“Toward Freedom” is an Everything-Voluntary.com series sharing personal stories about the journey toward freedom. Archived stories can be found here. Submit your story to the editor. A lot of people go through life without ever questioning things, but I’ve always identified with Socrates’ sentiment that the unexamined life isn’t worth living. In the realm of…
Tag: statism
The United States OR America?
Guest post by Carl Watner. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, July 1986. On January 10, 1776, Tom Paine published his pamphlet Common Sense. It spread like wildfire through the colonies and shattered the King’s cause as it set forth the virtues of independence and the absurdity of submitting to the arbitrary rule of a hereditary…
Button Pushing or Abdication: Which?
Guest post by Carl Watner. Originally published in The Voluntaryist, August 1985. For an earlier article on this topic, with a different perspective, at Everything-Voluntary.com, see this post. In Detroit on April 29,1946, Leonard Read gave a speech to the Midwestern Conference of the Controllers Institute of America. The address, which was titled “I’d Push…
Statist Ethics 101
Guest post by Chris Dates. When using the Socratic jackhammer against statists, it’s usually not more than a couple blows of the anvil before we arrive at what the state actually is–a group of individuals exercising the use of force against other individuals. Ultimately, this is the core of the state’s power; the use of…
Spanking is Far Worse than Simply “Beating Up” Someone
I absolutely love this rant by throwaway-o on the anarcho-capitalism subreddit. Here it is in full: Starting from the most fundamental basics: “spanking” (a term used to describe a certain particular form of initiation of violence) is an initiation of violence, and therefore it is an obvious and open violation of the NAP. There is…
Chapter 16 – Agorist Living
Table of ContentsPrevious – Section Three – Chapter 15 – “Why Socialism Must Fail” by Hans-Hermann Hoppe 16 Agorist Living by Nicholas Hooton The idea of joining the Libertarian Party tempted me years ago when I first discovered libertarian philosophy, as I’m sure it has tempted many before and since. The Party website stared me…
Chapter 14 – Historical Capitalism vs. the Free Market
Table of ContentsPrevious – Section Three – Chapter 13 – “Planning vs. the Free Market” by Henry Hazlitt 14 Historical Capitalism vs. the Free Market by Richard Ebeling During the dark days of Nazi collectivism in Europe, the German economist Wilhelm Röpke used the haven of neutral Switzerland for continuing to write and lecture on…
Chapter 9 – For Conscience’s Sake
Table of ContentsPrevious – Section Two – Chapter 8 – “The Historical Origins of Voluntaryism” by James Luther Adams 9 For Conscience’s Sake by Carl Watner George Smith, in his essay “Philosophies of Toleration,’’ reviews the history of freedom of religion and identifies the moral axiom of “righteous persecution,” which has been part of most…
Everything Voluntary – Topical Guide
Table of ContentsPrevious – Afterword Topical Guide Topic – ChapterAgorism – 3, 12, 16Arguments for Voluntaryism – 1, 3, 6Behaviorism – 24, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30Black/Gray Markets – 12, 16Bullying – 24, 25, 26Central Economic Planning – 13, 14, 15Charity/Welfare – 1, 6Child Abuse – 24, 25, 26Church & State – 9, 10Civil Religion…
Jesus, Anarchy, and the Golden Rule
While wrapping their socialism, statism, and megalomania is “family values,” [Republicans] rail against abortion while turning a blind eye to the mass murder of innocents committed by the US government overseas in order to get the Evangelical vote. Paul is the only candidate up there–probably the only national politician–who is consistently pro-life: anti-abortion, anti-war, and…