They picture a giant hippie commune scene where everyone is happy and loving and caring and sharing, and there is no need for any control, or decision-making, or coercion, because in their imagination (and only in their imagination) there is no disagreement or dissent that needs dealing with.
Tag: coercion
On the Social Contract
What is the best way to tell if someone’s defense of the so-called “social contract” is complete and utter bullshit? The defense is made after a people have been violently conquered.
On Government Funding of Science
Neil deGrasse Tyson was on the Joe Rogan podcast recently. Therein he defended the need for government to fund scientific advancement. His argument was that many frontiers are neither accessible nor profitable for free enterprise until government paves the way. He’s probably not wrong, but that hardly constitutes a justification for government funding sourced by coercion.
The Voluntaryist Premise
Once a person adopts the label of voluntaryist (or the like) for their political identity, they assume, with good reason, the following premise: human suffering is terrible and should be prevented; aggression and coercion necessarily create human suffering. This premise leads the voluntaryist to hold a number of hypotheses with varying degrees of accuracy in some form or fashion within their minds at all times. Here are several of those hypotheses.
What Taxation Means
There is certainly no shortage of libertarian types who will gladly tell why they believe that the practice of taxation amounts to robbery or extortion. Likewise for those who will tell you why they believe that the practice of taxation is good and necessary. Personally, I side with the former belief that the practice of taxation is illicit and criminal. But let’s look at it another way, shall we?
Serving Up Hot Coercion
If your “job” comes with a paycheck extorted from people who didn’t value your effort enough to pay for it voluntarily, you are not serving.
Libertarian Criticisms Miss Mark
Libertarians are scolded for heartlessly refusing to admit the protection government provides society against bad guys. Except when those bad guys are politically connected, hold an office, or run one of the thousands of bureaucratic positions used to rob and control members of society in the name of governing. You can’t protect society by sacrificing the individuals who comprise it.
A Response to Bruce the Anti-Libertarian
I ran across a letter to the editor written in response to a libertarian’s letter. This raving statist’s letter was a treat to behold. Rarely have I witnessed this much dishonesty in such a small space. Kudos to him!
Rule by Majority Unfair to Minority
Allegiance to a group shouldn’t be assumed, mandatory, or dependent on where you live. Let people choose their own groups, and let the groups’ territories overlap the way those of clubs or churches do. Let people switch between groups, or opt out, as their needs and circumstances change.
The Voluntaryist Ethnicity
As my family has traveled the country and met or stayed with other voluntaryists and unschoolers, I can’t help but notice certain general customs among people and families of this kind. Without putting anybody in a box or limiting how it is expressed or experienced, here is the voluntaryist ethnicity as I’ve seen it.