Messages of Freedom and Hope from FEEcon

Last week I was in Atlanta enjoying the excitement and intellectual ferment of FEEcon, the annual conference held by the Foundation for Economic Education. On Friday I posted some of the content that the FEE team has produced on the long, sad slide of Venezuela into socialist chaos, and now, fortunately, some additional—and more optimistic—video content is available from the conference itself.

In the video above attendees, including our old friend Nick Gillespie from Reason and some precocious youngsters, give their testimonials and descriptions of the conference, which brought together students, writers, professors, activists, and people from many other backgrounds. They talked about reforming urban land-use policies, creating alternate currencies, starting new businesses, and promoting creative approaches to environmental protection.

The event also featured some impressive musical performances, first by cellist and composer Tina Guo and then by Venezuelan democracy activist and violinist Wuilly Arteaga (above). FEE notes that Arteaga never had a classical music education but was able, at age 18, to teach himself to play the violin by watching instructional YouTube videos. The results are inspiring.