A kind of cancer: political government

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for November 24, 2024)

Should you try to make the world better or give up because it's hard? Judging by how those trying to make things better are treated, most people want you to give up.

When I say "better", I mean safer for life, liberty, and property. Those who are too weak or confused to live in the real world, or who benefit from ruling you, would have a different definition. Most of them believe keeping you like a zoo animal is better for them, and they'll work to make you imagine it's better for you. It's not.

Changing things for the better makes waves; most people don't want you to make waves and will try to thwart you. They'll fight to prevent you from making things better for them, personally. Weird, right?

Utopia is not an option, but Dystopia isn't inevitable.

You can accept "This is the world we live in" while knowing it could be better. You can work to change it. You can continue to point out the problems and what could be improved. This isn't being Utopian or living in a fantasy. It's a real-world acceptance of your obligation to refuse to accept bad things which may not have to be the way they are. Things you might be able to influence in a good way.

If this weren't the case, no one would be working to cure cancer. No one would do anything helpful and work to change "the way things are".

Some of us are working to cure another kind of cancer: political government. You can't cure it by making it more efficient or by rearranging the chairs on the deck. You can't cut out 80% of the tumor and pat yourself on the back for curing the patient. You can't even remove it and put something else rotten in its place.

Management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker famously observed, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Since no one has a right to govern other people, trying to do so anyway is something which should not be done at all. Add it to the list of crimes humans commonly commit. Stop excusing it and trying to justify it.

Maybe I don't have the cure, but no one can try to fix the problem until people like me point it out. I can at least do this much. So could you.

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All "force" is equal?

Of all the bad justifications for the variety of theft called "taxation" I've ever run across, the one I just encountered has to be the worst:

"Keeping private property requires force and taxation requires force, so if private property isn't theft, then taxation can't be theft."

This is obviously someone who can't do logic, doesn't understand the difference between defensive force and aggression, and doesn't respect consent.

This was in the context of advocating for "free health care" for all. This is the quality of thought that goes into such positions.

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