Posted on 07/26/2002 4:57:54 PM PDT by Cato
mailto:tdswanson@tamu.edu
Ed. note: This is modeled off Joe "I-heart-Israel": Farah's "Why I am Not a Libertarian" column.
After I wrote a few columns last summer I received several emails including, a couple which asked if I would 'run for office.' Apparently, they thought I was one of their own. I hate to disappoint them, but that lot in life does not describe me.
Here's why I am not a statist
– and why, I believe, the god-complexed movement will never attract the anarchists of the world.
- I believe an individual cannot be controlled by any sort of fictitious entity that claims supernatural power.
Whereas it has been the case since man first appeared onto this rock, borders are artificially imposed by the will of bullies and their ilk. To initiate force against someone simply because they believe/act/look different than someone, would insult the word civilized.
To pledge allegiance to a cloth smeared by do-gooders and social engineers would then lead to what exists today, constant violence, strife and death.
- While I agree with the science showing illicit drugs such as hamburgers, fries, syrup and any other condiment from McDonalds can cause harm to the body, I have no problem with individuals in localized cells, creating competition and eating at Subway.
The truth is, trying to force someone to use or not use a certain substance will surely lead to increased rebellion and all around contempt. I'm all for giving advice, but condoning the use force is the wrong prescription to a personal problem.
- Uhmerika is a name given to a piece of land by various individuals for various reasons – and this is a reality many statists don't accept. True, a concept of boundaries is useful, but it has been distorted and twisted.
This is no excuse for stealing wealth from individuals and using it to wage war on others, which is what statists have done since day one.
They deploy and employ tens of thousands of mercenaries in neighborhoods not too unlike those that some of us live in. That is wrong. They then expect no one to retaliate against them with weapons just as potent. That is equally naïve.
- Statists, more often than not, fail to understand the moral dimension critical to self-government. Read the words of the individuals that locked others out of a room and held a bacchanal of word-games and gerrymandering that ended with a document that was only equal in tyrannical terms than the Moore's Manifesto
. They missed reality by a long shot. They all thought that by smearing a bunch of ink across a piece of paper they could give themselves authority over others. Philadelphians must have had a cook out on September 17 with all those flying pigs landing in their back yards.
Statists make a fundamental mistake about trying to Hegelianize man. Man does his own thing for various reasons. Man can only do what other men let him do. Ideally, by not initiating force man can better himself. Statism is essentially the antithesis of civilization, it is death. It shoots first then demands the corpse bury itself. If man is to survive, then promoting life is the chance for man to maximize his freedom here on earth and then to the moon. Freedom cannot be limited, that is an impossibility.
It cannot be written down on a piece of paper, because it is an action.
Freedom is the opposite of coercion, and among other things, it creates wealth and stability… it is stability.
Statists hardly understand this, too many of them cannot comprehend a laissez faire environment where trade and commerce act as the boundaries and foundations civilization rests on.
Statists who expect to build such a society through some farcical aquatic ceremony
alone make a fundamental error.
In a sense, they are utopian dreamers like the Nazis of yesteryear, ignoring the fact they cannot give themselves authority is just the tip of the iceberg. I want to be really hard on statists, because they think they know better than others. They have a codependency issue that is blind to individualism.
They may indeed continue to evolve from one form or another, but they are dying out. I cannot ignore the flaws in their worldview. I cannot ignore the fact that they don't have a camera. I cannot ignore the fact, that the initiation of force is not only unwarranted but creates chaos and violence in biblical proportions.
Would this world be better off with more statists?
Here's a neat quote from Frederic Bastiat, the creator of the Minarchist Mocker :
If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it.
When the statists add such a provision to their daily rhetoric, let me know. I'll be happy to give them another thrashing.
July 9, 2002 Tim Swanson is a senior at Texas A&M University studying history and economics. He would add more to this but knows few people can read Klingon.
CATO
Does seem rather obvious, doesn't it?
The LP does not have any legitimate reason to ask for votes. That's why you see them on here saying the GOP=Dems. That's is their reason for asking for votes - "we are not Republicans." That and legalization of dope, which they seem too enthusiastic about to just be for it for "the principle of it" alone. The LP is the wrong choice. If you're totally "tore up" about the Republican party, and feel you're "too good" of a conservative to vote for it, then the only "principled" alternative is the Constitution Party. I don't rag FReepers about voting for the CP; you can't argue that they are wrong, only that their vote helps the Dems. But no conservative should be voting for the LP. The profile of an LP cultist is a non-religious, if not atheist, whiner who wants to legalize drugs, and hides behind the 2nd Amendment for legitimacy. In other words, a Democrat who believes in gun ownership. Big deal.....
I recieved the same criticism the other day from a semi-enlightened-type of sheeple, while I was ranting about general political mindset.
"What good does all that negative energy do? Why don't you go out and change things instead of griping?"
Then it dawned on me.
"You," I said, "live in an upside-down world where standing up and speaking out for your beliefs is not something to be admired, something that inspires and commands respect -- in your world these things are 'making trouble' and 'extremist' and 'opinionated'."
"In your world the most important thing is to get along, and not offend. To be silent. Bland. You are an ethical eunuch"
"In my world, fighting the good fight and setting examples for others makes you feel alive and making impact, and the most crucial need people-like-you have is to know that you MUST speak out, your very soul is at stake. This is why I speak out, this is why merely hearing me do so frightens and cowers you. Makes you admonish me. You live in upside-down world, my white is your black."
As for the author, although I happen to AGREE with many of his points about government, Statists and Statism, he is, by his own mouth, unsaved. That is his loss and I pray he finds Him soon. The time is short.
Have you noticed the incredible LAWLESSNESS that is being exposed at ALL levels of society Worldwide. The corporate scandals and the pitiful response at present to punishing the executives responsible with any Real "Time"(these miscreants caused more harm than any thief that we regularly give 10-20 years) is something we have never seen in such magnitude and number. The Robber Barons were rank amateurs in comparison.
Take care,
CATO
Well, that is just not true. I am not a Libertarian (I may very well be part small "l" libertarian), but I am a Bible-believing Christian ( a regular fundie). I could very well live out my entire life as a good Christian while the rest of the world went to hell in a handbasket around me. Christianity does NOT mandate the implication of Christian beliefs into law and government.
Not even close. More like genuine Christianity. The personal salvation kind.
The LP is on the ballot and has been for decades. That fact is our very legitimate reason to ask for votes. Our License, if you will.
Just because we haven't outbought you does in no way make us illegitimate.
Did you check out those Millions for ADM for ethanol that are supported by the REPOS?? Would that be a LEGITIMATE use of tax dollars and where in Our Constitution can you show me the authority to give ADM money??
OBTW, I am a Christian and do not support SSM or abortion but seeing as how you believe any person who may entertain support for the LP MUST support these things then by your brilliant logic you MUST support the Gay/AIDS/Lesbian agenda as the REPOS have come out for Gays AND GWB has invited these people into the WH and offered Mo' of our money for AIDS research and by doing this became the FIRST President to give official sanction to a deviate lifestyle. Oh yeah, he also became the first President to appoint a liason to the Aids/Gay Communeity.
Speaking of Cults, you got a real good one going with GWB.
You see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil about him.
That is Cult behavior If you want to talk about cults. LOL!
CATO
I was taught something by a christian, ninth grade history teacher(in the public school system), If a person ridicules or critisizes nonstop in a manor that grates on nerves, that offends, or that presents a hopeless fatalistic viewpoint, the masses stop listening.
In order to catch the ear and inspire the little people, to motivate, one must present the idea that there is hope. Possibly even offer some solutions to the problems. This optimistic view actually can inspire people to do or be great and achieve new heights.
What has pessimism ever inspired? I'll tell you, suicide.
The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, l say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law becomes the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!
Is Not that what is happening rigjht now right here in America?? Listen to the words spoken by the Pols and the Corporate Criminals.
CATO
Realistically, the United States is the only country on earth that resists statism to any degree at all, and the wolves are at the door here. We must keep them out. In other countries that profess to stand for freedom, that "freedom" is provided courtesy of the state. In the United States, where we are presumed to be free by the gift of God, the constitution exists to protect us from the state.
I did not know that to be a Christian you had to be a statist, but some of the posts here indicate that some think so. My opinion is that much of libertarianism, with a small L, since it essentially seeks to protect individual liberty, is very much in the spirit in which our country was founded. If some who are religious have a problem with individual liberty, it proves our fouding fathers' wisdom in ensuring that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.."
Exactly.
The mentality that never examines and condemns when warranted is stuck in the feudal times mentality.
"It the way it always has been and always will be."
"If man was meant to fly God would have given him wings."
IF the founders and More Importantly THE PEOPLE had that mentality we would be drinking tea and celebrating the hanging of George Washington, traitor to the Crown.
Now that IS depressing. Got a gun?? ROTFLAtMySelf!
CATO
And to think that I'm posting this after having been to church this very morning - go figure - God fearing, Jesus loving, Bible believing, saved because of my faith, Libertarian. Think the Universe is coming to an end fellas?
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