Many who enter the service of the state are required to make a personal oath to defend the document that supposedly gave the state its authority, eg. the Constitution of the United States. Well and good, but when someone who has taken this oath decides that what they are being ordered to do by their…
Category: Two Cents
On Liberty and Security
The statist is someone who favors the aggressive monopolization of the provision of law and order by whatever group of individuals is able to successfully do so. The total statist is someone who favors the aggressive monopolization of the provision of every good and service. Either statist, because they support the unjustified initiation of aggression,…
On Utopia
Utopia means, literally, “nowhere.” This idea is thrown at voluntaryists and anarchists as an argument that their vision for society could never exist. Because Utopia is and will always be “nowhere,” then the Utopians are those who champion a vision for society that can never exist. Stateless, anarchistic societies have existed before, proving their compatibility…
On Human Nature
You’ll find in political and parenting debates the contrasting claims that humans are by nature either peaceful or violent. I have no doubt that humans have the capacity for both peace and violence. I see around me people acting peacefully, and I see in the news people acting violently. I would say that human nature…
On Gods and Rulers
A lot of anarchists are also proud atheists. Their mantra is “no gods, no rulers.” It seems that their objection to rulers is of the same nature as their objection to gods. I don’t understand the connection. Being a ruler is a personal choice. One chooses to rule over others. A god may be a…
On What is Unseen
Frederic Bastiat’s principle that we mustn’t look at only what is seen, but also what is unseen, applies as much to politics as it does to economics. The State of Utah had it’s ban on same-sex marriage overturned by a Federal judge yesterday. Previous to this, a Federal judge also overturned Utah’s ban on polygamous…
On Government Transparency
A headline at InformationWeek reads, “Google Says Governments Fight Transparency.” Of course they do. Don’t all criminal organization try to hide their scheming from the rest of society? I would if I were a criminal. As I wrote in “Conspiracy Theorem,” the state “actively and purposefully keeps most of society in the dark on some…
On Productive Communication
In Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule, Zedd, a wizard and a mentor, asks his young friend Richard who is more dangerous, a 200 lb. thief who knows he’s not entitled to your money but wants it anyway, or a 100 lb. mother who erroneously believes you’ve stolen and hidden her baby. Richard’s answer was, correctly,…
On Children and Play
When your puppy begins chewing on anything and everything, should you begin punishing her and prohibiting her from chewing on things? Dogs clearly have a natural inclination to chew on things. They need to chew. To punish them or prohibit them from doing so is to keep them from fulfilling an evolutionary need. Instead, you…
On Utah’s Polygamy Ruling
Once again I’m disappointed on a ruling seemingly for liberty. A federal judge in Utah ruled two days ago that Utah’s law prohibiting polygamous cohabitation to be unconstitutional. That a federal judge would interfere with a local law is troubling. It’s a display of power by a bigger state over a smaller one. Local laws…