Comments on: USA Today on Freedom from Responsibility

By: steven

steven — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:55:41 +0000

The fact that some want state regulated education, state regulated commerce and so forth wouldn’t be the problem if they only wanted it for themselves. The problem is that they want to use the coercive power of the state to force those things on me and others who don’t want them. This is what happens when we are governed by an institution with the exclusive right to make and enforce the law – people whose actions are not causing harm to anyone else are subjected to aggression by the very institution that claims to protect their rights. So, yes, if you view proper government as one that is limited to protecting individual rights and that derives its powers from the consent of those individuals being governed, as I do, then our government is a monumental failure. It was a failure from the very beginning.

Things like vouchers and charter schools might sound like they are moving us towards freedom in education, but they’re really not. As long as the state is involved in education, schools will be more like prisons than places of learning.

If you would like to read a really good analysis regarding American education, I suggest Sheldon Richman’s book “Separating School & State” (121 pages – easy reading).

By: allen

allen — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:50:48 +0000

Failed? We’re into our third century. If we’ve strayed away from the concept of a sovereign citizenry it’s because that’s the direction some of us want to go and the direction enough of the balance of us are willing to be led.

If it’s any consolation, and from what you’ve written so far I’m afraid it’s unlikely to be, there are at least some signs of hope.

Sticking to the purpose of this blog, vouchers aren’t dead despite intense efforts by powerful political forces to kill them and charters are in forty states.

While someone from nearer the founding of the nation wouldn’t be too impressed with those developments we’ve moved pretty far from the sensibilities of those times so relative to the current state of affairs both vouchers and charters put more power in the hands of parents and are a step away from the future envisioned by statists.

By: steven

steven — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:30:47 +0000

The means exist as long as humans exist, but realizing true liberty requires rejecting the state entirely, in favor of a society whose affairs are managed by individuals or voluntary associations. In other words, associations (governments) which derive their power from the consent of the individuals that choose to be members.

James Madison said that we must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place oblige it to control itself. That’s not possible to do. If you think it is, please say how. Written constitutions can’t accomplish this by themselves, because human beings have free will. Our own government is a splendid example of how relying on a written constitution to restrain the power of government fails.

The founders’ concept of a limited government that would only protect individual rights was a failed idea, which tried to reconcile two irrencilable elements – statism and voluntarism. It’s never worked and never will. People that are committed to liberty need to realize that either the individual is sovereign or the state is sovereign, but both cannot be. One leads to liberty (individual sovereignty) and one leads to tryanny (state sovereignty).

By: allen

allen — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:32:51 +0000

It’s still a representative form of government so if we want to back away from being a society of state regulated education, state regulated commerce, compulsory taxation, compulsory associations the means still exist.

Unfortunately a significant segment of our society wants just that and they’ve done a good enough job of wooing those in the middle to move us toward their goals.

By: steven

steven — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:58:51 +0000

I’m committed to liberty and self-determination, and to the set of ideals that Jefferson articulated in the Declaration of Independence. But, unfortunately, our government is not based on those ideals, and it never was. If our government was based on those ideals, we would have a society made up of voluntary associations formed by the mutual consent of the members. Instead we have a society of state regulated education, state regulated commerce, compulsory taxation, compulsory associations and people such as Peggy Joseph who think that she is entitled to have other people work to provide for her needs and desires. True liberty is out of the picture.