If libertarians want to change how nonlibertarians’ think about government, they will need to understand how nonlibertarians think about government. By “nonlibertarians,” I mean the majority of people who spend little if any time pondering political theory, or what Murray Rothbard called political ethics. They may focus at times on particular government programs and actions, or on proposals for new programs, but rarely about government as an institution.Read TGIF here.
Proudly delegitimizing the state since 2005
"Aye, free! Free as a tethered ass!" —W.S. Gilbert
"All the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and . . . the State should be abolished." —Benjamin Tucker
"You must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." —James Madison
"Fat chance." —Sheldon Richman
This is great advice, but I fear a good many of those committed to the state (whether on the left or the right) subscribe to their political ideology the same way a young earth creationist subscribes to his religion. For the more knowledgable non-llibertarians it is important to determine the nature of their view of the state. Do they see the state as a necessary but dangerous thing, useful to counterbalance other institutions in society but always capable of mischief even when doing "good" things? Or does the statist buy into nonsense like the idea that the state is just a group of people like any other, or that "the state is us" or that "the state is the thing we all belong to/do together"? If it's the former there is hope, if the latter, we've got a problem.
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