“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.” This sounds good, especially if one doesn’t think about it very hard or very long, but the harder and longer one thinks about it, the more problematic it becomes.
Tag: protest
Why Question the Protestant Reformation?
Popular views about the Protestant Reformation are absurdly sugarcoated. It’s tempting for libertarians to jump on this sugarcoating bandwagon and praise the Reformation as a triumph of religious freedom.
The Value of the Reformation: Reply to Somin
My friend Ilya Somin has written a detailed critique of my doubts about the Protestant Reformation. Here’s my reply.
Hard Questions About the Protestant Reformation
It’s tempting for libertarians to celebrate this time in history as a great victory for freedom of speech and freedom of religion, but the Reformation’s main fruit was over a century of horrifying warfare.
Chaotic Order
I’ve already mentioned that too much chaos AND too much order are both deadly. But here’s another observation: too much order– specifically too much government (which I consider to be any external governance at all)– becomes deadly because it creates too much chaos for individuals.
Public Schools Were Designed to Indoctrinate Immigrants
The myth we have been told about the history of American public schooling as a national treasure that nurtures our democracy is untrue. The reality is that 19th-century politicians and citizens were fearful of and overwhelmed by rapid societal change, as thousands of immigrants streamed into American cities in the mid-1800s.
Resentment Not Hate
Full-blown “hate” is a rare motive. But that hardly means that political actors are well-intentioned. The emotional spectrum is wide. And the emotion I routinely see in politics is not hatred, but its milder cousin: resentment.
The World Doesn’t Pay You Enough to be Nasty
There’s a reason why we like to get nasty. It’s a lot easier to start a fight than it is to take charge of your life when things seem out of control. Our desire to manipulate others often stems from the need to compensate for our own inability to feel a sense of agency in relation to our goals. We enjoy pulling other people’s strings because those are usually the only strings we know how to pull.
Nationalists, Flags, and “Leftist Commies”
Declining to participate in a government extremist ritual isn’t much of a “protest” if you ask me. Especially since kneeling instead of standing and repeating the chant is still participating. It doesn’t even approach what I would consider a protest. But nationalists are easily triggered.
Shut Up and Stand on Command
What makes America different from North Korea or Communist China or Thailand? In all three countries, criticism of the government is forbidden, and worship of the symbols of state is mandatory.