In a just world, “crimes” would be only those actions which victimized others, and the reasons why would be fairly irrelevant. It ultimately doesn’t matter why you hurt someone or take their stuff (other than in justified self-defense, of course.) If you do victimize someone, you owe them restitution.
Tag: society
Voluntaryists are Moral Agents, not Soothsayers
As a Voluntaryist, I do not claim to know how society will work without the state. I am not a central planner, fortuneteller, oracle, or soothsayer. The anarchist stance is only proclaiming that nobody has the moral right to rule and that my life is not owned by any politician or state. I live my life of my own accord and accept the consequences of my actions.
In Praise of Political Apathy
My children are both non-voters. They have little to no interest in politics. To them it is a big waste of time. They have more important things to do – like develop careers, enjoy the company of friends, have a good time and just live their lives. Some, on both the left and the right, would condemn them as apathetic.
Countries Are Not Companies
One of the most persistent false beliefs held by American voters is that someone with “business experience” would do a better job “running the economy” than politicians have. Let’s put aside the idea that an economy is something that needs to be, or can be, “run” and explore whether a CEO of a major company as president really would be better for the economy.
Nobody Owns Anything
Throughout my tenure as an anarchist one thing has always set me apart from everyone else: my beliefs around the concept of property and ownership. These are some real foundational beliefs for me, because it is based on them that I evaluate various things like “capitalism”, “socialism”, “communism”, even “economics” writ large. My beliefs on ownership are ones that I have largely kept silent about, but recently I have been feeling the need to sit down and elucidate my thoughts on the subject. So here it goes.
Liberty, Morality, and Intellectual Responsibility
The relationship between liberty and morality can be described briefly in the following manner: morality without liberty is impossible, and liberty without morality is very fragile.
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.
Human Evil and the Free Market
It is very common to assert that the advocates of the purely free market make one fundamental and shaky assumption: that all human beings are angels. In a society of angels, it is commonly agreed, such a program could “work,” but not in our fallible world. The chief difficulty with this criticism is that no libertarian—except possibly those under Tolstoyan influence—has ever made such an assumption.