In my 2020 Anarchapulco speech, I asked whether we were modeling the nonviolence we talked about. I shared how my own confrontational activism left me exhausted, and why I began looking at what needed to change within me.
Archive note. This speech was delivered at Anarchapulco 2020. Homestead Guru uploaded this recording on April 18, 2026. The selected excerpts below are lightly edited from the recording’s automatic captions for readability. They are not a full transcript.
Watch the original 2020 recording
How we behave matters
Excerpt begins at 6:07.
I participated in some pretty vitriolic behavior. And at the time, people would say things about me on blogs, that I’m a poor representative of liberty because I’m so confrontational.
And I took that personal. My ego got in the way and I didn’t want to hear the message, the truth, the reality, which is that the way we exist in the world matters.
Freedom as a state of mind
Excerpt begins at 7:03.
True freedom is not something that you can ask for. True freedom does not come from governments. True freedom does not come from any other human being. True freedom is a state of mind.
You cannot get freedom. You become freedom. You are freedom. You exist as freedom.
Build a foundation of love
Excerpt begins at 24:49.
We cannot find freedom through fighting. We will find freedom through healing. We cannot build a society of freedom and love if we are all so jacked up from not only the trauma that we have endured, but the trauma of the generations before us.
If you want to build a free society with me, then you need to heal and I need to heal. And we need to come together as healed people so that we can really be free.
For more on how this plays out in everyday relationships, read my essay on conflict and drama and my 2023 speech about The Four Agreements.
