The “sum of good government,” said Thomas Jefferson in his first inaugural address, is one “which shall restrain men from injuring one another” and “shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.”
And, government can't do that. It just isn't its nature. That's like expecting horses to scurry across the ceiling eating flies.
Jefferson was smart in some areas and incredibly stupid in others. He was superstitious and believed in "authority" just enough to cause him to believe such a thing as "good government" is possible. Obviously, it isn't.
Again it comes down to this: all "laws" are either unnecessary or harmful. Comply with the unnecessary ones because you don't want to violate person or property, not because some useless person made up an unnecessary "law". Ignore the harmful ones because you don't want your person or property violated- which is what those "laws" do... unless a bully is watching you. In that case comply until he looks at someone else.
Assume liberty.
(Inspired by this. H/T to War on Guns)
Kent, you live in a country where you are extensively governed. Going to no government is missing many in between steps. It would be more useful to protect yourself from one particular law or try to get that law destroyed.
ReplyDeleteGovernment is a hierarchy. There are too many people who are comfortable at the bottom of that hierarchy.
Incrementalism is fine for those who keep the goal in mind, but too many don't. I will take advantage of incremental steps, but I'll never stop reaching for the end goal, or scolding those who are too cowardly to embrace it. I am there to remind them the goal is Rightful Liberty. Nothing else will do.
DeleteI won't stand in the way of those who negotiate with terrorists, but I won't pretend the terrorists are the good guys, or even legitimate. They are what they are, and calling them something else changes nothing. There is no such thing as "authority", there are only bullies.
"Authority" is an idea in peoples' heads. "Authority" is power given. The U.S. Supreme Court gave the power of Absolute Immunity to prosecutors through Natural Law, not written law. Natural Law has also historically recognized authority of commoners to kill tyrannical nobility. There should be a long line of U.S. nobility waiting for the guillotine.
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