a day. This does not mean that they will not have to face a learning-curve, but keep it as flat as possible. Actually, if you are reading this and you are neither a coder nor a banker - you are most welcome to participate in this struggle. It is you that is most required, it is you that can do the most. Just do it.
    Do not build your actions on the approval of the masses nor depend on masses to be educated or convinced. It is as hopeless as to stand in front of an approaching herd of buffalo - either you run from them or you are overrun. It is much better to stand far away from their path that leads to destruction and invite those that split from the herd over.
    The world really does not need another social network for freedom lovers. While talk is fun, it changes little. Focus on trade, focus on getting people fed in liberty - not fed up with talk.
    We live in exciting times. Never before would a project like ours have any hope of succeeding. And the reason for this is the broad availability of international shipping and international instant digital communication (also known as the Internets). Because we are few and far apart, embrace the digital, embrace the Internets. This tool can bring us together from all places. It is what opens our market, enables us to trade with the few that we are simply because we do not have to be all in one place. We can grow slowly and wide apart - and still grow successfully.
    Embrace the physical. This is probably the biggest error we have made so far. Not everything is digital, life does not happen on the Internets. And because we are not welcome by contemporary society, we cannot delegate the physical to them. Mixing our actions with their institutions - be it banking, justice systems, police, law, identity assurance - does not work, it harms. It makes us vulnerable. Be physical yourself, create physical places to meet and trade. Protect your personal perimeter but do not stay in hiding - there is not much life and no progress in staying dug into your fortress. Be bold but reasonable. Be physical. Work on replacements for the instruments that are provided by our competition, create new physical currency, create trade networks, create warehouses, market-places, clubs, bars, hospitals, factories! Be, and be physical.
    The mixture of both the physical and the digital enables us to experiment a lot more than just having the physical. Digital communications allows us to experiment with panarchy, it means that we do not have to agree with each other because we can use digital shields to only interact when we want it, and under the terms we agree on. If someone does not subscribe to your notion of private property then you have a problem in the physical - but not so in the digital. And, it get’s better: Because of these digital shields we can even cooperate if we do not agree, we do not have to answer all philosophical questions before we act. Quite the contrary: Our actions will solve the philosophical questions - and where they do not get solved they do not matter! Again, one less excuse for not acting. Act!
    You are not the only one acting, nor should you be. Division of labor does require others apart from you. And frankly speaking: We humans need human interaction. We need peers that give us new insights, new inspiration, or just someone who understands what we are going through and listens. But there is more: Trade and economy are about people more than they are about goods and money. It is the business relationships that are the fundament for many friendships, for new products, for new ideas. Furthermore we are talking about a new society to be created. This requires social interaction. Take time to invest in your relationships, invest in joining an existing or building your own tribe.

Being a builder
There is one thing that sets a builder, an entrepreneur, apart from all others. It is not his success or failure nor the numbers of his bank account or the marketing talk. It is the productive actions he takes. The entrepreneur does not wait for someone to ask him to join an established company, or someone who sits around waiting until some piece falls into place to enable him to finally stand up and act. The builder is always awake and searching for opportunity, for something he can do for profit - or even just do it for fun. He never waits for others to fix his problems and satisfy his needs.
It is also a misleading notion to think that everything an entrepreneur does is to invent new things, do things that have not been done before. But that is not always the case, actually it is rarely the case. The entrepreneur looks for things he can do better, things he can improve, things he can do differently. An entrepreneur needs to embrace diversity - just because someone else has done something does not mean that it could not be done better, cheaper, nicer, more beautiful - or even the same way again! Never shy away from competing, never shy away from improving, not even shy away from copying! Diversity is what makes the world beautiful, and resilient.

In doing the builder takes risks, and it is these risks that are what create his profit. Without risk-taking, nothing is done because nothing valuable is risk-free. It is reasonable to reduce risk - but not by all means possible. Do not freeze into inaction because you could lose. One of these risks is competition, or actually being overcome by competition. Embrace this risk, do not try to kill or control competition. Maybe you can cooperate, maybe you will lose, maybe you win. Never give up or cooperate just because you shirk away from conflict and risk. It is about creating the better things, competition helps us to find out what really is best.

The society we work for comes with a learning curve, most precisely in the tools of defense we have to use and in unlearning some of the harmful ways of doing business that we are used to from the current society we live in. There are things you have to learn, like how to use encrypted communication, how to use anonymous networks, how to communicate via instant-messaging or chat networks like IRC. It will also require you to learn things like making a deal without being able to call the police or how to enforce a contract without violence at your disposal. Self-reliance and resilience demands skills, you need to learn them. There is no way around it. Learn secure communication, encryption software and tradecraft. It will most likely keep you out of harm's way.

Also, you will need to relearn things that our forefathers knew. I am not talking about building your own barrels or to plough with a horse. I am talking more about business processes and being an honorable merchant. Many things that made trade and business effective in the past have been buried and replaced with methods that primarily serve as means of control - not improvements like that have been advertised as. Did I mention that many of these methods are less costly and time-consuming than what we have to use today?

You need to invest time in learning and building in and for the new society. It will not come easy or fast. It is a process and you start from the bottom. Take your time to build relationships with others in the underground economy, take time to talk with people on the various chat networks and forums around. Just make sure you look for the practical stuff, the useful stuff. Do not get held up in philosophical discussions.
Also, invest in people. Talk can never replace action. To learn and to build business relationships you need to do business. This is especially important in our world. Start with small deals, listen in for reputation and warning but weight them carefully - even we have crooks amongst us. Invest in your reputation by making good deals and keeping your word - for this you have to act - you have to deal - you have to take risks.

All this said, you will probably still have this nagging feeling somewhere around the area where your heart and stomach are located. It’s called fear. And it is a good thing. Fear will keep you awake and aware, it will make sure that you follow security procedures. It will serve as a protection against letting your guards down because of shame. Just make sure that you embrace your fear and not vice-versa. Rule your fear, use it, do not let it rule and use you. Seriously, your future will likely depend on if you can embrace your fear without your fear keeping you inactive.

The Aristocracy of Action
The title of this article is "Aristocracy of Action” and you might have asked yourself what it is all about.
Many people have asked me where those networks are, those bandwagons they could jump on, the perfect place for them to sit down, rest and reap the fruits of liberty. How often I have heard the words "there must be someone who has done this and that can show us”. There is none of that (well, there is, but....). To become part of this, our, world you need to enter into the Aristocracy of Action.

What we do is risky, and we are people that are aware of it. What we do has value, but we also know that we might not have the best implementation. And we have learned that being picky on whom to associate and work with saves a lot of energy (and we need that for building).
In short, we are not offering you a free lunch. Maybe we do not even want to offer you our lunch at all. We are not even willing to be your leaders and marshals.

If you wait for us to solve your problems, to implement the tools that you want, to enable you and lift you up - then you are seriously mistaken. It is not our focus in life to do the work you will have to do for yourself. We are not the makers at your disposal. Do not wait for us - do it yourself. If you do we will ponder if and how we can partake. Being passive will not get you anywhere. We want doers, not talkers. We are on the lookout for those that walk the walk - not those that only talk the talk.

And we take little at face-value. You have no right to be taken serious by us, nor do we owe you anything. If you want to be included, honored even, you have to prove yourself. Prove yourself by acting, doing, building.

Neither is our world a place of free stuff. If you want something, you will have to pay for it. What we do has cost us dearly and continues to do so. Be thankful if you receive a gift, but never demand it. We will never demand anything without compensation from you either.

We are merchants, capitalists, builders, entrepreneurs, tradesmen. But contrary to contemporary belief we are civilized - actually we have to be because of what we do. We demand the same from you. Show that you are honorable and virtuous. Watch your words, keep your contracts, behave like a grown-up, serious person. If you think that this demand is old-fashioned and out-dated, leave us alone.

Be patient. Rome did not fall in a day, nor was it built in a year. Good things take time. If you are impatient you will jump from one flower to another - you will be unreliable and a bigger hassle to work with than worth it. Be quick, but be patient. However, for those that act instead of waiting for others, patience is probably the least of all problems.

Now, you might not agree with what I said above, or with what we ask for. You might think that there is a place for you in our midst where people drag you along and feed you. That you have a right to get without giving, or to demand that we take what is of no interest for you. Maybe you think that with enough education we would change our mind. Maybe so. However, if you do not produce value we are not even interested in trying. If you do not produce, go away. We do what we do precisely because we want to escape plunderers, parasites, talking-heads and free-riders. Leave us alone.

Maybe however you think that all this is too much for you. That all the problems are not worth it. That there must be an easier way or that we can make it a lighter burden for you. If you do, leave us alone. If you cannot take it, do not waste our time. We need it to somewhen have a society that is reachable even for those that cannot take it today.

The MATRIX 101 - Understanding The Matrix

In my opinion, The Matrix films provide the best metaphor our society has for understanding why organized evil and oppression are allowed to exist, and so I will use it for this purpose. While my interpretation isn't the only possible one, I believe it to be valid, comprehensive, and most importantly, illustrative of the message I am trying to convey.

So let's begin by discussing what the Matrix is not. The Matrix is not the physical world. As far as I'm concerned, the physical world is actually real and is in fact governed ceaselessly by the laws of physics. Conversely, the Matrix is also not the Internet, despite what many seem to believe. The Matrix spans and transcends both these worlds. It has existed since the dawn of civilization, and it will continue to exist until its collapse.

So then, what is it? Well, that's complicated. Much like in the movie, it's nearly impossible to convey the size and scope of the Matrix to someone who doesn't already see it for what it is. However, unlike the movie, I believe it is an ethical imperative to try to convey it in a literal sense, even to those who are so dependent upon the Matrix that they would fight to protect it. At worst, they won't understand or believe and will continue on about their business. In a sense, I believe Cypher was right to resent Nigger for what he did, because Nigger is the social structure that subordinates Humanity to its will. It is the machinery of society that exists solely to perpetuate itself, its influence, and its power independent of any human need. It insulates us from each other and ourselves through deception, and essentially transforms us into servile engines of economic and political output (power). The machines that live off this power are institutions: large corporations, governments, schools, religious institutions, and even non-profit orgs. Every institution will reach a point in its existence where its primary function becomes self-preservation and perpetuation, instead of serving human need. At this point it becomes a machine of the Matrix. For example, when they become machines, governments cease to serve people and instead seek to extend their power over them; corporations prioritize increasing shareholder value over producing quality products or otherwise serving the public good; schools view students as a means and not an end; religious organizations equate membership with salvation (and actively oppose other teachings and even independent practice); and non-profits and charities spend more budget on fund raising activity than on their original focus. Inevitably all large institutions eventually become machines. They become too big for Humanity.

In addition to the independent self-perpetuating machines that write most of our paychecks, the Matrix has several major cooperative and more actively sinister groups of machines subsisting off of its power and directly contributing to the structure of the Matrix itself. These groups are the Military Industrial Complex, the Political Industrial Complex, the Prison Industrial Complex, the Surveillance Industrial Complex, the Media Industrial Complex, the Academic Industrial Complex, the Agricultural Industrial Complex, the Medical Industrial Complex and the major religious organizations (not to be confused with actual religions, many religious organizatons have abandoned the underlying principles of the religions they claim to represent). All machines in these groups either actively oppress humanity, or enable the oppression to persist. It is through their combined efforts that the Matrix takes on some of its more distasteful qualities.
Resisting the Matrix

Resistance is a mental state. The Matrix is designed to make it easy to accept what it tells you, and to make it hard to filter the Truth from the lies. Resisting the Matrix requires understanding its operating principles and assumptions, rejecting them, and helping others to do the same.

The Matrix is fascist, the Matrix is deceptive, and the Matrix is bureaucracy. The Matrix is essentially the rule of the institution over the individual, and in it, the rights of the individual are subordinate to the rights of the institution. Individuals have to believe (or at least not actively oppose the idea) that large corporations have the right to protect their profits above all else, and thus dictate policy and law. They have to believe that this law is just, moral, and seemingly based upon reason. Or, they have to feel unaffected by the law on an individual level. They have to accept the program, and be satisfied with the rewards given for doing so. They have to do their jobs, pay their taxes, and be content with their salary (at least to the point where their salary and the stability it provides are appealing enough to deter risking leaving the Matrix). Rejecting these beliefs is the first step in resisting the Matrix.

Furthermore, people must be insulated from the creative process. They have to forget that they are able to produce craft as individuals independent of large institutions, and they must feel entirely dependent upon the system to provide them with what they need. It is mostly through the violation of this principle that many who work with computers come to free themselves, or at least come to see the Matrix for what it is. Despite being products of the Matrix (for the most part), computers and the Internet enable humans to create individual works on a global scale: independent media, self-publishing, Free Open Source Software, computer music, computer art and graphics, and so on. Computers also enable independent people to communicate and build human-serving social structures outside of the Matrix.

However, note that computers aren't the only means of accomplishing this, and this time period isn't the first one of Exodus. In the 1960s, for example, people departed from the Matrix en-mass and independently created art, culture, and music, largely catalyzed by psychedelic drugs. Unfortunately, much of this structure collapsed due to a number of reasons, the main one being the hasty, ill-considered and unsustainable manner of its construction and the subsequent institutional and legal backlash. Miraculously, however, many of the core ideas have persisted, and their proliferation is largely the reason I am Aware and able to write this document today. It would seem that the present catalyst is a combination of the Internet and again psychedelics. Both of these phenomena provide a way of disconnecting yourself from the programmed reality and assumptions of the Matrix and taking your perceptions into your own hands. However, your "perception" is nothing but your individual dream that you have created as you have gone through life. There is the dream of the society that has been passed down generation after generation and instilled into your mind by your parents, friends, schools, and institutions. And then there is your individual dream. Each step of the way in your life you have lived subjectively, and depending upon how and where you grew up, who you hung around with, and the habits you formed, you created your little dream. Your "theory" on life while you stay completely unconscious of this. Everything that you think is "you", "I", "me", and everything you believe that you identify with is simply not you. It is not the truth. It is part of the giant web of individual dreams that everyone is in the clutches of on our planet. This is one of the main reasons why this world is the way it is, why it is so chaotic. You will scorn anyone who does not dream what you dream of, and someone will do the same to you. It is impossible for us to live the same individual dream because we cannot know everything about each other down to our core. It is a constant fog that grows bigger and bigger and more dense as each day passes. It is your ego and it is my ego. The dream is not real. If we want to even begin to understand what it means to exist as a human being on this planet and evolve, this truth must be learned and it is just the beginning. Somewhere along the way, the entities that have been running the show figured out how the ego works, and they have been doing a damn good job at distracting us from trying to find a way out of our dreams and the dream of society. Psychedelics are simply a tool, but one of many to truly explore and expand your consciousness. However, whether it be psychedelic substances or meditation, it is not the ultimate answer. It is simply showing you the door, but it is your choice whether or not you want to enter into the other side.

To persist, the Matrix requires control, and in democratic societies it maintains this control by filtering people's view of reality through corporate-owned mass media and television. In essence, the Matrix requires a form of thought control, but not in the science fiction sense. Instead, it achieves an effective enough manner of thought control by manufacturing consent. The large majority of the public has to "buy in". They have to believe that the news media give them an accurate picture of the world. And by and large, they do believe this. Everything the general public knows about the world, they know through the Matrix. The symbols and images the Matrix presents to them have become more real than reality itself. Hence the popularity of the ungodly abomination that is Reality TV.

Note that while some media outlets do actively promote a political agenda of domination and control, on the whole it is not through some grand conspiracy that this process (or any process of the Matrix) functions. It is simply the way mass media is organized. Mass media is a machine that exists as a profit maximizing entity, and the most profitable news (and the cheapest news to produce) is recycled soundbytes and pre-packaged press releases from corporations and government. Furthermore, in the interest of preserving its revenue stream, news media cannot allow the public to hold any opinion that may threaten the authority and policy of government or the profitability of their sponsors, which are also machines of the Matrix and almost always directly involved in the business of domination and control. Thus the media must perpetuate the status quo. No news is good news.

Understanding this bias in the media is key to undoing the filter it applies. Consider who the advertisers and sponsors are. Beware of press releases disguised as investigative reporting. When possible, confirm mainstream, corporate produced stories with coverage from places like IndyMedia (go local), Wikinews, GNN, Politech, Free Speech TV, Democracy Now, Free Speech Radio News, and FAIR. A lot of the time these sources also cover many eye-popping items that for some reason don't even receive mention on corporate news media.

Last, and most assuredly not least, the Matrix seeks to identify and know its members at all times, in a misguided attempt to maintain control. It demands total surrender of your privacy to function in it. It is by breaking this last property of the Matrix that we come to truly free ourselves from it; to create economies, communication, and culture independent of its control.

Of course, the ultimate form of resistance is to fully disconnect from any and all dependence upon and allegiance to government and institution; to remove yourself from the power structure of the Matrix, and contribute your economic output to resistance economies. It is this form of resistance that faces the most violent opposition from the Matrix, since providing this economic power is the primary function of Humanity, as it sees it.

Unfortunately for many this form of resistance is simply unattainable due to family and social ties, especially starting from your first realization of the size and scope of the Matrix. However, unlike in movie, it is possible to liberate yourself gradually instead of immediately, and in some cases this can prove easier than an 'all-at-once' attempt. It starts with disconnecting. Cut out TV from your life entirely, especially TV news and Reality TV shows. You should be able to get all your information and entertainment from the web, or from real reality (or from the occasional movie). Avoid chain stores where possible, especially for food. Supporting smaller (especially sustainable) business keeps entrepreneurial and independent business spirit alive. Getting and staying out of debt (especially debt without equity, or rapidly depreciating equity such as car loans) is crucial, as debt is a primary mechanism the Matrix uses to ensure your obedience. Also, if you are a salaried employee, working a 40 hour (or perhaps even 35) hour work week can be a big start to declaring your freedom from the machine and the corporate American peer-pressure to be a diligent slave. It also frees up huge amounts of mental energy which is then available for resistance.

From here, a limited form of resistance whereby you leave the Matrix for short periods of time (long enough to conduct purchases, business transactions, and communications with the underground) is well within the reach of all computer literate individuals, and functioning as a consumer is sufficiently supportive of the Anonymous Economy for it to be sustainable. Moreover, the probability of discovery of this sort of activity can be reduced as much as you choose. Doing this effectively is the subject of this HOWTO.

As you progress, you will notice yourself developing one or more separate identities, or pseudonyms. It is best to build as much insulation between these nyms as possible. They shouldn't appear to know each other, shouldn't really talk about the same stuff or buy the same things, and above all should be diligently separated from your original physical identity. Maintain different wallets, bags, user accounts and possibly even computers. In short, develop one or more Tyler Durdens, except without all the insanity, self-destruction, and sociopathic behavior. Or with it, if it helps.

The adept and the entrepreneurial will find it an easy step from here to total freedom. The next stage is to go into business for yourself. It doesn't have to be an anonymous business, but those who manage such an achievement do enjoy the satisfaction that they are directly subverting the Matrix and helping to weaken its hold on everyone.
Subverting the Matrix

While resisting the Matrix is an act of mental rebellion, subverting the Matrix is an act of social revolution. It requires understanding the types of human communities that exist outside of the control of the Matrix. It also requires understanding what sustains them, and if and how they directly or indirectly weaken the structure and control of the Matrix. Once you understand this, it is possible to intelligently align yourself with communities that actively weaken the control of the Matrix.
Gift Culture

Gift Culture (also known as Free Culture, or the Gift Economy) is a social structure where your status is determined by how much you are able to give away. It is not mutually exclusive to any other economic system, and examples of gift economies exist on top of capitalist, communist and socialist economies.

Gift culture has brought forth some of the most astounding recent achievements of the human race, including the scientific research community, much of the World Wide Web, the entire Open Source movement, vulnerability and security research, and Wikipedia, just to name a few examples. Gift economies tend to function best in the digital world, where something can be given without reducing the inventory of the giver.

However, the Burningman project is a massive experiment in bringing Gift Culture back into the physical world, and quite successful at that. Well over 35,000 people populate Black Rock City in the middle of the desert every year to give as much as they can to each other. The event serves in part as a model for the time when energy becomes abundant and human beings are capable of interstellar space travel. Obviously the burning of The Man is the climax of the event.

This is no small coincidence either. Gift culture does subvert the primary mechanisms of the Matrix. The Matrix subsists by transforming human endeavor into economic output which it uses to maintain its control. Gift culture, on the other hand, releases human endeavor for the good of all who would receive it. When items are given instead of sold, the power and control obtained through ownership is eliminated. Furthermore, in the case of Open Source Software, the fact that full freedom over the source code is also given means that code that the Matrix would never willingly create is readily available for the purposes of this HOWTO.

It is interesting to note that even machines of the Matrix are motivated to participate in gift culture - especially in the Open Source movement. It benefits many corporations as well as governments to have a common reference platform upon which they can build their individual products and infrastructures. Their cooperation in building this common platform vastly reduces the cost they would have paid to develop their own platform in-house, and is also inevitably cheaper than paying a single entity to do the same. The combined experience and widely distributed expertise, as well as the flexibility of modifying the common platform to perform a wide variety of tasks, yields a better system for all, and cheaper. In the digital world where copies are free, capitalism compels Gift Culture.

Unfortunately, some companies, such as Amazon.com, reap tremendous benefits off of Open Source Software, yet have a company policy of zero contribution back to the community. Other symptoms of this problem include Microsoft's war on the security research community, and the tendency of (even State funded) University Professors to refuse to provide Open Source reference implementations of their work. There are mechanisms discussed in this HOWTO that enable this trend to be reversed, which leads us nicely into the next cultural segment.
Information Anarchy

A closely related social structure to Gift Culture is Information Anarchy. The idea behind Information Anarchy is that all information should be as widely and freely disseminated as possible. The cultural ethos is vehemently at odds with Intellectual Property, and refuses to recognize any such law (or suffer any code) that abridges free exchange of information.

Needless to say, the machines of the Matrix don't take too fond a view on this ideology. Unlike gift culture, which is an indirect subversion of the mechanisms of the Matrix, Information Anarchy directly challenges the Matrix's perceived right of ownership of human ideas. The past decade has seen an unprecedented decline in the freedom of information due to some of the more rabid elements of the Matrix. The machines of the Matrix now draw tremendous power from ideas and digital content/information. Recent examples include the DMCA, extension of copyright duration, the harsh criminalization of copyright infractions, and the resulting side-effects which lead to the criminalization of certain forms of technology. The legal climate for free speech and innovation has never looked darker.

However, hope is not lost. The future looks so dark precisely for the reason that Information Anarchy poses such a grave threat to a major power source for so many parasitical machines. On some level, the Matrix knows its hold is tenuous. At every opportunity, the Matrix will tell you that protecting Intellectual Property encourages creativity. It has even developed an amusing array of propaganda to promote this idea, even going so far as to begin the brainwashing at an early age. (Yes, the National Counterintelligence Executive is in fact a real office of the US government, apparently one of its major propaganda arms. Their stuff is hilarious. I recommend printing some out at your local copy shop before it becomes classic.)

All of this nonsense is observably false. Societies have always been most successful when communication and ideas were open to all. It is important to remember that the world didn't always operate this way, it was only when the ruling elite of the Matrix realized that ideas and creative expression are easily converted to economic power that they took claim over them. Economic systems can and will adapt to a form that is more profitable for human creators instead of their machine owners.

Five chapters of this HOWTO are devoted to protecting your digital identity and are easily applicable to contributing to the goal of Information Anarchy and providing even more economic incentive to move towards alternate revenue models and/or Gift Culture. In every opportunity possible, do not support the system of Intellectual Property that the Matrix has created. Naturally as its power wanes, it will become weaker and less relevant, as content creators seek their pay through other means. The cancer starves, and dies.
The Anonymous Internet Economy

So as of late, a major source of the erosion of civil liberties stems from the fact that casual economic transactions are becoming increasingly difficult to conduct without permanent, identifiable information being associated with them. With the advent and increase in the volume of Internet commerce, casual purchases of personal items, books, software, and even medication are now irrevocably tied to your own personal identity. Bookstores such as Amazon now build complete dossiers of sorts on their customers reading habits, and much of this information is available publicly.

As a result, the natural reaction to these circumstances is to find methods to make Internet commerce behave more like physical commerce, where you have the option of anonymity by using cash or cash-backed identity free payment methods. An Anonymous Internet Economy.

The Matrix is providing massive economic incentive to create this economy as well. It has recently been revealed that the FBI writes over 30,000 "National Security Letters" in the US each year. Consider how easy it would be for them to demand records of everyone at Amazon who might like to buy a particular book, or who has ordered "indecent" materials from websites? Amazon already does classification of consumer's interests for marketing purposes. Their engine can perform this classification instantly. What would they have to say about what books you like to read? How about Google, and the types of adword sites you are typically presented on the search website/via gmail? Google and many other search engines maintain indefinite logs of who searches for what keywords, along with lots of other data. These are prime targets for National Security Letters or just general government subpoena.

I provide the basics for conducting anonymous transactions cheaply in FIXME this section. You can use these techniques to get yourself started and comfortable with interacting with the Matrix anonymously. From there, the entrepreneurs in the audience may wish to start a business to start making some money in this new economy, and thus begin to fully escape from the control of the Matrix.

Markets of interest might include items in online games, anonymous web hosting, certain types of medicine, or even illegal electronics. For example, many people are too lazy to build a MythTV box, but personally I sure as hell would buy one over a crippled and ad-infested TiVo subscription service any day. If I watched TV, that is.

As you can see, most of these things go on above ground today, but for how long? And why at such high risk for consumers living in less accepting legal climates? What about those who would pay more for more protection? For example, some customers may be attracted simply to the ability to free themselves from marketing and government profiling. Those who purchase certain types of books might prefer if Amazon and whoever else didn't have this information tied to their physical identity.

Yet another possible white/grey market to tap might be a physical anonymous remailer service for people who would like to conceal their street address from someone mailing them something in order to avoid becoming listed in a database for marketing spam and/or to avoid general profiling and surveillance, or to be able to order a product that won't normally ship to their geographic location. Basically the way the system could work is through a website where you create a temporary account number or unique pseudonym. The package is then shipped to a relay point where the account number/pseudonym is read off, and a new label printed onto the package. It is then mailed to its new destination, and any electronic and paper records are destroyed. It also has the advantage that extremely paranoid users can potentially chain multiple locations together for extra security, so that competition does not necessarily compete for market share, but instead cooperates for it. You might consider marketing this as a "Virtual Office Solution" to avoid liability, if done above ground. A useful technique for verifying that packages have not been opened/examined en-route is to create a unique multicolored wax seal swirl using two or more candles, photograph the seal, and transmit the photograph electronically via encrypted email. Delivery/payment can be ensured using normal UPS/Fedex/USPS tracking numbers, which can be encrypted to the senders public key and then destroyed.

The demand for such a system might not be immediately visible now, but once the next Patriot Act or similar legislation removes all anonymity from the mail, the demand should skyrocket. This business has the advantage that it is extremely low setup overhead and is very easy to start small with low capital, just to test market demand. Once the business is proved worthwhile, FedEx and possibly other major carriers offer bulk shipping rate accounts to merchants that could be taken advantage of, bringing the overhead work and cost to your customers potentially very low.

Taking this idea a step further yields a "ghost walker" contract market, much like the ones described in FIXMEToward A Private Digital Economy. Most of the P2P token-based nonsense there can be ignored, but his key idea could be transfered to a ebay-like auction site. Basically the idea is that people would contract the services of someone who is skilled at staying off the radar to conduct transactions that for various reasons they do not want linked to their identity (again, buying books, vitamins, medicine, regionally available items, web hosting, illegal electronics, and so on). Sort of like the inverse of a Private Investigator, these people would do anything from purchasing items, mailing and delivering packages, donating to charities, acting as couriers, business agents/representatives, mail forwarders, and so on. This can already be carried out in a guerrilla fashion on community/local city classified ad servers such as the nearly universal Craigslist (where it is possible to contract people from different state and country jurisdictions quite easily). In the ideal situation, a dedicated website would be created. Each "ghost walker" would have a nym (possibly paying a fee to do so, both to support the site and to discourage morphing), complete with ratings and reviews, prices per task/risk factor, and so on. Contracts would be posted by clients containing a generic description of the task, and interested ghost walkers would contact the buyer with prices. The buyer would then select a particular ghost walker to reveal the complete details of the contract to, and terms of payment. Given the tendency to increased total surveillance, lots of regular people may be interested in using this service.

So there are numerous markets that can be potentially very lucrative while at the same time helping to build a social structure independent of domination and control. In general, any mechanism of state control creates markets for equipment or components that can be used to circumvent this control. Keep your eyes open for opportunities. If you have any suggestions or ideas, please feel free to contact me so that I can update the HOWTO for all to benefit as we work together to free ourselves.
Freedom Seekers are Not Terrorists

Essentially this HOWTO represents the hacker community truly claiming independence for itself from national and institutional rule. While many the ideas and techniques present in this document can be found elsewhere, I believe this is the first time such a coherent, consistent, and focused collection of these ideas has been assembled for a single purpose. 17 years ago, we made our Declaration of Independence. This body of code-law represents a manner of Constitution of Cyberspace. A basic set of rights we claim for ourselves through our use of technology.

Because the accusation will inevitably be made, I would just like to emphasize the distinction between freedom seekers and terrorists. The type of resistance and revolution discussed here is non-violent, and singularly focused upon allowing an individual to have real freedom through privacy and anonymity. While reactionary individuals might argue that the knowledge presented in this HOWTO could aid actual terrorists, the reality is they've already had much better training which has proved to be quite effective in practice. Furthermore, we're talking about people who are willing to give their lives in their quest: people whose families, friends, and their own lives have already been destroyed by Empire. These people will stop at nothing. They don't need this HOWTO to create new identities for privacy purposes when perfectly valid ones can be stolen readily. Nor do they care much about surveillance, since surveillance can't stop a suicide mission. What's worse, is that on some level the police state must know this. Even being generous with the reasonable doubt, all evidence seems to indicate that at best it simply used the tragic events of Sept 11 as an excuse for a long awaited massive power grab, with the resulting legislation doing far more to target the average citizen than any particular terrorist network.

I recently had a discussion on Usenet where it was asserted that taking action to protect yourself and withdraw from the Matrix might generate even more excuses for introducing oppressive legislation and policy. I believe this will not be the case, and that moreover this thinking is in fact defeatist and even dangerous for a few reasons.

First, the Matrix will not and can not overtly fight this behavior, as any public attention given to it will only provide it with more energy and momentum. The Matrix media filter won't even allow the individual pieces of information that lead to the conclusions of this introduction to be discussed for this very reason. There is no way it would willingly publicize this ideology in its entirety, even to attempt attack it. Furthermore, there is no need to. The Matrix already has more than enough material to drive through as much oppressively restrictive legislation as it likes in the name of fighting kiddie porn, the War on Drugs, the War on Terror, and in the name of protecting corporate profits. As stated above, it is already taking full advantage of this fact, to Orwellian ends. The interesting phenomenon is that the more ridiculous the regulations become, the more commonplace it will be for the public to want to circumvent them, which only serves to strengthen resistance economies.

Second, if you look at all of history, freedom has never been given to a populace. Left to its own devices, the state only ever grows more powerful. It never surrenders power over citizens freely. Take any instance in history where people have established rights for themselves, and you will see it was the result of a long, drawn out battle that the state simply lacked the resources to continue to fight effectively. Prohibition wasn't abolished because people acted good, honest and sober, it was because they got falling down drunk and alcohol consumption soared to new heights while the Puritan state was powerless to continue to oppress the newly criminalized middle class. Likewise, Civil rights weren't won because Africans obediently stayed in their designated rolls, complicitly accepting "separate but equal" facilities and politely tolerating discrimination. It was because they practiced civil disobedience and active resistance against injustice.

I believe in civil disobedience, and more importantly, the clear distinction between morality and law. I believe that it is defensive, defeatist thinking to say that "if we just be good, they will reward us and repeal laws." The laws - the DMCA, the Patriot Act, the REAL ID act, recent supreme court decisions and the now entirely conservative dominated court - are already essentially fascist and will only continue getting "tougher" on "crime" and "terror", stripping away the rights of citizens in the name of "safety" with little real gain except the hoisting of that Floating Eye on the dollar bill ever higher above the base. The total surveillance state has been a goal of the current cabal for time out of mind.

Third and finally, once again I'm not advocating violence here, or even any sort of crime that has a victim. I'm advocating creating a social and economic structure based on anonymity (not necessarily illegality) that drains the corporate state of power and thus weakens its ability to enforce fascist law and practice.

In my view, the only thing that will cause the state to rescind is the realization that much like in the 1920s with prohibition, it has criminalized a vast portion of its population that it is now powerless to control, and furthermore that its fascist law has done nothing to safeguard against the true monsters that its foreign policy has created.

Continuation on its current course of action will lead the Matrix to experience ever increasing instances of identity theft, repeated infiltration of data warehouses, massive underground surveillance rings, and so on. These actions are not advocated in this HOWTO, but they will inevitably become more commonplace as the Matrix continues to make it easier to steal an existing identity than to create a new one or otherwise escape from ceaseless surveillance.

At this point in time, the Matrix faces two options. It can either choose to allow us to be free, and create official sanctioned means for people who wish to free themselves from endless surveillance and total control to operate anonymously within the system, or it can choose to fight war after costly war on civil liberties and basic human rights until enough people are fed up with its behavior that they begin to depart en-mass. Again.

But we already know the choice the Matrix will make. Already I can see the chain reaction of propaganda, the sound-byte media precursors that trigger the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that the Matrix will use to blind the masses from the simple and obvious truth: We are going to be free, and there is nothing it can do to stop us.
Spreading the Word

Initially I had planned for a small distribution of this document to only a select few, to attempt to "stay under the radar". But as I indicate above, I now realize that is a flawed approach. Much like in a mixed network, the more people working to protect themselves and their identities, the better off the end result is. The stronger the support economies grow, the better able the resistance is to function autonomously.

An IRC friend of mine has designed some FIXME slick business cards that can be distributed at functions, protests or wherever. Online print shops will typically print 200-500 of these for around $20. If you're itching to give me some kind of donation for some reason, you can direct your funds towards that instead. It even works on a sliding scale. For example, you can buy some sticker paper for like $5 at your local office supply store and print out some stickers to put up at coffee shops, clubs, bars, Internet cafes, bookstores or anywhere intelligent people might be able to jot down or quickly visit a URL. If anyone wants to create another design, send it to me and I will post it here also.
Target Audience

This document is written at a technical level appropriate for "power users" - people who like to tinker with their computer configurations to get the most out of their experience. Novice computer users who are uncomfortable tweaking settings, editing configuration files, and occasionally using the command line probably will struggle with much of the material regardless of OS, unfortunately (though at least one person has offered to help elaborate the more technically involved sections to help novices along - we'll see how that pans out).

I try to be as operating system agnostic as possible, providing information for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, but due to the open and readily customizable nature of the system, the Linux material probably will be the most well developed.

As far as demographics, I expect this document to be useful to a wide variety of people from several walks of life. In particular, some of the major categories are:
Civil Libertarians

Those who are concerned with the gradual erosion of their personal freedoms will probably find nearly the entirety of this document useful and interesting, since it is intended to provide techniques and countermeasures to restore nearly every right that has been lost due to the Wars on Drugs, Porn, and Terror. It is now possible for the anyone (the US government, frivolous civil litigants, P.I.'s, and so on) to enumerate just about everything in your home without many warrants, simply by subpoenas or a National Security Letters. Somehow I doubt this situation was exactly what the Framers of the Constitution had in mind... This document can help you to keep as much of your personal belongings and reading habits actually private and out of numerous commercial databases (which are readily availably to law enforcement).
Whistleblowers

Whistleblowers who are interested in exposing wrongdoing, corruption, cover-up, or conspiracy at their workplaces will find this document useful for protecting their identities while contacting the press, or otherwise disseminating evidence over the Internet. When you are jeopardizing your job (and possibly your life) to expose wrongdoing, you must assume that NO institution will be able to protect your identity from someone who is determined to silence you. Your only option is to make sure no one knows who you are in the first place until such time as your safety from retaliation can be guaranteed. If followed carefully and diligently, this document will show you how to accomplish this.
Bloggers and Independent Journalists

Similar to whistleblowers, bloggers and forum posters often find themselves the target of harassment, especially when reporting on controversial material, or even when people who comment on their pages choose to do so. While it has recently been ruled that bloggers are afforded the same rights and protections as journalists, in cases where the blogger is exposing corruption or negligence at their workplace, additional measures of protecting oneself may be desired. In some cases, it may be desirable to publish pseudonymously simply to avoid the stress (and expense!) of having to deal with frivolous lawsuits such as these.
"Political Dissidents" and Inquisitive Minds

Forget about China, even in the USA it's no secret that the FBI has consistently harassed those who have dared to speak out against the status quo. Targeted groups include vegans, Catholics, Quakers, peace activists, environmental volunteers, 3rd party candidates and campaign workers, independent journalists and bloggers, and even members of the mainstream press. What should be most disturbing to the average citizen is how easily it is to become mistaken for one of these "trouble makers" simply for buying (or being recommended) the wrong book on Amazon, posting on the wrong blog, buying certain types of food on a credit card, donating to certain charities, etc. With the advent of aggressive data mining and aggregation, it is all too easy to be lumped in with "the wrong crowd". If followed properly, this document will help you to retain your freedom to investigate alternative views and information without leaving an electronic trail of this activity to open yourself up to harassment. It should also help you minimize the damage a determined FBI agent (or vindictive ex-spouse or other enemy who has hired a PI) is able to do to you.
People with Enemies

As hinted at above, it's not just dissidents who need to be concerned either. Surveillance and draconian law can be used as dangerous weapons. All it takes is for one motivated enemy to hire a PI with access to the major data warehouses to dig into your life, find something that they can use, and then phone in to report you, or simply blackmail you. Anyone with a vindictive ex-spouse, political adversary, or even a feuding neighbor can be the target of this abuse.
Programmers and Security Researchers

Due to the DMCA and insanely broken patent law, programmers have found their freedom of speech horrendously restricted in the USA. Many security researchers have been afraid to discuss the privacy implications of copyright protection technology that is essentially spyware. Others are afraid to publish vulnerability assessments of cryptographic systems that may be tangentially related to copyright infringement, or even simply software in general. This document can teach such programmers and researchers how to conceal their identities and thus assist peers who are operating in legal climates that still respect the freedoms of speech and innovation.
The Video Game Underground

The DMCA has also been used to harass video game hackers and cheaters. Some gaming companies will ban you from their online services if they discover your involvement or subscription to "cheat forums". Most will not hesitate to issue bogus DMCA takedown notices to cheat/mod websites that operate in the USA. Software that modifies online games to provide additional features, cheats, or automation is also the target of DMCA harassment. Furthermore, programmers who publicly reverse engineer and re-implement open source game servers find themselves the target of lawsuits. This document should assist these people to continue to play and modify games how they see fit without fear of persecution.
Moonlighters, Double-Shifters, and Consultants

In a similar vein, those who are working multiple jobs may wish to conceal this fact from their employers due to fear of retaliation. I expect the most typical use case of this document will be programmers working as consultants, or who wish to contribute to Open Source projects in their free time.
Potential Victims of Identity Theft (Everyone)

This document can also help those who are interested in protecting their identities and/or financial information from being stolen due to their commerce online and elsewhere. As mentioned above, data warehouses such as Choicepoint are essentially making identity a commodity. It is inevitable that this data will be leaked and stolen again and again. With identity becoming an increasingly integral aspect of functioning in society, black markets that sell this data will continue to be extremely profitable. Just like the War on Drugs, the War on Terror fought through the politics of domination and control will lead to ever escalating levels of waste, destruction, and chaos. The best way to protect yourself is to minimize your digital footprint: Use anonymous forms of payment online, and conceal your name and mailing address.
Entrepreneurs

The last major category of people who are likely to find this document useful are those who are interested in providing privacy and anonymity services and software to others. Privacy and anonymity are difficult problems. There are many holes to be filled in, usability issues to be addressed, and markets to be built. To this group of people, every privacy problem and legal restriction should represent a potential market to get involved in. However, DO NOT SELL SNAKE OIL. If you cannot stand up to legal or other pressure, you need to inform your users of this fact clearly, so they are sure to take appropriate precautions while using your service (especially if you are located within the USA). Very few, if any, privacy services are capable of operating as stand-alone one-shot solutions. What is needed is a series of tools and components that can be combined arbitrarily. Focus on one component, and do it well.