Written by Mark Stovel for On the Mark. The State asserts a “coerced monopoly of the provision of defense service (police and courts) over a given territorial area” which is said to give the State the “right” to have the monopoly on all legitimate use of force in the given territorial area. This leads to…
Category: Editor’s Picks
Learning Begins From Within
Written by Butler Shaffer for LewRockwell.com. People who have developed the capacity for epistemological independence are not easy to control for purposes that do not serve their interests. Institutions – which have purposes of their own that transcend those of individuals – require a mass-minded population that has been conditioned to accept outer-imposed definitions of…
Social Stability, Rule of Law, and the Free Society
Written by Wheylous for The Voluntaryist Reader. Democracy has been hailed as the great system of governance that keeps a nation balanced on the thin line between authoritarianism and lawless anarchy. The voluntaryist’s suggestion that the core responsibilities of the state – provision of courts, police, and national defense – be demonopolized (that is, allowed…
How Government ‘Works’
Written by Bill Bonner for LewRockwell.com. There are many theories to explain government. Most are nothing but scams, justifications, and puffery. One tries to put something over on the common man…the other claims it was for his own good…and the third pretends that he’d be lost without it. Most are not really ‘theories’ at all…but…
Try This On Your Friends
Written by F. A. Harper, as published in The Voluntaryist, February 1991. The elections are over and the campaign dirt has settled a bit. Do you enjoy riddles? This one challenges many students of liberty. Once we see the problem, lack of a solution will bedevil us until we can solve it logically to the…
Doing Something Different: Growing Without Schooling
Written by Susannah Sheffer for The Natural Child Project. I’m sitting with three teenagers who have recently left school to begin learning at home and in the wider world. On the table in front of us lie notes about possibilities – ideas, wishes, plans for further investigation. I’ve scribbled down, “Call homeless shelter; find out…
Effective Ways to Bond With Your Child
Written by Elizabeth Kane for Authentic Parenting. Is it just me, or does bonding always seem too romanticized for real life? We see it in the movies all the time. Kids and parents are smiling at each other in the perfect light. Everyone’s impeccably dressed, saying all the right things at the right time. And…
The Case Against Democracy: The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same
Written by Carl Watner for The Voluntaryist, August 1990. Democracy. For many, the word sums up what is desirable in human affairs. Democracy, and agitation for it, occurs all over the world: the Pro-Democracy movement in China during 1989; the democratic reform movements taking place in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R. resulting in the breakup…
Deschooling a Parent: Learning to Trust
Written by Jan Hunt for The Natural Child Project. It’s only natural for parents to feel uneasy and uncertain when contemplating a path for their children other than the one they themselves traveled. Those of us who decide to unschool – even when we are convinced that this is the best option for our child…
Monopolization of a Water Supply
Written by Wheylous for The Voluntaryist Reader. A charge occasionally levied against libertarianism is that a vital natural resource, such as a water supply, could be monopolized by an astute businessman, who could then hold society hostage with the threat of cutting off its ability of replenishing its bodily fluids. This is a most curious…