Howdy everybody, CJ here, and welcome to another dose of dangerous history.

This episode is going to feature the audio of a talk I gave a little over a month ago as I'm recording this intro.

So this was at the March 20203 Self-Reliance Festival in Tennessee that I attended and was a speaker at.

And my topic in this talk is going to be the decline and fall of empires.

And in particular, some of the things, unfortunately, pretty much all negative, that tend to happen and that tend to be

inflicted by ruling oligarchies on empires that are in decline and collapse mode.

So this was a really neat event. I would definitely be happy to go again in the future if I were

invited again as a speaker.

It's in a fairly rural area of Middle Tennessee,

and most of the presenters were very, like, practical, nuts and bolt stuff,

you know, homesteading, prepping, self-defense, self-reliance, all those sorts of things.

And then there's me giving the grand historical perspective from the perspective of somebody

who thinks too much. But it seems to be a well-received talk. I got a lot of compliments and

conversations afterward by people. So that was... but it seems to be a well-received talk. I got a lot of compliments and conversations

afterward by people. So that was cool. And I have a bunch of thank yous regarding this event.

So first off, thanks first and foremost to Nicole Sauce for inviting me and helping to

arrange the logistics and all that stuff.

She basically organizes and runs the event.

And big thanks to John Willis of S-O-E-Tatical.

He hosted the event on his compound, which was a really cool place.

And he was also nice enough to have me on his show while I was there as a guest.

So thank you, John.

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