The fear of liberty is irrational

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for June 10, 2026)

I've never considered myself a particularly brave person, but I've never been afraid enough to feel like I needed to be governed or to have you governed on my behalf. I've never been so afraid that I was willing to give up essential liberty for a false feeling of safety. I can't comprehend this level of irrational fear.

Fear makes people (and animals) unpredictable and dangerous.

Similarly, I'm not able to do everything myself. I lack the resources and skills for many important tasks. I've never seen this as justification for forcing others to do these things for me. I prefer cooperation over coercion.

If I can't afford to pay others to do things I can't do, I'll do without. Nothing is so important that I feel you need to be forced to help pay for it through taxation. It's no less a mugging if you promise that taking the money is necessary and it will be used for the common good.

If I'm unable to talk people into helping out, without threats or enslaving them, then I'll accept being on my own. Either I'll figure it out, or I won't.

I'm not willing to advocate for a government to help me force you to do things, or to force you to fund things, which I feel would be good for me or for society. Or because I'm scared.

Wouldn't it be nice if people returned the favor?

I have a hard time relating to people on the other side of these issues; the people who believe in government.

It's not a matter of preference. Preferring Pepsi or Coke doesn't harm people who prefer the other, or who prefer Dr Pepper or water. Preferring to govern others, for whatever reason, seems natural to those with this preference, but does hurt everyone else. The excuses used, even in good faith, don't diminish the harm.

If your system won't work unless you force everyone to participate, it's a failed system. If you're afraid of those who want to opt out, and you'd force them to abandon their homes to do so, your system is wrong.

Once upon a time, people couldn't see a way to keep society running without slaves. They figured it out once the option was off the table. It's going to have to happen again, sooner or later, with government. This is the next step in totally eradicating slavery. Even if it's scary.

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Why am I not a communist?

If I were dumber and less ethical, I might be a communist.

I might at least fall for the labor theory of value.

I do a lot of hard work for other people. It's something almost daily. 

I do yard work for elderly relatives- sometimes cleaning up after serious neglect. I move furniture and try to repair appliances and equipment. I change light bulbs they can't reach. I sometimes fix non-engine car problems (with the help of YouTube) and have saved people hundreds of dollars that way. I show them how to use their technology. I run errands. 

I also help the community. I've spent hours and hours picking up trash around town. I've helped people by shoveling snow. I've helped strangers when I saw they needed help as I passed.

I've also labored for the enemy. I've wasted huge amounts of my valuable time doing things around my own property that I don't want to do, or even to have done, just to keep armed thugs from showing up to force me to do it or rob me if I haven't. 

That's a lot of labor.

Yet, I only occasionally get paid anything for any of my services. And I'm fine with that- except for the yard work the town forces upon me. I don't do it for the money; I like to help people.

However, if I believed in the labor theory of value, I might believe I am owed something for all that work. 

But where would that money come from? 

If the people I help could afford it, they'd probably pay me for my work. 

Should other local residents be forced to pay me for my "service to society"? 

Ewww. No!

Should the "taxing authorities" of the town pay me out of the tax money they confiscate from us all, since I am increasing the tax value of the property so that they can ultimately steal more from the residents? That's the worst kind of profit they are gaining from my labor, and commies hate profit, right? (I'm sure they'd say that particular money-from-nothing doesn't count as profit.) 

I'll keep helping when I can. I am owed nothing unless there's a prior agreement to pay me, and I do the agreed-upon work satisfactorily.

Believing otherwise would be a red flag. It would show that I am dumb and unethical.

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