Libertarian society already exists

(My Clovis News Journal column for May 6, 2016)

One of the minor amusements of publicly promoting a society which respects the rightful liberty of each individual are those who object by proclaiming "You're wasting your time. We will never live in a libertarian society."

They are missing the point. We already live in such a society. In fact, if society weren't mostly libertarian, it wouldn't qualify as a society at all.

Almost everyone knows it is wrong to attack or to steal from others. That's all a libertarian society is. People who break these rules face consequences.

The problem is most people carve out an imaginary exception for government employees.

We know theft is wrong, but often look the other way when theft is called "taxation".

We know we shouldn't throw the first punch, but call it "enforcing a law" and most cheer the bully. At least until they find themselves the victim of a wrong-headed "law"- then the artificial line between "law enforcement" and bully is exposed for what it is.

We know it isn't right to trespass or damage our neighbor's home, but if they call the damage "property codes" and pretend there's justification for it, they can get away with almost anything.

It's not right.

The contradictions in these examples would cause discomfort if people actually noticed them, and would cause a change of heart if people who noticed them gave the matter some thought. This is why people try really hard to avoid thinking about it.

That's all I am trying to do: point out the contradictions and get people to think. I don't need to convince you to create a libertarian society- I only need to get you to see you already live in one, and convince you to stop excusing bad guys who refuse to live by the rules and get along.

It would not be up to you to give me a libertarian society to live in, even if societies weren't libertarian already. There will always be those seeking to violate you and your property in any society. Society survives in spite of them. You do what you can to prevent them from violating you, and defend yourself from them when you can. It doesn't matter if they wear a badge, a suit and tie, other "gang colors", or are freelance.

I don't even need to persuade anyone. You already know the truth, you just need to stop hiding it from yourself, and start living like your liberty matters.

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The ones you are better than

(Previously posted to Patreon)

"Firefly". Episode: Shindig:

 Mal and Jayne; in a coerced meeting with Badger, who is trying to hire them for a new job.

Mal: You backed out of a deal last time. Left us hanging. 

Jayne: Hurt our feelings. 

Mal: You recall why that took place?  

Badger: I had a problem with your attitude is why. I felt you was… what’s the word?  

Jayne: Pretentious?  

Badger: Exactly! You think you’re better than other people!  

Mal: Just the ones I’m better than.

Recognizing you are better than some other people. It happens. In the world of Firefly it can cause problems, and it can do the same in the real world.

 How can it be wrong to feel superior to people you are superior to? It might not be "politically correct", but you really are better than some people. In at least some ways, and probably in lots of ways.

 You may be smarter, or kinder. You may be more generous. Or, you might be more ethical because you abide by the Zero Aggression Principle. But I guarantee you, in some way you are better than me, and in some way (I hope) I am better than you. And it's the same when any two people are compared. I am not superior or inferior in every way to anyone, and neither are you.

 This oddity of not being happy about, or even acknowledging, the ways in which you are "better than" seems harmful to me. If there is nothing better to see and aspire to, then everyone may as well wallow in mediocrity. Never strive to improve.

 Personally, I want to be around people who are better than me. I want to learn from them those things where they put me to shame. I hunger for that, and can't understand why anyone wouldn't want the same.

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If you get any value from my labors, consider rewarding me with your financial support. This blog is in its 10th year now. If you believe I have contributed anything to the conversation regarding liberty during these ten years, and believe I have more to contribute, help me stay online. .

Protecting liberty by destroying liberty?

Gun writer (and generally excellent "gun righter") David Codrea of The War on Guns blog is beating the anti-"illegal immigration" drum loudly these days.

I disagree with him (although I am not intending to pick on him), and here's why.

If you can't have Liberty without having those "borders", then you simply can never have Liberty, period. It means Liberty can never be. It's nothing more than an impossible fantasy that can never exist in the real world.

Maybe that is how it really is. If so, what's the point of even trying? Just batten down the hatches and shoot all who come after you. Which, I suppose, is what borderists are advocating in a way. Or, as the anonymous commenter advocates, "Kill them all and let God sort them out"- 7 billion of "them".

You can have Liberty, or you can have government-enforced "national borders", but not both. They are mutually exclusive. (And "secured borders", and all that goes along with them, are also unconstitutional, but that's another issue.)

If you believe a government's "borders" can protect your liberty by keeping out those who would violate it, you must also believe a person can only be raped by one rapist at a time.

As soon as you have a government large and powerful enough to "secure" those borders, you will have "taxes" being stolen to finance them. You will have the property rights of those along that border being violated as being inferior to the government's imaginary "rights" (some of those violated are fine with that, believing it the preferable violation- or totally blinded by nationalism). You will have the right of association violated. You will have the right to travel unmolested being violated. Where these things are happening, there is no liberty. There is no longer anything to protect.

The big fear seems to be that all those "immigrants" come here and end up v*ting Democratic, and against the right to own and to carry guns. And they might. Especially if they see angry gun owners talking about deportation, prison, and walls, while simultaneously saying they are lazy welfare parasites, and that they "take our jobs".

That is no excuse. You've got to strike at the root.

V*ting on rights, by anyone, is the problem. Rights are never legitimately up for a v*te nor subject to popular opinion. And if someone places your rights on a ballot, or allows a politician to live... I mean, stay in office after he has violated your rights, then that is the problem more than the idiots- regardless of where they were born- who support the violation of human rights through "majority rule".

Instead of making enemies, why not first try to be friends and help them understand why the right to own and to carry guns is their natural, individual right, too? And, if that fails, defend yourself from those who try to violate you without worrying about where they were born.

I can't see how anyone can imagine that being violated by bullies who were born in the same tax farm you were born in is somehow "better" than being violated by bullies born somewhere else.

You can't protect liberty by destroying liberty. No matter how much you wish the opposite were true. And anti-"immigrant" is just as anti-liberty as anti-gun.

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(This is my 4000th blog post here. I never suspected I had that many in me.)

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If you get any value from my labors, consider rewarding me with your financial support. This blog is in its 10th year now. If you believe I have contributed anything to the conversation regarding liberty during these ten years, and believe I have more to contribute, help me stay online.