Sometimes when I point out how bad The State (externally-imposed government) is, someone will claim it is only a tool, like a gun, and could be used for good if only the right person (or political party) is wielding it. They will claim that since I don't think guns are inherently harmful I should apply the same to The State. Boy, do they ever get it wrong!
If guns existed only for the purpose of getting more guns there might be some similarity. Guns save more innocent lives than they take, and they don't turn good people bad just by being present. The same can never be honestly said about The State.
The State, even if it is used to "help" someone, is funded by theft and imposed by force. If I decide to help a hungry person, the right way to do so is to dip into my own pocket to pay for the food, or to ask for help from others. The wrong way to "help" is the path always taken by government: steal the food (or money to buy the food) from someone else. Two wrongs do not make a right, and you can't solve a problem by causing another problem. To say it another way, you can't fix harm by shifting the harm to another innocent person.
A person can not be a part of The State without being damaged and corrupted by that system. Politicians will always exploit their power to get more power, which is why the entire political business must be ended. If there is no system for voting to impose your will on others, there is nothing political to exploit. If there is no system in place that can be used to take money or property from some people to give it to other people (while keeping a cut for the bureaucracy), then no one could do so without being subject to the rules of justice.
There is almost nothing in the world that should be up for a vote. Let something be proposed and those who agree to it completely can go off to do it while leaving everyone else alone. How many people want to do it, or what percentage, should not even be a consideration. If, under any system, everyone is not given an easy, painless way to opt out, it is wrong.
Those who want you to doubt that anarchy (self-ownership and individual responsibility) is the best, most moral, and ethical way to live among others are asking you to accept that theft, aggression, superstition, and slavery are better.
KentForLiberty pages
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Friday, December 10, 2010
Unexamined statism rampant in ABQ
Unexamined statism rampant in ABQ
The Albuquerque news is just a carnival of statism. "Problems" that wouldn't be problems in a free society. Most of these stories are the same old thing, over and over again. It's ridiculous that the statists refuse to open their eyes and see that their standard operating procedures are nothing but wheel-spinning absurdity.
What am I talking about? Well:
Albuquerque police arrested a woman for selling drugs to teens, and in an unrelated incident an Albuquerque man was arrested in El Paso for having marijuana in his gas tank.
Neither of these things would have been "news", or even likely happened, without the incredibly stupid and evil "War on (some) Drugs", and its complicit soulless and mindless enforcers. Don't like drugs? Then don't use them (including ibuprofen, nicotine, statins, alcohol, etc.)! Don't like other people using drugs? Then educate, ridicule, shun, preach... but don't criminalize. Criminalization has utterly failed to reduce drug abuse and is only useful for growing The State's enforcement power and the inevitable abuse of that power. Supporting prohibition is stupid- even more stupid than abusing drugs.
And there's more.
An Albuquerque woman was charged $177 for visiting the an online porn site, and then she found out the site apparently had her "Social Security" number and other "identity information" on file when she called to dispute the charges. The site did refund her money, so kudos for them.
Since the identity thief didn't charge "enough" on the porn site, "The Law" says it is unlikely to do anything about it. Funny how "identity theft" was not a problem until The State forced its numbers and other tracking information on us in order to "protect our identity". The State is nothing but a cancer pretending to be its own cure. It sees an imaginary "problem", forces its own "solutions" on everyone, and then points to the resultant real disasters as evidence it needs to do more.
Still want more?
Albuquerque restaurants passed their health inspections, and this made the news. Nowhere is it recognized that "health inspections" are not any government's job. Instead the restaurant owners simply accept this violation of their rights as "business as usual"; not that they have any choice. I would much rather let voluntary, competing inspection companies spring up to take care of the market for restaurant inspections. Government "standards" are always an oxymoronic joke anyway.
Statism is all around us, is always a bad thing, and is largely invisible to most people until it harms them directly. Yet, harm them it will at some point. Will that event wake them up to reality, or will they continue to think it's OK as long as it only hurts "those people"? There is no justification for The State.
*
Donate?
The Albuquerque news is just a carnival of statism. "Problems" that wouldn't be problems in a free society. Most of these stories are the same old thing, over and over again. It's ridiculous that the statists refuse to open their eyes and see that their standard operating procedures are nothing but wheel-spinning absurdity.
What am I talking about? Well:
Albuquerque police arrested a woman for selling drugs to teens, and in an unrelated incident an Albuquerque man was arrested in El Paso for having marijuana in his gas tank.
Neither of these things would have been "news", or even likely happened, without the incredibly stupid and evil "War on (some) Drugs", and its complicit soulless and mindless enforcers. Don't like drugs? Then don't use them (including ibuprofen, nicotine, statins, alcohol, etc.)! Don't like other people using drugs? Then educate, ridicule, shun, preach... but don't criminalize. Criminalization has utterly failed to reduce drug abuse and is only useful for growing The State's enforcement power and the inevitable abuse of that power. Supporting prohibition is stupid- even more stupid than abusing drugs.
And there's more.
An Albuquerque woman was charged $177 for visiting the an online porn site, and then she found out the site apparently had her "Social Security" number and other "identity information" on file when she called to dispute the charges. The site did refund her money, so kudos for them.
Since the identity thief didn't charge "enough" on the porn site, "The Law" says it is unlikely to do anything about it. Funny how "identity theft" was not a problem until The State forced its numbers and other tracking information on us in order to "protect our identity". The State is nothing but a cancer pretending to be its own cure. It sees an imaginary "problem", forces its own "solutions" on everyone, and then points to the resultant real disasters as evidence it needs to do more.
Still want more?
Albuquerque restaurants passed their health inspections, and this made the news. Nowhere is it recognized that "health inspections" are not any government's job. Instead the restaurant owners simply accept this violation of their rights as "business as usual"; not that they have any choice. I would much rather let voluntary, competing inspection companies spring up to take care of the market for restaurant inspections. Government "standards" are always an oxymoronic joke anyway.
Statism is all around us, is always a bad thing, and is largely invisible to most people until it harms them directly. Yet, harm them it will at some point. Will that event wake them up to reality, or will they continue to think it's OK as long as it only hurts "those people"? There is no justification for The State.
*
Donate?