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IT'S A TRAP!!! ...though only one of so many...
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a dude in Hungary, whom I met a few year previous at the international rainbow gathering in New Zealand in 2009. The topic was the Copenhagen climate conference about a year later. You know, the usual complaints about all these folks flying around the world to this massive conference, on behalf of governments worldwide, to talk about climate change, without much hope of signing agreements, which most of them wouldn't keep anyway. Still, it's considered an event to be supported, because... just consider the alternatives!
Anyhow, the point of our discussion was that things are not much different with hippies (like ourselves), from Japan to Finland, from South Africa to California, and even Australia (which is just around the block from NZ, but still...) flying to New Zealand merely because there is a rainbow gathering, and how much the world needs some good love and compassion, and all that jazz... and how in the end it has done little good, though beautiful and exciting it may have been.
So looking at your numbers, I imagine the difference to both, the NZ gathering (where you didn't have to fork over $$ for lodging and stuff, but they did need to be airlifted out as the first seedcamp was washed away by floods) and on the other hand, conferences like the one in Kyoto, Copenhagen, Rio, and Paris are way (probably WAAAAY) out of proportion to Anarchopulco.
A 3-D printer has about the cost of a used car. Still, it's much more common to see a family sacrificing almost everything to keep their vehicle running, not even considering what a 3-D printer could do for them for the same price. I think this could be a great analogy to the conferences, and ... well, how NOT to spend your money if you want to make a difference.

Oh ya, things like those climate conferences are going to be of a scale at least ten times anything the freedom movement is doing, because those are organized & funded by governments & globalists to promote their world domination plans... and they print the money.

I think one of the great things about how the original, BIG Rainbow Gathering ("Nationals") comes together is that it's always in the continental US, and there is a disproportionately small number of people who fly to it, it's mostly hitch-hikers, buses, and carpools from across the continent.

As always, it seems like the biggest limiting factor is that most simply don't know there are alternatives, or what those alternatives are. That's where we come in :-)

I agree. Lots of time it's the lack of information of the roads available, or even the knowledge on how to create your own road.
Tying it back to the conferences, it seems to be the same: of course people tend to emulate what the big-boys have showed them. And with the rainbow it's not any different. My first experience was a small regional gathering in Canada, which gave mme an idea of what the big one must be like. Years later I attended a gathering in Germany (THE international one), and a few years following the one in NZ I mentioned. Both were quite amazing, to be honest, but in certain ways I still feel I haven't been to a "real one" if I haven't attended a national one in the States. ...though I'm sure, a lot of it is in my mind, as a sum of all I've heard about it.

Great article, Kenny! Your idea sounds much more empowering than an expensive weekend excursion that primarily benefit corporations financially. It seems like it would be tremendously impactful to see such time and resources going towards building sustainable—freedom minded—communities!

Wow, I hadn't realised quite so much money was spent on these sorts of events...

I have not been to these sorts of events for many years.

My feeling is that is that smaller scale, less expensive, more personal events might effect greater and more lasting positive change for the people attending.

I agree completely, and for myself I've focused much more on small healing retreats and more personalized gatherings for the last year especially.

No that's an excellent and educating article... Thanks Bru! I'm going to share this on the C²-hive...
Rock On!
D

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You mean you may have to postpone the event. Lets pitch in on a community 3-D printer if we can come up with a plan to reimburse ourselves for it by using it.

We could do a lot with open source engineering and workshops teaching people how to build the tools for self-sufficiency to exit the system and live self-sufficiently. I believe self-reliance and small intentional communities will pull the future toward a new positive timeline. I'm planning on demonstrating the capabilities of my Surthrival Trailer this year. I'm selling my house, and using the proceeds to build a modern technologically advanced homestead property that can be replicated en mass. These are my thoughts toward a possible solution. The open source engineering communities could help lead to a more positive future. A holistic approach can help connect the mind to the heart as many technical people can be locked into the mind. This is the project and the technologies that can be replicated on scale that will help lead the future in a better direction imho https://www.opensourceecology.org/marcin-jakubowski/