Guest post by Alex R. Knight, III.
The much vaunted libertarian journalist and commentator H.L. Mencken once wrote: “I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.”
I don’t consider it a stretch at all to say that this is how any voluntaryist worthy of the title feels. But statists – left, right, and centrist – most obviously disagree. They still remain adamantly convinced that government – whether minimal or all-pervasive – and in spite of all historical evidence to the contrary, remains both a legitimate and useful vehicle for producing an orderly, just, and productive society. And, most maddeningly, they are enamored of conveniently going to whatever lengths necessary to ignore and evade what is perhaps the most important point of voluntaryism: That governments, of whatever variety, can only and ever sustain themselves by the constant, unwavering threat of lethal violence.
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