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My Trip to Scandinavia/Eastern Europe

Scandinavia&Eastern Europe

Benbest
2004-03-28 15:27:30
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From mid-June until late July of 1992 I traveled through Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the northeast corner of the former Soviet Union. The pretext for the trip was two computer conferences being held in or near St. Petersburg, Russia in the first half of July. I spent several months preparing for this trip.


I read several histories of Russia, and I read something on the history and current culture of each of the other countries I planned to visit. I spent months trying to learn as much Russian language as I could -- mostly through language tapes. I have no facility for learning languages, so this was very hard slogging (and the results were disappointing). I gathered together three old essays I had written which I thought would be particularly appropriate for emerging libertarians in Eastern Europe: one on monetary systems, one on the nature of the concept of private property and one on Exploitation Theory (which I regard to be the essence of Marxism). I titled this collection "Three Essays on Political Economy by Ben Best" and photocopied 30 copies for personalized distribution.


Another way I prepared for my trip was by attempting to make contacts in the Scandinavian and East European countries through correspondence with people belonging to a variety of special interest groups -- libertarians, Mensans, cryonicists and APL-language aficionados. By mid-June I had established a rather impressive network of contacts.


When I landed in Stockholm I was met at the airport by the Swedish ISIL (International Society for Individual Liberty) representative Henrik Bejke. He escorted me by bus to a night-club in Stockholm, which is a major focus of libertarianism in that city. This club is owned and operated by libertarians as a profit-making political protest. Unlike other Stockholm nightclubs, this club has no liquor license and it operates all night (instead of closing at 1 am as the other clubs must do).


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