I know most people find it absolutely inconceivable that we can exist without a government to run things. Personally, I just can’t understand that mind frame. I just don’t get it.
Why do so many people think they can’t figure out how to run their own lives without some far off ‘leader’ making all the important decisions for them? I mean it’s ridiculous right?
Here in the USA, ‘the most free country in the world’, our government saddles us with hundreds of thousands of ‘laws’. The Code of Federal Regulations had over 34,000 pages (and weighed 340 lbs) in 2011!!!
Our leaders force us to follow their directions in everything from deciding what we can do with our own bodies (can’t decide what to eat, drink, smoke, etc), to what we can do with ‘our’ property, to what we can do for a living (and how). Their interference is never-ending!
We have laws to: fine or imprison us for drinking raw milk, force us to drink fluoridated water, regulate the amount of water you can use to flush your toilet, force you to tie yourself up every time you get in your car (seatbelt), force you to use expensive and shorter lasting lightbulbs, fine or imprison you for collecting the rain water that falls on your property, throw you in prison for using a harmless plant (marijuana), force you to pay them (government) in order to start a business (extortion), force you to pay them in order to get a job (extortion), force you to support a corrupt and exceedingly expensive medical system (obamacare), allow ‘our leaders’ to get away with NOT following the ‘laws’ they FORCE the rest of us to follow!
And there are hundreds of thousands of others. 🙁
Yet, some people still believe that all this is somehow necessary. I will continue to ask WHY? Since it really is NOT necessary, no not at all! People existed in peaceful societies long before there was any such thing as ‘government’.
No, we do NOT need the government to ‘build roads’, ‘educate the children’, ‘catch the thieves/bad guys’, etc. People were perfectly capable of doing all those things (and everything else they needed to do) without any government.
I’ve been a libertarian ever since I understood what the word meant (nonaggression principle), and really since I was born. I never understood the need for ‘authority’ and have fought it all my life.
I KNOW I can run my life better than anyone else can. Yes, even tho I’ve made mistakes and will surely make more. I STILL know that no one else could’ve done better. Period! I understand that works the same for everybody on this planet (and everywhere else!).
It is simply impossible for anyone else to have all the knowledge that I do about my life (same for everybody else). Without perfect knowledge, there can be no perfect decisions. Since I have the MOST perfect knowledge, then my decision is the BEST one possible. Period.
Until there is some all knowing, all powerful, perfect being (some say there is- God- but that’s another issue I don’t want to get into now), then there is NO justification for letting ANYONE else control YOUR decisions about YOUR life. PERIOD!
The US Constitution tried to create a ‘proper’ government. One where the PEOPLE were sovereign, as they should be. The principles behind the Declaration of Independence and written in the Bill of Rights were a great start for a great country.
The first ever formed specifically and only to guarantee and protect the rights of the individual. Our founding fathers understood that those rights were inherent to every human being and did NOT come from any government.
Too bad we’ve decided to disregard all that stuff. We’ve decided to throw our heritage of freedom and individual liberty in the garbage and become like every other socialist country in the world (most of them failures in many ways). It’s just a matter of degree.
We used to understand the difference between individualism and statism. Not any more. We’re all statists now, everywhere around the world. We’re lucky we’re still living on what we were able to create when we were still fairly free and able to be creative. Those days are fading fast.
I liked how the little alien from my post the other day asked such great questions. Here it is again with some more to make you think…
I agree to a point. Some degree of government is necessary if only to synchronize the extremities. Prior to the coming of the railroads time was an arbitrary concept, varying from place to place. The rails demanded a uniform system of time keeping in order to make meaningful schedules. That in and of itself required a level of governance. You might have preferred “noon” when it occurred an hour earlier but the needs of the many outweighed your preference. When you extend a road from your village it’s kinda nice to have it dovetail with the road leading into the next village. Where we are in total agreement is that had our “leaders” strictly adhered to the constitution as written we would truly have a “more perfect union.”
why does all that have to be done through the use of FORCE? I think it all could have been done voluntarily. There used to be all kinds of voluntary groups that would get together, make standards, etc. It worked.
Even now, in the industry I work in, a private group has made up a set of standards that pretty much everybody in the world has agreed to abide by. I’m talking about the Nautical Institute and their scheme for Dynamic Positioning.
They basically took over the task, because nobody else was doing it and they felt it necessary. They managed to convince most of the maritime employers (all over the world) and now even governments are getting into the act.
The fact is, you could not work, anywhere in the world without a certificate of training from the Nautical Institute. Not because any government (or use of force) declared it, but because of people working together to accomplish common goals.
Yes, I am skipping over some details, there are some other groups now in competition and also the governments of different countries and the IMO are getting involved. But, it DID work pretty darn well. I’m concerned more for how they’re going to screw it up in future with government interference coming than how it was not 100% perfect in the past.
That’s just one example. Pretty much everything that needs to be done, can most probably be worked out without the use of force- IF people are allowed the freedom to do it on their own! That doesn’t happen much anymore. 🙁
As I read your list of laws, I wondered to myself what sense it makes to ban people from collecting rainwater and, at the same time, control how much water is used to flush a toilet.
Imagine if everyone were allowed to collect rainwater and use it for their personal plumbing needs.
Imagine the conservation of water that might result.
I appreciate your efforts Tiffany. 🙂
Thanks for the comments. I don’t understand why I always seem to have so much trouble with my ‘preferred’ blog.
I think you’re on to something with your comment on water conservation.
There is a whole school of thought about why we have so many problems as a society. The ‘tragedy of the commons’. Have you heard of it? It basically explains the situation that always seems to happen when property (or anything) is held ‘in common’. Everybody owns it, but nobody takes care of it.
Fresh water is still a ‘finite’ resource. At least until we start building desalinization plants all over the world. It’s basically subsidized here and so people waste a lot of it. If they paid the full price, they would conserve!
That goes for a lot of stuff other than water.
Most of our so-called laws are insane!
IMHO, if they don’t work with the constitution, if they contradict what it says in any way, then they are NOT really laws. The constitution IS the supreme law of the land and anything in violation of it is VIOD!
Too bad not enough people still understand that and no one will stand up and force the system to change.
Politics now a days is nothing but pandering to people who want things to be done ‘their way’ and so they’ve drug politics into EVERYTHING.
Its not supposed to be in ANYTHING! US Constitution was written so that our government was to be extremely limited and couldn’t do ANYTHING but what was absolutely necessary. Things that nobody COULD do but a government (wars for 1 thing).
I would really like to see the American people learn to value that idea. To REALLY understand and value their own freedom.
I doubt it will ever happen again. 🙁