Greetings,
I have come across this libertarian "online academy" called TOLFA: www.tolfa.us -- does anyone know who is behind that project, or any other interesting information about the website?
The author seems to be so convinced of the persuasiveness of his website that he thinks his ideas will spread exponentially and the American government will fall by 2020-2030.
But of course, he recommends you do a back-up copy of the website, because you never know when the government will take down his website: "As government notices large numbers of people no longer supporting it, it will try to close down the Academy. It may succeed in removing the web site you are now using. For that reason every student is encouraged to download a complete copy, so as to CD-copy it for the use of those he introduces and mentors. That may be several years away, but it's well to be prepared." :-)
There are some interesting stuff in there (mostly links to other essays), but even the cases where his reasoning is crystal clear and beyond reproach, it's really creepy to think someone can be so deluded to think his collection of short essays will be able to convert ONE single person to atheism, anarcho-individualism, Objectivist ethics, etc.
If you say you disagree in some questionnaire, you'll get things like: "That you are not yet convinced means that somewhere in the first five Segments there was something that failed to answer a concern in your mind. Therefore, please return to the start of Segment 1 and carefully work forward again, so as to discover what it was. When it is found, please bring it to the attention of your Mentor so it can be resolved. It would not be appropriate to continue with Segment 6 until that has been done."
Is this website an ingenious attempt to discredit libertarian ideas? It almost seems like it. ;-)
Equality before the law and material equality are not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time. -- F. A. Hayek in The Constitution of Liberty
Unfortunately, it just might be real - Poe's Law and all.
I have been reading the stuff from the Academy. I am now finished. You pretty much get what you paid for. ;-) There are more interesting and thought provoking books on libertarian ideas. The website might be interesting for someone who has already been introduced to libertarianism, but it does a poor job at recruiting new people to those ideas: one problem with career teachers is that they lose track of the struggles they had when they were first introduced to the subject matter, so they are unable to connect with the students. This website suffers from the same ailment: it is clearly written to other libertarians, not to the general public (which it purports to do). The website is also tactless: comparing government to the mafia right off the bat is a sure way to lose credibility. And repetitive memes like saying "contractions do not exist in reality, but only in the minds of those who do not think clearly" are incredibly condescending, and pretty pointless.
Anyhow, here is a hilarious advise from the finishing chapter:
Delay Tax Payments. Not by breaking what the IRS says is "law", nor necessarily at once; just make payments gradually later as the time for government evaporation approaches. At worst you may have to pay some interest for lateness. Reason: when that moment does arrive, there will be nobody to collect it so you'll have saved a whole bunch of your own money.
I also found the website interesting when I found it a while back. The auther seems to agree with Etienne de la Boetie that government will collapse as soon as enough people withdraw their support. But the prediction that the US government will "evaporate" by 2030 thanks to a single website is so absurd, I agree that TOLFA almost seems like controlled opposition to the freedom movement.