Let’s face it, 2020 has been the worst year ever so far.
Even for an optimist like me, this year just flat-out sucks! I mean, consider what we’ve had to grapple with in just the first six months of 2020:
- The worst global viral pandemic in over a century — a pandemic that’s now extinguished nearly 500,000 lives worldwide.
- A virtual shutdown of the U.S. and global economies.
- A plunge in the S&P 500 of some 30% in just a few weeks.
- Unprecedented intervention and open-spigot money printing from the Federal Reserve.
- Historic government fiscal intervention to the tune of trillions of dollars, with much more likely to come.
- The overreach of government into our personal lives and personal freedoms by issuing lockdown “orders” in many states.
- The largest social unrest and the biggest protest movements since the 1960s.
Yep, I think that qualifies the first half of 2020 as setting up to be the worst year ever.
Oh, and don’t forget that this year we’re also going to go through the agony, angst and uncertainty of what will likely be another extremely contentious and divisive presidential election.
So, right about now, what I need to cleanse my intellectual and spiritual palate is a feast — a freedom feast, if you will.
This is a gathering that is a feast for the mind, body and spirit, and one that immerses me with like-minded liberty lovers, friends, co-workers, intellectual brothers in arms, authors whose books I frequently read, podcasters whose podcasts I frequently listen to and the few and far between politicians who value freedom as much as I do.
And, I need this feast to take place in one of the most libertine and decadent cities in the world — Las Vegas.
Fortunately, I have just over a fortnight before that feast begins, (or should I say that “fest”) as this very occasion isn’t a mere figment of my sybaritic imagination. Rather, it’s a reality that I will soon live and breathe — and one that you can live and breathe alongside me.
I am referring here, of course, to the best week of any year, which is the week in which the largest gathering of free minds takes place. This is the week of the FreedomFest Conference, the summit for the liberty movement.
This year will undoubtedly be unlike any other at FreedomFest, and the reason why is because this year has been unlike any other. Sadly, freedom has become somewhat of a forbidden value during this pandemic and a value that government-friendly forces and those who want greater and greater social control have exploited for their own gain.
Yet, FreedomFest gives us a chance to talk these issues out with those who will actually preserve, protect and defend the moral and intellectual superiority of individual liberty, individual rights and the freedom of speech and thought that have come under such vehement assault in recent years. And just like any powerful and successful movement, we’ll do it with the love, joy, laughter, fervor and intellectual passion deserved of the primary value that makes all other values possible — the value of freedom.
You see, contrary to the line from the Kris Kristofferson classic, “Me and Bobby McGee,” freedom isn’t just another word for nothing left to lose. Instead, freedom really is the prime directive of reality and the directive that allows humans to reason their way through existence using our only tool of survival — our minds.
So, if you are a man or woman of the mind, and you want to help preserve the bedrock value that is freedom, then you need to join me at FreedomFest.
This year, FreedomFest is being held at the fabulous Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Monday, July 13 through Thursday, July 16. Come join me and more than 200 dynamic speakers, think tanks, filmmakers, business innovators, politicians, policymakers and best-selling authors — all of whom will gather to exchange ideas and fight for the bedrock value that allows us all to pursue our own happiness.
I guarantee you’ll have fun while also celebrating, protecting and venerating your fellow freedom warriors.
To do your part, all you have to do is sign up for FreedomFest, book your room and make those travel plans. In other words, all you have to do is put on your bravest face and stand up for the prime virtue that is freedom.
Now I ask you, what can be more heroic than that?
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The Heart’s Protective Memory
“…the heart’s memory eliminates the bad and magnifies the good, and thanks to this artifice we manage to endure the burden of the past.”
— Gabriel García Márquez, “Love in the Time of Cholera”
This Nobel Prize-winning novelist is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and here he gives us an example of the profound connection he had with his emotions, as well as his deft ability convey that emotion to the reader. And when it comes to the heart’s protective memory, who can disagree with this profound insight?
Wisdom about money, investing and life can be found anywhere. If you have a good quote that you’d like me to share with your fellow readers, send it to me, along with any comments, questions and suggestions you have about my newsletters, seminars or anything else. Click here to ask Jim.
In the name of the best within us,
Jim Woods
