Hello from Anarchapulco,
This may be the first Weekend Vigilante ever written without the aid of a glass of wine.
Throughout my life I have always tried to be as open and transparent with things as possible. I've always talked openly about every facet of my life. I regret some of it now as the US government and NSA surely can use it to track me and attack me at the push of a bureauc-rats button.
But that aside, I wish to tell you a little bit today about my life history with alcohol and why I have chosen today to stop drinking.
THE BEGINNING
My first time drinking was quite an experience. When I was 14 and on the pre-internet (called Bulletin Board Systems) I was chatting with a number of people on a site and they were talking about what a crazy weekend of drinking and partying they had.
Naively, I asked, "What's it like to be drunk?"
They laughed for a bit and told me that the only way to know is to try it.
"Do you have any alcohol in your house?" they asked.
I responded that we did. My parents had the same bottle of vodka and whiskey in the house since as far back as I could remember, in a small closet.
"OK, pour a glass of whiskey and drink it," they said.
Not having any experience with drinking I just assumed to pour a large glass like I was pouring apple juice. While I didn't like the taste I somehow managed to drink the large glass full of whiskey in about five minutes.
"What do you feel?" they asked.
"Not much, really, maybe a little tingly," I said.
"Well, try some vodka," said the sadistic bastards.
I went on to pour an entire glass full of vodka and managed to drink it all in a few minutes.
"Now how do you feeeeeeeeeeee………"
The room began spinning and I could hear my parents pulling up the driveway. In a panic I ran, tripped, fell and crawled to my room and pulled myself up into bed just as my mom opened the door.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
With every strength in my body I managed to eke out a, "Yep." and held in what was going to be a massive eruption of vomit until she closed the door.
For at least ten years after that day even the smell of whiskey or vodka would make me feel nauseous. I drank a little bit in my final years of my sentence in the government indoctrination camps and then once I was allowed to go to bars, at 18, I drank more.
As with most kids I got a bit carried away but then decided it wasn't really for me. Between the ages of 20-26 I didn't have one drink.
Those years, by the way, were incredibly productive years where I created Kanada's largest financial website, Stockhouse.com. By the time I was 28 I was operating a company worth hundreds of millions of dollars. At that same time, all of a sudden, I began to put on weight (after being skin and bones my whole life), my acne cleared up and for the first time in my life, after being an awkward kid, I found girls were quite attracted to me. I was really happy about that because I had been very attracted to them also but couldn't do anything about it.
There was just one problem… I was still incredibly shy. Even the thought of kissing a girl would make my body shake. I found that alcohol cured that problem and I would go out at least once or twice a week and drink quite a bit… usually waking up with some girl in my bed.
After many years of this I was living in LA and there was a knock on my door. I opened it and it was a beautiful blonde girl and some of my friends.
"Yes, that's you!" she said. My friends laughed and walked off.
"Uh, sorry?" I said.
"I saw you driving last night in your Viper and I followed you home and came today to look for you," she said.
I stood with a blank stare.
"Well, can I come in?" she asked.
I couldn't think of a reason why not.
She went on to tell me how she loves my car and me… but mostly the car I think.
"I just want to sleep with you," she said.
I laughed for a moment at the Hollywood culture but then gulped as she started touching me.
"Wait one minute," I said.
I opened my fridge and gulped down an entire beer.
"You can't have sex without drinking?" she said.
"I've never done it before," I responded.
It was very awkward having sex with a new person mostly sober. It was the only time before or after that I ever have.
THE MIDDLE YEARS
I then decided that I needed to go on a personal voyage of discovery. I bought a sailboat and pushed off and ended up travelling the world for five years visiting nearly one hundred countries. I discovered many things but I found myself out drinking most nights of the week meeting all the local women. At one point I had it in my head that I was just going to do that until I die. I'm not sure why, it was just an idea in my head.
But then, by 2007, I grew very tired of constant travel and partying and decided to move to Acapulco, buy a place, and get back to a more healthy lifestyle. I'd go out and enjoy myself from time to time but my time was spent mostly in the gym, at the pool and reading/researching.
Everything changed in 2008 when I met my wife to be. Suddenly I felt this desire not only to move on to a new phase in my life but to have a family with her. This was a dramatic shift that shocked most of my friends and it came with a new realization. If I was going to support a family I better get back to work after nearly six years of being an international playboy. By 2009 I told her that I had a new plan… that plan turned out to be The Dollar Vigilante and all its related businesses. I was incredibly focused on it for a number of years and it began to take off by around 2012. I found myself doing many things that I found very uncomfortable though as a still shy person, like speaking at conferences and doing interviews.
I would always have one or two drinks before anything like that because I was so nervous. Even writing with my very anti-state bent was uncomfortable without a drink or two.
By 2013 and 2014, however, I found that I had become quite comfortable in public speaking but something else happened at that time. All of a sudden, at almost every event I went to I was almost treated like a celebrity. This was an entirely new realm for me and not one that I had ever desired. I got quite whipped up in it all but was still fairly uncomfortable with constantly having people around me, taking my photo and shaking my hand… so I drank in many of those situations as it just isn't in my nature to be outgoing. I, like most libertarians, am an INTJ on the Meyers Briggs test. The I stands for introverted. The drinks temporarily turned me into an extrovert.
After a few years of nearly perpetual travel, non-stop conferences, cocktail parties, speaking engagements and interviews… and drinking my way through them I realized just recently two things.
The first is that after years of being very publicly active and doing literally hundreds of interviews and speeches I had finally become completely comfortable with it. I didn't need a few drinks to loosen me up to speak in front of 10 people or 10,000.
Secondly, I realized that drinking had become almost a habit. And it had become nearly daily… even when I wasn't travelling or doing appearances.
In recent months it had gotten very unhealthy. I'd drink at least a bottle of wine per day, if not more, and when I went out, which was nearly every night on the road, I would often return very early in the morning with a pocket full of strip club receipts and not much recollection of what I had done.
While my wife has been amazing with me I can tell it is becoming an issue… and after a lot of thought I realized that all the things I used to drink for… mostly my introversion in public situations… weren't an issue anymore. And, moreso, while drinking was an aid in those situations in the past it had now become a negative.
So, why the hell am I still doing it, I thought.
THE NEXT PHASE
And so, as of today, I will not. If you do see me drinking in an interview or at an event it will have meant I have failed. But I have no intention of failing. If I do fail, and even if I don't, I plan on attending an Iboga retreat. Iboga is a psychedelic rain forest shrub that is a miraculous healing medicine.
Of course, you know it must work because it is legal in every country on Earth except in the USSA.
Another reason I drank in the past was that writing things like this article and many of the things I write takes creativity and some courage. The alcohol in the past helped me to not only be creative but to also have the courage to say things that many won't or can't.
The great news, for me, is that I no longer need that aid. After years of writing and speaking it has now become second nature. And, thanks to all the wonderful people who follow my work and their amazing support I don't feel like I need as much courage to say what I do. It feels like I have an army of supporters behind me… and, not to mention, the "extreme" things I have been saying over the years isn't so extreme anymore. It is becoming nearly mainstream discourse to see the government as an unnecessary evil.
And so I hope today to make a new transition into a new phase of my life and work. I have grown into a real man, finally, and it's time to act like it. I still have a lot of work to do to help spread the message of freedom and help those who wish to achieve it… and to help people survive and prosper during and after The End Of The Monetary System As We Know It (TEOTMSAWKI)… and that can be best done with a very clear mind.
Personally, I intend to develop spiritually in the coming years. I will try things like iboga and ayahuasca to try to come to a deeper spiritual understanding of myself and life. I intend to get back into physical shape via things like yoga. And, I intend to spend more quality time with my family.
Professionally, I have a lot of big plans and in order to see them come to fruition it is going to take great focus and effort.
I plan to change the world and it isn't going to be easy. But through developing myself spiritually and physically I will be better able to take on the system. And, by developing myself I can better enjoy my time with my family and friends.
And so, I bid you adieu, alcohol. Thank you for being there countless times in the past when I needed you but I don't need you anymore.
