What Aussies Can Learn The American Freedom Movement

Over the past few years, I’ve watched a growing number of Australians looking to the US — particularly places like Texas — to see what people are actually building around food, land, privacy, alternative currencies and community. When we recently introduced the PWQ audience to Live Free Academy, the response from Australia surprised even their team. Aussies joined the virtual summit, and some are travelling all the way to Texas to participate in person. So I wanted to ask a bigger question: **What can Australia learn from what’s working — and not working — in America’s freedom movement?** In this episode I sit down with John Bush, founder of Live Free Academy in Texas, who has spent more than 20 years in the freedom movement. John eventually came to a fairly simple conclusion: endlessly fighting the existing system wasn’t necessarily creating greater freedom. So his focus shifted towards building alternatives. We talk about local food and regenerative farming, land and intentional communities, Bitcoin and alternative currencies, privacy, decentralised technology and the counter-economy. Importantly, we also talk about what **hasn’t** worked. John and I compare notes on our experiences building communities and land projects and arrive at a familiar conclusion: sometimes the cows and chickens are easier than the people. Because freedom isn’t simply about opting out. It requires responsibility, maturity, self-governance and the ability to work together. John also shares what’s happening in his hometown of Bastrop, Texas, where residents organised against Flock surveillance cameras — a fascinating example of ordinary people taking effective local action. Not everything happening in America translates directly to Australia. Our laws, culture and circumstances are different. But there’s a lot we can learn from people who are already experimenting, building and finding out what works. Rather than reinventing everything ourselves, let’s learn from their successes and mistakes — and ask: **What could we build here?** **To get your free tickets to the EXIT AND BUILD VIRTUAL SUMMIT, click below:** https://courses.livefree.academy/exit-build-6-virtual-summit?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fcourses.livefree.academy%2Fa%2F2148329189%2FSoTekGyh