came for the drugs and stayed for the revolution.’
That revolution played out largely in an entire section of the Silk Road forums called ‘Philosophy, Economics and Law’, which hosted many passionate debates about prohibition, legalisation and decriminalisation. Not everyone, including Roberts himself, was interested in seeing drugs regulated by the state. They believed governments were every bit as corrupt as the cartels they would replace.
DPR claimed that Silk Road was evidence that the war on drugs had been lost. ‘With Silk Road, you can now get virtually any drug you want delivered directly to you, with little chance of them even knowing about it,’ wrote Roberts. ‘In a very real sense, we’ve won the war on drugs. I’m not saying it’s time for a victory lap, but I can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.’
The Philosophy, Economics and Law section was home to ‘DPR’s Book Club’, which was launched in August 2012 with the following introduction:
Welcome to DPR’s book club! Knowledge is power, and reading is one of the best ways to expand your knowledge. Each week, we will select a reading designed to expand our understanding of the issues that face the Silk Road community and have a group discussion on the material. My hope is that a high level of discourse will be fostered, and as a community, we can become strong in our beliefs, with a coherent message and voice as the world begins to take notice of us.
We will focus on agorism, counter-economics, anarchocapitalism, Austrian economics, political philosophy, freedom issues and related topics. My hope is that through this, we will discover what we stand for and foster a culture of peace, prosperity, justice and freedom. There is so much double-speak and misinformation in the world today that we must take our education into our own hands, and defend our minds with reason and critical thinking.
The forum became a place not only for the book club (and, later, the movie nights), but for philosophical debates and discussions of all types. Trolls and illiterates steered clear and many of the threads were more akin to the debate sections of a university alumni website than to the discussion arm of a black market for narcotics.
In true cult style, Dread Pirate Roberts’ devotees seemed to forget he was running a highly profitable business and thought of themselves as part of a movement. The faithful would practically beg to give him more money, despite the huge sums he was earning in commission. They offered their services in IT or to work as moderators of the forums for free. When the site was unavailable due to malicious attacks or infrastructure failure, members offered to take up a collection to help instead of demanding it be fixed with the profits they had already provided. Dread Pirate Roberts rarely, if ever, accepted such offers, though the moderators of the forum were unpaid until early 2013 and some people donated money to the cause anyway.
When journalists contacted Dread Pirate Roberts from time to time, he was very guarded but always polite, and he always provided the briefest of quotes for articles. Although he never failed to respond to a private message, most of the time the responses were short, revealing little of the man behind the keyboard. He never bothered to use PGP, even in response to encrypted messages.
When it was put to him that he had many of the attributes of a sect leader, Roberts denied he was the object of cult-like devotion with a curt admonishment: ‘don’t go getting sensationalist on me now’.
Shouldn’t you get in touch with me when it’s time to write? I’m not going anywhere.
– Dread Pirate Roberts’ response to the author when asked if he would consider contributing to a book, August 2012
Sam’s Vegas Adventure
I t was pretty clear that on a per capita basis, Australia had one of the highest usage rates of Silk Road – if not the highest – of any country in the world.
That revolution played out largely in an entire section of the Silk Road forums called ‘Philosophy, Economics and Law’, which hosted many passionate debates about prohibition, legalisation and decriminalisation. Not everyone, including Roberts himself, was interested in seeing drugs regulated by the state. They believed governments were every bit as corrupt as the cartels they would replace.
DPR claimed that Silk Road was evidence that the war on drugs had been lost. ‘With Silk Road, you can now get virtually any drug you want delivered directly to you, with little chance of them even knowing about it,’ wrote Roberts. ‘In a very real sense, we’ve won the war on drugs. I’m not saying it’s time for a victory lap, but I can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.’
The Philosophy, Economics and Law section was home to ‘DPR’s Book Club’, which was launched in August 2012 with the following introduction:
Welcome to DPR’s book club! Knowledge is power, and reading is one of the best ways to expand your knowledge. Each week, we will select a reading designed to expand our understanding of the issues that face the Silk Road community and have a group discussion on the material. My hope is that a high level of discourse will be fostered, and as a community, we can become strong in our beliefs, with a coherent message and voice as the world begins to take notice of us.
We will focus on agorism, counter-economics, anarchocapitalism, Austrian economics, political philosophy, freedom issues and related topics. My hope is that through this, we will discover what we stand for and foster a culture of peace, prosperity, justice and freedom. There is so much double-speak and misinformation in the world today that we must take our education into our own hands, and defend our minds with reason and critical thinking.
The forum became a place not only for the book club (and, later, the movie nights), but for philosophical debates and discussions of all types. Trolls and illiterates steered clear and many of the threads were more akin to the debate sections of a university alumni website than to the discussion arm of a black market for narcotics.
In true cult style, Dread Pirate Roberts’ devotees seemed to forget he was running a highly profitable business and thought of themselves as part of a movement. The faithful would practically beg to give him more money, despite the huge sums he was earning in commission. They offered their services in IT or to work as moderators of the forums for free. When the site was unavailable due to malicious attacks or infrastructure failure, members offered to take up a collection to help instead of demanding it be fixed with the profits they had already provided. Dread Pirate Roberts rarely, if ever, accepted such offers, though the moderators of the forum were unpaid until early 2013 and some people donated money to the cause anyway.
When journalists contacted Dread Pirate Roberts from time to time, he was very guarded but always polite, and he always provided the briefest of quotes for articles. Although he never failed to respond to a private message, most of the time the responses were short, revealing little of the man behind the keyboard. He never bothered to use PGP, even in response to encrypted messages.
When it was put to him that he had many of the attributes of a sect leader, Roberts denied he was the object of cult-like devotion with a curt admonishment: ‘don’t go getting sensationalist on me now’.
Shouldn’t you get in touch with me when it’s time to write? I’m not going anywhere.
– Dread Pirate Roberts’ response to the author when asked if he would consider contributing to a book, August 2012
Sam’s Vegas Adventure
I t was pretty clear that on a per capita basis, Australia had one of the highest usage rates of Silk Road – if not the highest – of any country in the world.
Similar Books
