 Ladies and gentlemen welcome, I'm very pleased to join with Martin Erickson Who is a swede who actually lives and resides in Malta or I should I say on Malta? Martin is one of the people organizing an upcoming conference on the island of Malta called Korax Which is going to feature None other than the great Hans Hermann Hoppe So Martin welcome and and talk a little bit about this upcoming conference, which is ladies and gentlemen July 28 through 30th I will also be speaking but a bit more importantly as I mentioned Hans Hoppe will be speaking So what's what's the what are the origins of the conference and why are you holding it? Yeah, so the the conference is the second annual Korax conference and Korax is a libertarian media network Which originated in Sweden under a different brand name. It's called the bubla in Sweden It's a fairly large and successful libertarian project in Sweden and Korax is the kind of embryonic English language version that we do for an international audience So the conference is in part a way for our our current readers listeners Followers to get together and meet each other in person But it's also hopefully a way to get some more attention internationally as we're now trying to to build out The the things we're doing in Sweden to try to make versions of them for a global audience Well in the US We have a lot of European friends. There's a lot of Mises institutes in various countries in Europe Our perception which may be correct or incorrect our perception of European libertarianism, which is a broad phrase Is that it's more classical liberal a little less radical a little less anarcho-capitalist a little less Bitcoin centric and it's and it's not as Hoppy and Rothbardian more Hayekian would you say this is true? And is this something you're sort of fighting? Yes, I would say that it certainly has been true. I mean from from the 80s. We had in Sweden, for example somewhat strong libertarian movement, but it was very much a kind of a left-wing libertarian style neoliberal as we would say So that has been true traditionally, but I think it's it's about to change has been changing for the last 10 years or so the liberty movement is growing rapidly in Sweden as well as many other European countries and The growth we see is not in the kind of traditional libertarian networks or oriented around the neoliberal think tanks and so on it's a much more of an independent networks and organizations and in I think the main event that kind of Got that started to reignite that the libertarian movement was Ron Paul and his candidacy for presidency in 2008 and 2012 so Now when we meet new people we find new new libertarians Usually they don't come from the traditional political organizations. They haven't been in touch with the think tanks and so on They they read about Ron Paul online and got inspired and then they went to mises.org and read up And then maybe several years later. They found out that oh, there's actually libertarians in even in sweden And then they got in touch with us. So I think the the growth we see now is is almost exclusively in these these more radical Circles and for example in sweden, we have a very active and quite excellent local chapter of the mises institute for example They've been an inspiration for me and many others But we also have a huge anarcho capitalist community mostly based on facebook in facebook Discussion groups and they have over two thousand members You know in a narco capitalist group in sweden so so on a per capita basis that's that's Two swedes out of every ten thousand Are our members in this or narco capitalist group and that's that's quite amazing And now we have our project growing very rapidly and and has become the largest project and we're certainly a very radical Anarchist oriented And also have a kind of conservative approach rather than a progressive attitude towards cultural issues well You know martin this is really fascinating to me because in the united states as we saw with ron paul 320 million people It's very hard at the national level To have success. We don't have a parliamentary system. We have these two major parties That have locked down these primaries and so even with all the momentum and excitement for ron There were certain primaries where he got a very low percentage, you know, even of republican voters So in a country like sweden where you have i don't know what sweden eight or ten million people perhaps Do you do you feel like you have You know more ability to operate politically because you know a hundred thousand libertarians in sweden means more than a hundred thousand libertarians in the us Yes, I think that's true. I think that's true in part and there's there's drawbacks and benefits Of operating in in sweden. I think Today sweden is mostly known as this kind of ultra progressive left-wing paradise Kind of place, but that's that's not actually the I heard I heard somebody I heard somebody say sweden is the tumbler of countries Yeah, that's that's actually a good description. I guess So but but this is not actually the the history of sweden Sweden became left-wing quite recently and before that the tradition was quite different So I think there's a kind of swedish or scandinavian Nordic mentality Which actually has this kind of rugged individualism and we try to kind of reconnect to the the older traditions the older values and mentalities And we're having a lot of success Doing that. So I think that's And certainly as you say a smaller group can get More things done. I think in a small language area I also think in sweden. There's there's a huge vacuum. I mean in the u.s. There's plenty of libertarian podcasts, for example And now there's actually a good handful of them in sweden as well, but there's more of a this kind of vacuum For us to fill so there's less competition in some sense. You might say So obviously we are close friends with per biland Violent who is a swede living here in the united states. He's a professor of entrepreneurship at the university of oklahoma What what who are some other swedes? What are some other swedish names? We should know authors libertarians even politicians Well, I'm not sure who is who is visible on the international stage I mean, we have a lot of good people doing stuff in sweden So in particular, I would say the people around the mesis institute people like Joachim fagestrom claus band peintner Other people and they're doing an excellent podcast publishing a lot of good materials Otherwise, I think the people are doing really good work in sweden. They're not visible On on the international stage. So you wouldn't find any articles written by them in english and so on And so yo, akim. I had the opportunity to meet at Hans hoppers a pfs property and freedom society summit in bowdram turkey a few years back tell us about Your relationship with hoppa and how he came to be the headlining speaker at your upcoming conference Yeah, sure. So So when the the mesis institute started in sweden, I think this was 2011. They had the first swedish freedom fest their conference That was quite new their approach and their style was quite new on the libertarian scene because they had this kind of Conservative approach. They were talking about about hoppe, of course But it was much more about a palio libertarian It could kind of kind of style and and previously everything had been very very much kind of Neoliberal progressive culturally left-wing type of libertarianism and I was much more into the kind of a palio type of ideology So I was quite excited went to the first conference and went to several of the other conferences and I think this this kind of initiated a change where the The the conservative part of the movement grew and The the other part sort of withered away I wouldn't I wouldn't think about it as a conflict. We try to be a big tent. We try to be friendly with with everyone but the fact is that When we focus on a kind of more pure right-wing perspective and conservative values We're obviously growing a lot faster than the other ones are doing and Regarding hoppe. I simply think he's the the finest libertarian thinker Who is living currently? I'm I'm immensely impressed by his work on on several levels and so so I personally and many others try to Spread the word get people to read him refer to him as as a sort of theoretical authority and When we were putting together this conference The conference last year was kind of low low budget hastily put together just a few weeks before for it it occurred But this time we had more time to plan. So we made a list of of Speakers potential speakers. So who would we Really want to have if we could just make a wish and have anything we wanted Who would be the the absolute top speaker? We could imagine and and that was a really easy question that was obviously hoppe for us so so Sofia sent him an email and After a bit he said yes, and that was that was super exciting We actually caught some flak among swedish libertarians for inviting him and And promoting the conference with his name and so on But that's that that was that was mostly fun well I think hoppe's controversial opinions to the extent anyone thinks they're controversial I think are wildly overblown and I think a lot of hoppe's biggest critics Are those who are least familiar with his work I mean what we're really talking about here is a private society Of one's own making and that could be culturally as left right or otherwise As as the the in group cared to make it So I think a lot of this is overblown And I think a lot of hoppe's work on property rights and ethics Is our absolute must reads for anyone who calls themselves a libertarian So tell us a little bit about malta itself What what what are the appeals is is does malta have Does malta hold out opportunities for libertarians? Why have you come to to to live there and and hold your conference there? Yeah, so To begin with we wanted to get out of sweden since the situation in sweden is deteriorating rather rapidly and We wanted to be in a safer country Have some some calm and safety be surrounded by people with the traditional values And malta is a very good choice for many people in europe since it's part of the e-news It's very easy to travel here and get residency And so on it's They have a lot of kind of market liberal Approaches to government. They're very welcoming to to the people and companies The taxes are low regulations are generally quite tolerable The climate is is Very very good. It's quite excellent, especially if you come from from sweden So I think malta has a really good mix and there's a large expat community here generally Partly due to the regulations of online gambling and finance a few other industries Which makes people companies move here and people come here to work But there's also a growing libertarian Group here who are mostly just wanting to live live more freely under a free jurisdiction pay a little bit less taxes And so on so so we have regular meetups with just just the swedish libertarian expats on malta and have have big meetups A couple of times per month. So I think it's it's a good kind of It's a good escape hatch if you're in europe Because it's a lot better here than in most other places I mean a lot of the the problems going on in in the northern europe with the huge welfare states the ever-increasing taxes mass immigration Subsidized by the government and so on None of that stuff is really happening on malta. It's it's a very kind of a traditional Slow kind of Mediterranean society with basically no crazy stuff going on Well, it sounds like an absolutely fascinating place and i'm i'm looking forward to to seeing malta Give us your website and tell tell us how people can find out if they if they care to attend this conference Or at least find out more about corex generally Yes, so let me mention first that The corex website is c o r dot a x And the the conference website is c o n f conf dot corex dot news That's so that's that c o r a x dot news So so you also find a link to the conference from the main main corex site So that's that's a good place to start And are there presumably Pretty easy direct flights from places like rome frankfurt paris london into malta Yes, malta is something of a travel hub. So it's very easy to get here. They're cheap flights Different depending on where you come from obviously, but Basically anywhere you come from it's easy to get here and it's it's a rather inexpensive place. That's one of the reasons We like to live here and people come here Well martin erickson, thanks a million for your time and for putting together this conference and especially for hosting Hans herman hapa and promoting these these ideas. They're so important and for For having the courage and the vision to To leave sweden if that's what's best for you and your And and your life. So we look forward to meeting you in person Someday soon and take care. Thanks for having me