Written by I just got done listening to episode 414 of the Tom Woods show, with guest Austin Petersen of “The Libertarian Republic”. They wound up speaking at an unusual length for Tom’s show, about anarchy vs. minarchy, and oh boy am I mad. I haven’t seen rapid fire logical felonies like that since I stopped reading Center for a Stateless Society.
The thing is, I actually don’t even blame Austin. If you talk to most people who call themselves libertarians, they have no concept of how a free society could, would, or should be organized. Every mention of force is met with the most irrational of condemnations, no matter how necessary or proper. Social justice warriors run rampant with outrageous claims of verbal aggressions. Lunatic economic fantasies run roughshod over all things rational. Social media bandwagon frenzies begin to make social democracy and trial by jury look civilized by comparison. This audience is entirely too familiar with all of that nonsense.
So I get it. There are times it would seem quite sensible to say “Well, these animals need to be controlled by force, let’s have a State to keep order”. But then you think about the State, and you realize that it just plain isn’t an alternative.
Governments are either going to be democratically elected, or violently imposed, not that the two are mutually exclusive, mind you.
If it is violently imposed, then we need not a great deal of imagination to figure out where that will lead. “Benevolent dictatorships” do not have a habit of remaining benevolent for long, and most anybody would realize that this is no way to organize society.
A government that is democratically elected on the other hand, well, those have a far greater degree of legitimacy and acceptance. They can often last quite awhile. Regrettably, their durability has little to do with any measure of positive outcomes.
So let’s talk about that, and whatever else is on your mind. Austin has been invited to join us, we’ll see if that happens.
Join us, tonight, Thursday June 4th from 5-7pm Eastern for another exciting episode of the Radical Agenda. It’s a show about common sense extremism where we talk about radical crazy things, like not enslaving the whole of the human race for eternity, just because you don’t have the answer to questions. Call 218-936-0815 or hit us up on Skype username Radical Agenda, if you would like to be on the program.