I was just recently contemplating the fact that Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto (1848), Gustave de Molinari’s The Production of Security (1849), and many if not most of Lysander Spooner’s core works all coincided with one another temporally.
Author: Alex R. Knight III
Alex R. Knight III is originally from Groveland, Massachusetts, where he grew up listening to rock and roll, reading J.R.R. Tolkien, and the comic books of the 1970s. He today lives in rural southern Vermont where he welds, plays guitar, paints abstracts, reads avidly, and writes. He is the author of the short fiction collection, Tales From Dark 7, in addition to the novels The Morris Room, and Empty World. And, he is a Voluntaryist. Visit his MeWe group here.
A Defense of Atrophy
“Progressives” – those who believe that a maximized involvement of government in your life and economic affairs (not just theirs, of course) is in fact progress, i.e., the creation of a better world – see individual liberty as a liability, not an asset.
Fuck You, Facebook: I’m Leaving
Mark Zuckerberg was the first to create a program we now refer to as a social media network, and was thereby successful in establishing Facebook (more properly known now as Fascistbook) as the “industry standard.” When I first joined a decade ago, FB was relatively unfettered. You could write and post freely, with little chance of being banned or censored. All of that, in more recent times, has changed dramatically.
What Most People Care About
On March 26, 2020, at the once excellent but now mostly defunct website Daily Anarchist, Seth King broke almost five years of silence by publishing a piece that contained the following statement: “I don’t think libertarians, be they minimalists or anarcho-capitalists, are ever going to realize their dreams in this life. Freedom just isn’t popular.” Unfortunately, I’m inclined to concur.
What Most People Apparently Believe
There will never come a day — ever — when the political class decides that there are numerous enough laws, enough taxes, and enough control mechanisms over people’s lives.
Clarification of Misnomer Terminology
You’re not “progressive.” You’re RE-gressive. You’re anti-progress. You actively seek the destruction of progress and freedoms that have taken literally thousands of years of bloodshed, toil, suffering, and sacrifice to bring even this far.
America Proved Minarchism is a Myth
It is beyond any measure of denial to assert that the American experiment in “limited government” – “constitutional” or otherwise – has proven itself an abject failure. The US government is the largest, most expensive, and most powerful cabal on the planet. And it shows no signs of reversing course. But for the true believers in minarchism, it gets even worse.
The Art and Science of Physical Removal
That said, it is the even smallest potential for “libertarian socialism” that causes me to distance myself somewhat from Hoppe. That one-in-a-thousand leftie who just wants to live peacefully in a commune with his or her buddies down the road – so long as their chosen lifestyle and preferred economic models are kept among themselves and other willing participants who are free to leave at any time – is not and should not be considered a problem.
The Cost of Everything
One thing most people overlook in the course of day to day life is the degree to which governments make everything we purchase far more expensive than it would otherwise be. Consider that every company that manufactures a product needs to first procure raw materials, shape those materials to their specific needs and combine those parts into the finished product, then distribute (transport) them to buyers/vendors who will then sell them to consumers.
The Power of Positive is Not Always Possible (But Neither Does it Have to Be)
I have come to believe that in every given situation it comes down to a simple choice: You can look at what’s occurring with cynicism and negativity and have a virtual guarantee of getting nowhere — or, without having to like it at all you can at least acknowledge it as merely another obstacle which will test your determination to not become frozen by fear, or anger, or pessimism. Your will to keep moving, regardless of circumstances.