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But How Will It Work?Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 2007-09-13 04:41.
I've been remiss in keeping up with Larken Rose's posts to the TMDS list (The Most Dangerous Superstition: the belief in imposed authority). Here are the essays since I last updated: 31 Aug 2007: Hooray For Our Side! From the last one: When faced with the suggestion of society without an authoritarian command structure (i.e., "government"), most people--having been indoctrinated into the bogus idea that obedience to authority prevents mass chaos, mayhem, death and destruction--instinctively react by asking how things will work without "government."
The reason I rarely address that question is quite simple: because it is logically 100% irrelevant to WHY I believe in a stateless society. Most anarchists I've heard reached their beliefs by deciding that society would work better without a ruling class. That is NOT how I got here. I ended up where I am by realizing that "government" is NEVER legitimate; it cannot have the right to rule me, any more than my neighbor has the right to rule me. It's "authority" is completely mythical, and the idea that anyone has a moral obligation to obey its "laws" is nothing but an irrational superstition. ... There's another reason why I don't usually bother with such discussions. In the authoritarian mindset, there are constantly top-down, micro-managed, legislated "solutions" to all kinds of things. They rarely if ever WORK, but at least an authoritarian can say, "Here is the plan I want to impose on all of you!" An anarchist, by definition, can do nothing of the sort. If you ask me how some aspect of society will work without "government," I could GUESS, or I could make SUGGESTIONS, but I couldn't say "Here is the solution which will be imposed under my system." Why? Because there would BE no "system" of centralized control. Ironically, lots of people ask me questions which begin with, "Under your system, how would...?" I'm not suggesting a system. I'm not running for the position of Emperor of Anarchy. I'm suggesting we rid ourselves of an insane, horribly destructive delusion. That's all. I have no new and improved delusion to replace it with. How people will deal with life without the delusion is up to six billion individuals to decide. No one, including me, will be imposing any system on them, and I highly doubt they're all going to come to ME to ask how to do everything. (I hope they don't, because I have neither the desire, nor the ability, to figure out how to make all of society work.) add new comment | quote | 965 reads
( categories: Politics )
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BlogrollMike Vanderboegh
QuotesEvery man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission. -- L. Neil Smith Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings. -- L. Neil Smith Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents. -- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report (PDF) on gun control laws Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap") "A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim." -- L. Neil Smith Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP" Why Did It Have to be... Guns? Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put. If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you. If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims. What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him? -- L. Neil Smith "Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you." -- Mike Vanderboegh Also from The Atlanta Declaration: ... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party. -- L. Neil Smith This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion. -- Vin Suprynowicz The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war. -- Bill St. Clair TTLB |
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