Vine & Fig Tree

I just finished an interview with KSMU (National Public Radio), and as soon as it’s available, I’ll let you know on this blog. On Tuesday I spoke to a journalism class at the College of the Ozarks. In both cases I was able to remind listeners about the Vine & Fig Treevision that made America the most prosperous and most admired nation in history. But in both cases the questions were oriented around the political campaign, and I find myself falling into the trap of talking like a legitimate political candidate rather than a wackoutopian extremistanarcho-pacifist. I’m not in the race because I have “hope” that I can win an election. I run to promote “wacko” ideas like these:

• You should not take money from other people by threatening to do violence to them (like forcibly depriving them of their property, their liberty, or their life)
• Government should not force Parents to send their children to “public” schools that refuse to teach students that the Declaration of Independence is really true:
  • that there really is a God, and His existence is a “self-evident truth”
  • that our rights really are the product of the intelligent design of our Creator (not a gift from the government)
  • that all Americans really are obligated to conform their lives to “the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God“
  • that one day our actions really must pass judgment with “the Supreme Judge of the world“
  • that all Americans should have “a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence.”
  • that Americans have a duty — not just a right  – to abolish any government that becomes a tyranny.
• The United States has become a tyranny.
• The United States is the most evil and dangerous government on earth
  • (There are a couple of other governments that might be more evil, but they are not more dangerous.)
• We should beat our “swords into plowshares” (gasp! — “Pacifism!”)
• The world would be a better place without “archists” [an "archist" is someone who believes he has the right to impose his will on other people by force]
  • This means that the whole idea of “a government” by the few over the many is the worst idea in the history of the human race (“Anarchism!”)
• The modern doctrine of the “Separation of Church and State” is a myth (“Theocracy!”)
• Republicans and Democrats should vote Libertarian as the best political path to the “Vine & Fig Tree” society (“Utopian!”)

We’ve all been trained not to consider these ideas too seriously, if at all. I never get to (or feel constrained not to, or forget to) promote as much as I would like the extremist ideas I love. But maybe pretending to be a political candidate forces me to give a better introduction to these ideas, one that is a little less off-putting and extreme-sounding. I go back and forth on this question of strategy.

Here’s a letter from the Journalism Professor at College of the Ozarks following my class interview:

Dear Mr. Craig,

Thank you so much for speaking to –and taking questions from– our News Reporting class today.

It was a thought-provoking session, one that left our students with much to think over: what does it take to run for political office? why do people run for political office? how important -or dangerous- is political power? how much government is enough, or too much? what did the framers of our Constitution intend for our federal government to be – and to do?

And what did Thomas Jefferson envision for our nation when he said, “The God who gave us life gave us liberty”?

Your candid and thoughtful answers to our students’ questions gave them a window on the political process – or at least the part of the process in which ideas are exchanged, explained, and debated.

Thank you for the gift of your time and thought. It is very much appreciated.

All the best to you –

My mother has been in the hospital the last two weeks, and this has allowed me to attend the League of Women Voters Forum, an interview with KWTO, and other campaign events. She returns home this weekend. That means I’ll have to hire a qualified mommy-sitter to attend campaign events @ $130+ per day. At this time I have not yet raised enough money to pay my rent at the end of the month. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to “Vine & Fig Tree” which will help me pay the rent and hit “the campaign trail.” There’s a box at the top right corner of this blog, or you can save PayPal fees by mailing a check to

Vine & Fig Tree
P.O. Box 179
Powersite, MO 65731

(Note: “Vine & Fig Tree” is separate from my political campaign and does not endorse political candidates. I have an obligation to the Libertarian Party to be a decent political candidate, but since I really have no realistic chance of winning, I am freely using the campaign process as a platform to advance the “Vine & Fig Tree” agenda. I can neither campaign as a candidate nor work for “Vine & Fig Tree” if the bills don’t get paid. Contributions are “fungible,” as we all know.)

Thank you for helping me do what I love to do.