Many voluntaryists have looked longingly toward Somalia for evidence of our ideas in practice. But it’s a little tough when that real-world example also happens to be the quintessential image of extreme poverty and feuding warlords for most people. Nonetheless, sometimes an article appears that rightly points out that comparing Somalia to developed nations is a little intellectually dishonest. In fact, Somalia has improved by virtually every measure of standard of living without a state, or when compared to its neighbors that still have a state.
Tag: aggression
Entrepreneurship is the Best Defense Against Hierarchy
Self-sufficiency often brings to mind recluses living in the woods, raising their own food, and building their own shelter. This doesn’t have to be the case though. Anybody who has the means of creating enough wealth to trade for their wants and needs is self-sufficient. You don’t need to raise your own food so long as you can trade with somebody who has a surplus of food and is willing to trade it with you. As an entrepreneur you cannot be fired by a boss and you’re not reliant on a state to protect you from an egregious employer.
“Spanking” Children Is Domestic Violence
While the average American would look at you like you were crazy if you said it was okay for a man to hit his wife if she didn’t obey him, that same person would likely argue that hitting – or “spanking” – children is not only acceptable, but advisable for producing “well-behaved, functioning” members of society.
This not only defies logic, it defies science.
Lethal Threats From Trespassers
If you are flying war planes in a threatening manner around someone’s home territory, you are the bad guy. You deserve to have those planes shot down. The pilots are being bad guys and deserve to die. If you call any objection or resistance to your planes “aggression” you are lying. If you are a military employee breaking stuff and threatening people in someone else’s home territory, and you get shot, you were the bad guy. It’s no different from a homeowner shooting a burglar or rapist he catches in his house.
Most People Act in a Peaceful, Friendly, Voluntary Way
What you personally experience on a daily basis is a far more accurate indication of reality than what you will see or hear almost anywhere else, including right here. I talk about examples of authoritarian evil and injustice all the time, and there is certainly no shortage of examples. But hearing about that so often can make one feel depressed, overwhelmed, discouraged and hopeless. So I’m flinging this message out there to give a bit of balance.
Don’t Help Cops Feel Useful
I don’t want cops to feel useful, wanted, or needed. I’d rather they struggle to walk the boredom tightrope between donuts and steroids without anyone inviting them into their life. If they are going to be collecting their ill-gotten paychecks anyway, I’d rather they be sitting in the donut shop than out “on the streets.” It keeps the harm they do to a minimum. I don’t want them “earning their pay” by committing acts of enforcement. Not even against my worst enemy.
But Who Will Build The Libertarian Society? The Inconsistency of “Immigration Control”
A popular rationalization for “immigration control” is a coupling of the reality that the State currently “taxes” (forces/extorts) people to pay for “welfare,” roadways, etc., and the chance (which proponents claim is fact) that “immigrants” “will vote to take your freedoms away.” This carries the linguistic baggage of layer upon layer of delusion, but in the end it either boils down to the State being rightful owner of all property, or at least acting as if it were, and violently controlling everyone and their property.
Setting Myself Up To Fail?
I’m doing it. I’m making a New Year resolution. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind that I find easy to make stick, but the other kind. I’m still going to give it a shot and, toward the long-term goal, I give myself permission to slip sometimes (although I will expect to be scolded if I do).
The Mythical Monopoly on Force
A State in theory is, or has, a “monopoly on force,” but it’s more accurate to simply call it a “monopolist,” in that they think and act as if they are a “monopoly on force,” the only ones entitled to enforce rights, but can never actually attain this “monopoly.”
Thought Experiments on The Violence of The State
I just wanted to take a moment and demonstrate how loving your neighbor as you love your own mother would result in the abandonment of the State. Our innate human morals preclude us from punishing our friends and family when they have harmed no one by their actions, nor damaged anyone else’s property.