A common retort when I advocate a stateless society is that anarchy won’t last because eventually some people will attempt to impose their collective will upon others through violence and the state will be reborn. My argument is that—while my critics may be correct—anarchy (a world without rulers) should still be the goal.
Tag: world
Cultural Osmosis
The enemy of reason is authority. People either believe something because reason tells them it is a true belief, or they believe it because some authority figure, whether it be a teacher, a parent, a priest or a politician, tells them it is so and they choose not to actively engage their reason in questioning the truth of what they are taught.
Libertarianism is Self-Empowerment
One of the things I have been trying to do with this blog is look at why libertarianism isn’t widely accepted by the masses and how it can effectively be sold. In one entry I used Isaiah Berlin’s discussion of the Hedgehog and the Fox to argue that libertarians were hedgehogs in their thinking whereas Joe Public thinks like a fox.
UBI is Even Worse Than Welfare
The Universal Basic Income is much worse than the status quo. In fact, all the fundamental criticisms of the welfare state apply with even greater force.
Legalizing Weed Has Done What 1 Trillion Dollars and a 40 Year War Couldn’t
The $1 trillion War on Drugs launched by President Nixon in 1971 created the Mexican drug cartels, now legalizing weed is killing them.
The Infinite Regress of the Victim Mentality
Now aside from the fact that nobody living today has gone through the injustices of their ancestors, nor has anybody alive today perpetrated those injustices on any living or deceased person today, and therefore, they do not owe any so called “victim” anything, there is another problem with this line of victim based ideology. Namely, there is always another victim further back, to which a claim can be made for “justice.”
Authority and Morality
The decisions people make and the directions that people go in may in the end not serve them or lead to the kind of results that they want, but that is for each person to discover on their own. Advice can be given, suggestions can be made, but ultimately each person must walk their own path themselves. To try to play games of authority is to attempt to ignore all of this.
It’s Either Bullies or Balance Sheets
A wise man once told me that in this life, you can obey balance sheets or bullies. In the end, those are the only two paths. He was drawing attention to an unavoidable reality in a world of scarcity. All scarce things must be allocated among competing ends. This can be done top-down by people in control, or it can be accomplished bottom-up with the signaling system that emerges from voluntary exchange. The two approaches don’t mix well.
Groupthink Makes You All Stink
When the bulk of what you read, watch, think, listen to, and talk about is shaped by mainstream thinking, you’re in danger. You’re in danger of losing the very thing that offers you the opportunity to make a difference in this world: your individuality.
The Problematic Foundation of “Privilege”
The main problem with the concept of privilege is that it ignores how people generally acquire resources. We all acquire resources by trading with others. People are able to demand more resources when they have qualities that are highly valuable to other people. When we see people who are disadvantaged, we need to ask: How can we help make these people more valuable to others?