The problem with minarchism is that there is no agreement on what the minimum activity of government is. I believe government has no role in human nature. So if we talk about going through minarchy as a step toward anarchy, that is unfortunately an ambiguous target. If we instead are using minarchy to mean less…
Tag: defense
Just War, Conflation, Systemic Anarchy
Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. I never…
On Values
Send him mail. “Food for Thought” is an original column appearing every other Tuesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Norman Imberman. Norman is a retired podiatrist who loves playing piano, writing music, lawn bowling, bridge, reading, classical music, going to movies, plays, concerts and traveling. He is not a member of any social network, nor does he…
Crime and Punishment in a Free Society
Would a free society be a crime-free society? We have good reason to anticipate it. Don’t accuse me of utopianism. I don’t foresee a future of new human beings who consistently respect the rights of others. Rather, I’m drawing attention to the distinction between crime and tort — between offenses against the state (or society) and offenses against individual persons or their justly held property.
Re: Honor and Snowden
Nobody asked but … Honor is a dangerous idea to me. To think for a moment that Edward Snowden might have entertained for a second the idea of behaving honorably due to a bogus contract with murderous bureaucrats makes my skin crawl. A contractor to the people has honor due only to the people, not…
Hazlitt, Balko, “Private Sector”
Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. It never…
But Who Will Maintain the (Rail)Roads?
Nobody asked but … It was indeed Black Friday for this trainload of people. The railroad is apparently, if the news story is to be believed, subject to several layers of governmental undersight. Alphabet agencies are arriving on the scene like sea gulls at the landfill, preparing to fill the air with CYA. One of…
Government vs. the State
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original column appearing most Mondays at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. Many have tried to explain the difference between “government” and “the state.” They have been more or less clear, but none…
Social Coercion, a Discussion
I thought I’d share the discussion on Facebook that led to me writing my column on social coercion, between Aaron and Steve (with minor edits and comments in brackets). It’s far more detailed than my column was and I wanted to archive it here. Skyler. Steve: “Social coercion” I define as the pressure one individual or…
The “Nuclear Option”?
Last week, American-Jewish billionaire Sheldon Adelson suggested that the US military should drop a nuclear bomb in the middle of the Iranian desert in order to show Iran that they mean business. He further suggested that the next bomb be dropped on Tehran if Iran refuses to comply with US demands. Now I understand that…