Guest post by Wendy McElroy. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, April 1997. At the last Liberty Conference, an intellectual brawl erupted during a panel discussion on terrorism. Since I consider electoral politics the milquetoast equivalent of terrorism, my opening statement was a condemnation of voting. My arguments were aimed at libertarians who consider themselves anarchists…
Category: Editor’s Picks
Re: Electoral Obligations
Writes Spencer Morgan: Saying that you have an obligation to vote and that doing so is the way to advance liberty is like saying that you should join your local street gang, go through their initiations, rise through the ranks and become their leader just so you can reduce its level of violence. Most people…
Re: Electoral Politics
Writes Ben Speers: I don’t want to “fix” government. I would rather get rid of it entirely, and the first step in that direction is withdrawing my consent. For example, I refuse to consent to being ruled by either Candidate A or Candidate B (or C or D, etc.). I also refuse to cooperate in…
Is Religion Compatible With a Free Society?
Guest post by Alex Perales. It seems to me that many of those interested in pursuing the knowledge of a free society have also come to other conclusions outside of our actual acting world. Not all of us have reached these conclusions because ultimately there is no logical deduction to be made to get there…
The “Rights” of Animals
Guest post by Murray N. Rothbard. It has lately become a growing fashion to extend the concept of rights from human beings to animals, and to assert that since animals have the full rights of humans, it is therefore impermissible—i.e., that no man has the right—to kill or eat them. There are, of course, many…
Why I Detest the State
Guest post by Clem Johnson. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, February, 1987. About a year before he died, Albert Einstein wrote this warning: “The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking, and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophies.” In paraphrase, such a statement could describe even dire consequences: “From tribalism…
Securing Property Rights in the Absence of a State
Guest post by George F. Smith. Many Rothbardians are vowing not to vote in this or any election since voting only supports the State. But I wonder if they could be persuaded otherwise if they knew one of the ballot choices were to dissolve the governments and replace them with voluntary market institutions. Of course,…
Why Democracy is Irresponsible
Guest post by Strangering. Originally posted at /r/anarcho_capitalism. Let’s define what it means to be responsible. One is considered responsible for his actions if the consequences of the actions are owned by him. For example, if one drives drunk and crashes into a tree, the damage to the car and his body is his to bear.…
Open Systems vs. Closed Systems
Guest post by Joseph Dejan. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, February 1987. To the academic question of more or less government, we may find more useful to compare the political structure with the voluntary system. To sustain life and maximize his well-being, organized human efforts are mandatory. Individually, man may survive, but complete independence requires…
It’s Time To Debunk The Myth That Copyright Is Needed To Make Money – Or That It Even Makes Money
Guest post by Rick Falkvinge. One of the most persistent myths about the copyright monopoly has been that it’s needed to make money. This assertion turns out to be false for a very large number of observed cases, but the plural of anecdote is never statistics. So let’s look at some sound statistical evidence for…