Interestingly enough the words “authorised” and “authority” have the same root word. With this connection it is almost if one wants to have a command over an individual, the individual does need to agree it in it in the first place. Since no man can assume authority over another man, it makes sense that authority needs to be authorised by the individual.
Tag: property
The Evils of Nationalism and Racism
Sadly, mankind doesn’t appear to have learned much from history as the evils of nationalism and racism are once again on the rise. From Europe to the US, the rise of groups affiliated with Nazi ideology has led to a resurgence in violence against minorities, immigrants, and refugees.
The Profound Value of Market Values
Even though economists, like others, don’t know the objective value of anything, they do know that as long as people voluntarily enter market arrangements, all parties to each transaction expect that the subjective value they will receive as benefits will exceed the subjective value they bear as costs. Greater subjective values for all is the result. And any coercive intrusion that forcibly moves the quantity exchanged away from what individuals would voluntarily choose destroys joint gains to participants, making the “solutions” offered by economists’ Wilde-eyed critics worse than the supposed problems used to justify them.
False Analogy: Closed Borders Are Like a Yard Fence
Why do I keep needing to point this out? No, it is not a sound analogy to compare “closed borders” with having a fence around your own yard. In fact, it is a profoundly crappy analogy, since the political crooks in DC do not rightfully own every square inch of land between the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Who Anarchists Are Actually
Thanks to the media’s portrayal of masked malcontents kicking over trashcans as “anarchists,” I believe some clarification is in order. I am an anarchist because I recognize that the institution of the state is fundamentally based on violence and coercion, not because I punch people in the face for exercising their freedom of speech.
State Education: Money
Eventually, per Rothbard, the pols saw that leaving the marching minions holding promises instead of solid specie was a dream come true. But they did also realize that an honorable verbal promise was an oxymoron. Enter the written promise, aka the IOU, aka scrip, aka paper currency. The typical note promised exchange for the purported full amount in gold, not sooner than 1 year hence. Many of the veterans began to barter these slips of paper for those things for which they could not wait a year — things like food!
The Case for a Voluntary Society
For those of you who think that Anarchy is just an idealistic notion, ask yourself is the more realistic one really a system that is funded through coercion and whose policies are formulated by a select few and whose compliance is mandated under threat of violence? Is this not the incredibly idealistic and I would argue irrational and evil notion? Please, I only ask at the very least not that you agree, but that you instead refrain from supporting the use of violence to forcibly impose your will on me. I promise I will pay you the same respect.
Tacit Submission
Do you and I willingly give up our freedom and property for the benefits of living in these United States? Do we tacitly consent to oppression by not moving to another country? Do we tacitly consent to the authority of our governments by not rebelling, by not throwing the tea into Boston harbor? John Locke and many today say “yes”; we tacitly accept the State by paying our taxes, by receiving its benefits (such as property protection!), and by not emigrating. They say we acquiesce in an implicit contract in which we give up freedom or accept compulsion in exchange for other things that we value. This view is dead wrong.
Property Feuds
The one (and probably only) criticism which communists are correct in making is that simply claiming or sectioning areas does not create property. Rothbard also took this stance, and it is the logical stance stemming from Lockean property concepts, self-ownership, etc: Production is the basis of rightful ownership, for how can someone own something which has not been produced, or has not been “touched” by labor? I have had discussions with advocates of capitalism who do not follow through with this. They often believe simply declaring something is yours makes it true with no labor (when it comes to land), but this makes no sense. It’s the same logic as the state claiming open expanses are their “jurisdiction.” More of a continuation of feudalism than Lockean property rights.
Stop Trying to Control One Another
Most conservatives think I’m a liberal because I oppose the death penalty, war, the draft, censorship, drug laws, and other state interference in people’s personal lives. Most liberals think I’m a conservative because I oppose obamacare, welfare, food stamps, taxes, environmental regulations, and other state interference in business and the economy. Most libertarians think I’m an anarchist because I refuse to engage in the game of voting for people to run the state rather than agitating for its abolition.