Could You Live Free From The "Things" We So Desire But Which Bring Little Happiness?

URL and to post comments: http://dollarvigilante.com/blog/2014/6/17/where-in-the-world-is-linda-locketannehill.html Tuesday,June 17, 2014 [Editor's Note: The following post is by TDV Editor-In-Chief, Jeff Berwick] Many who care about freedom know names like Murray Rothbard, Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises.  However, one name that does not get the attention it deserves is Linda and Morris Tannehill. More than 40 years ago they wrote an exquisite work calledThe Market For Liberty that was decades ahead of its time (you can download and read the entire book here).  It has gotten eminent praise from modern day anarcho-capitalists such as Jeffrey Tucker and Doug Casey and it was the book that turned on the lightbulb in my brain to libertarianism/anarchism. Almost as quickly as it had come out the Tannehills almost disappeared completely.  The Tannehill’s divorced, Morris died in 1988 and Linda retook her maiden name, Locke. The last article that can be found from her was from Liberty Magazine in 1991 in a brief article she wrote called “Liberty Now”. Here is the entire text of that article: I Iive on the road, in a converted school bus that I fixed up myself (and very nice it is, too). I spend winter in the southwest, and the rest of the year wherever inclination takes me, usually following the Rainbow Gathering if it's not held too far from where I am. Last summer, it took me to northern Minnesota, and the summer before to Nevada. I maintain myself financially as an independent craftswoman, making and selling rope sandals. I live pretty marginally, money-wise. I lived in the Missouri Ozarks for 13 years, most of that time as part of a small back-to-the-Iand group. We had 25 acres and raised almost all our own food-we had an organic garden and orchard, plus chickens, pigs, beef and dairy cattle, and bees-and boy, did we eat well! It was something i'd wanted to do ever since i was a child, and i enjoyed it a lot. But travelling is also something I’ve always wanted to do, and you can't devote yourself to a piece of land and still travel a lot. So now I’m doing the travel things and enjoying them too. I've fallen in love with the area around Glenwood, New Mexico. The isolation, the scenery, the wilderness, and the independent-minded people all make it my kind of place. My long-range goal is eventually to buy a couple acres somewhere around there and maintain it as a home base, giving me the constant option of travelling or staying home in a place I love. As far as "history and memoirs," I think the only significant thing about me is that I stopped theorizing about a free society and instead devoted my energies to living as a free person. I opted out of the producer consumer- taxpayer system in which most people are enmeshed-I refused to be a cog in the Establishment's machine. So I live wherever I want (in some of the most beautiful country there is) and come and go when I please. I have lots of free time because I work only enough to keep myself in necessities (and it's amazing how little is really necessary to one's comfort and happiness). I meet interesting people from many walks of life and have lots of friends. In short, I've spent the last couple of decades living the way I want to, and not the way I "have" to. Many people tell me they envy my lifestyle and wish they could do it too. I tell them they can, if they can get free from the artificial "need" for material goods that leads to three forms of slavery: consumer slavery, wage slavery, and debt slavery. And most of them sigh, and keep on wishing. I can only conclude that freedom belongs to those with the courage to grasp it. Still to this day, The Market for Liberty after many decades is igniting the flames of liberty in the minds of many worldwide yet Linda Locke may not even be aware of it. In a recent episode of Anarchast I interviewed Jorge Trucco who has just translated and re-released the book into Spanish and we discussed the importance and timelessness of the book. Click here or on thumbnail If Linda Locke is still out there somewhere, perhaps still living in a bus selling rope sandals, please let her know that her work lives on to this day and has never been more widely known or read. Linda Locke, thank you for your service. Thoughts on The Market For Liberty? Share them at The Dollar Vigilante.