Written by Paul Bonneau for Strike The Root. One other characteristic that is usually included with panarchism is that of extraterritoriality. In other words, people of different polities live all mixed up together, again similar to people of modern religions. I don’t find this entirely prescriptive of panarchy, though, since people can live where they…
Author: Editor's Pick
Selected content picked by the editor of Everything-Voluntary.com.
James Ostrowski
“Toward Freedom” is an Everything-Voluntary.com series sharing personal stories about the journey toward freedom. Archived stories can be found here. Submit your story to the editor. Originally published in I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians. I suppose I could best be described as an independent, middle-class, populist, radical libertarian. How I got that way is…
The Rationally Misinformed Voter
Written by Thomas J. DiLorenzo for LewRockwell.com. In the sub-discipline of economics known as public choice, an important concept is the theory of “rational ignorance.” First articulated by political scientist Anthony Downs in the 1950s, and expanded upon by economist Gordon Tullock and others, the theory of rational ignorance holds that it is perfectly rational…
The Threat of Voluntary Associations
Written by David Glasner, as published in The Voluntaryist, October 1991. The notion that a regime — even a totalitarian regime — could survive the universal disapproval of it subjects is difficult to comprehend. Ordinarily one would assume that a nearly unanimous desire by the subjects of a regime to oust it eventually would make…
But What About Voluntary Slaves?
Written by Clayton for The Voluntaryist Reader. One of the objections that is raised against voluntaryism is that, since “anything goes” in a voluntary society so long as it is voluntary, wouldn’t there be voluntary slavery? If Smith sells himself into slavery to Jones, we as voluntaryists must respect this voluntary choice, no?Read the full…
Reflections on School and Prison
Written by John Taylor Gatto, as published at The Link. Almost all Americans have had an intense school experience which occupied their entire youth, an experience during which they were drilled thoroughly in the culture and economy of the well-schooled greater society, in which individuals have been rendered helpless to do much of anything except…
Obsessed by Megalomania
Interview with Hans-Hermann Hoppe by German weekly Junge Freiheit. Are taxes nothing but protection money? The state a kind of mafia? Democracy a fraud? Philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe is not only considered one of the most prominent pioneering intellectuals of the libertarian movement, but also perhaps the sharpest critic of the Western political system. Professor Hoppe:…
Everybody Does It
Written by Mark Davis for Strike The Root. The good old “argumentum ad populum” or “appeal to the people” is a logical fallacy that has been used by countless children the world over for time immemorial. Unfortunately, the equally old lesson traditionally imparted by parents to children who use this appeal “Would you jump off…
Andrew P. Napolitano
“Toward Freedom” is an Everything-Voluntary.com series sharing personal stories about the journey toward freedom. Archived stories can be found here. Submit your story to the editor. Originally published in I Chose Liberty: Autobiographies of Contemporary Libertarians. Winston Churchill, of whose Big Government values I have not been fond, did have a great gift for words. He…
How “Intellectual Property” Impedes Competition
Written by Kevin Carson, as published at the Center for a Stateless Society. Any consideration of “intellectual property rights” must start from the understanding that such “rights” undermine genuine property rights and hence are illegitimate in terms of libertarian principle. Real, tangible property rights result from natural scarcity and follow as a matter of course…