It’s interesting, and telling, that although cities and other political units differ greatly across the USA, they all have rotten, overbearing police departments.
Tag: action
A Lack of Imagination
People LOVE punishment. And they lust for it. And they simply can’t imagine finding themselves in the position of being on the other end. Unfortunately, I can imagine it.
Don’t Want to Live in a Free Society
People want creature comforts; they want entertainment; and they want the illusion of security, which the government supplies.
Incentives or Imposed Instruction?
On the one hand, you believe it’s not from the benevolence of the butcher that we get our meat, but by his regard to his self-interest in a market context. On the other hand, you believe that children have no regard for their self-interest and do not respond to market incentives so must be forced and directed to do what’s good for them and by extension society.
Intrinsic Motivation vs. Extrinsic Motivation
Maybe this isn’t a problem for you. Maybe you are perfectly willing to reward your child for good behavior until they move out, but for the rest of us, we want our children to want to be kind, to want to share, to want to help out around the house, to want to learn.
The Liberal Spirit and Its Opposite, Alt-Rightism
Maybe a few self-described libertarians cling to the idea that property is essentially about exclusion, but they are fated to hit a wall: liberalism is a spirit as well as a set of ideas, and it cannot be turned against itself. It fosters human solidarity, not separation. Libertarianism, like its precursor, is an answer to the question: under what conditions do reasoning social animals best flourish? In answering that question the way it has, liberalism offers no home to sowers of division.
A Plea for Do-Nothing Government
Probably the single most beneficial amendment to the U.S. and state constitutions would be an amendment to forbid the government from “doing something” beyond its normal actions in response to national or local emergencies.
The Existence of the State makes Evil People Far More Dangerous
Donald Trump or Barack Obama or George Bush or Franklin D. Roosevelt weren’t particularly dangerous until they obtained control of the state, and the same can be said of nearly every politician, dictator, and tyrant in history. What makes evil people so dangerous is that they can—often in an ostensibly legitimate manner—assume power over millions or even billions of other people.
Words Poorly Used #99 — Anarchism
Anarchy is. Whether you believe in it or not is immaterial. Anarchy is. Whether you act to gain it or not is immaterial.
Gang Members Attract Groupies
One day recently, at an event at the park, I was watching people gathering around a cop. Several seemed to be jostling for his attention. I couldn’t help but wonder what the attraction was. Then I remembered someone I know who idolizes the Mafia, and it clicked: Gang members attract groupies. Suddenly I started thinking of other examples of the same phenomenon.