I repeat, the life-blood of government (especially centralized) and the state IS violence. Without the coercive threat of violence it would likely cease to exist. And for added measure, War is the health of the State, as stated by Randolph Bourne which, is why governments continually promote it.
Now, let’s make a list of just a few of the things that we are forced to do by the government and by forced I mean that if you don’t do these things you will be fined, incarcerated or possibly killed even though non of those things is morally wrong. And in this list we’ll also include some of the things that you must get permission from the government for before you may do them.
- Pay Taxes. If you don’t give the government the part of your income that they say you must things will go badly for you.
- Drive a car. Don’t get permission e.g. a license and you will be punished. I know most people think drivers licenses makes us all safer but it does not. There are better, free market ways to make the roads safer.
- Buy a house or land. It cost us much more to buy these things because of government regulations and then, in fact, you NEVER own them because you must pay property tax on them forever or the government will seize them. We still live under a feudal system where the king owns all the land. We just rent it.
- Get Married – Marriage License. As far as I know most states require that people get a marriage license to enter into wedded bliss. Why? Why is marriage the business of the state? Marriage is private or if anything it’s the business of the church or religion and historically it always has been. Personally I’d just not get one now days. By getting the “blessing” of the State you have subjected your relationship to the authority of the state and even made your children wards of the State. There have been court cases which have argued this very point and it was held up.
- Travel. If you want to travel outside of the government’s territorial borders you must ask them first by getting a Passport and if they want to keep you here for whatever reason, they can. Of course you can always try to leave without one but then all the other government’s of the world won’t let you enter their territories. If it were not for socialism immigration wouldn’t be an issue. If people had to take care of themselves and or rely upon the charity of others there’d be very little reason to keep people out.
- Make Social Security and Medicare payments. Sure you can opt out if you’re a licensed preacher or such but basically we are forced to let the government take our money so they can allegedly provide for our retirement. Of course we know that they’ve robbed those funds many times over but that’s what criminals do. Just more socialism that allows the crooks to steal more.
- License to Preach. So much for separation of church and state. Of course they can’t stop you from preaching but if you want to do weddings and have other state granted benefits you must have one.
- Compulsory Schooling. Not every state forces so called Public Education onto children but most still have rules and regulations for home and private schoolers. There are a few states that stay out of home schoolers business.
- Building, remodeling a home. In many counties you must get permission from the county before you may do anything to your home and for sure to build one. Most people think this is a good idea too but it’s because of a false notion that the free market doesn’t have a way of dealing with people building crap and then selling it to some unsuspecting sap but it’s not true.
- Give Your Body to the Government. This is the most fundamental test of freedom. Do you own your own body and the answer is no. I’d like to buy and drink raw milk for example but the government says I can’t and if I try to buy it or sell or even share it with my friends they will come with their jackbooted thugs, guns drawn and throw me in jail. Of course it’s for my own good they say. I must wear a seatbelt or I’ll be fined. I don’t want to wear a seatbelt and it’s my body isn’t it? NO. I want to drink alcohol… That’s ok because it’s regulated by the government and taxed – cigarettes as well. Besides, prohibition didn’t go so well in the past just as it hasn’t gone well with the “War On Drugs”.
- And Now – Buy Health Insurance. It is so unbelievable to me that we have allowed our government to fine people who can’t afford health insurance for not having it. I guess it’s going to take even more pain before the people rebel.
- Pay For Unjust Wars. Which, of course is all of them. I have to add this one because anytime the people protest one of the government’s wars they are considered unpatriotic and driven out of town on a rail. We are forced to support mass murder and it’s justified because it’s the government. This one you don’t get fined or thrown into jail for as a regular citizen, unless you shout too loudly, but you do pay for it like it or not. And if you are in the military and protest… well that’s a whole other story.
And the list could go on but what’s the point? The point is that we are in no wise a free people and the nature of the State and centralized government in general is, extortion through violence. In America the idea was that, the government was created to secure our liberty and freedom. But the power of government is much too alluring to all the wrong sort of people and it doesn’t take them long to figure that out. Once in power they tend to stay there and by changing the rules they maintain their grip, oppressing the people and making onerous demands upon them in order to enrich themselves at the people’s expense. Meanwhile the people continue to believe that it, the government that is, is necessary for a society to function and why? Because people can’t be trusted to do the right thing. So, they continue to let themselves be robbed, raped and plundered not recognizing that the government isn’t some benign, lofty entity untouched by human hands but it is made up of those same humans that they believe can’t be trusted. It boggles the mind!
And there it is. Having a centralized Federal head of all the individual states is simply an unnecessary layer of bureaucratic corruption which, has taken power away from the individual states which, in turn take it from the individual cities and communities. And finally the individuals and their liberty are sacrificed for the, so called, good of the collective.
There’s a Better Way
The Libertarian way. If you don’t know it then it’s time for you to learn it because if there is any hope for this country it will be borne on libertarian ideals just as it was, in part, at the founding of America. Unfortunately the founders left a fairly large crack in their system that has allowed this massive loss of freedom and liberty we are experiencing today and it will not change until this current system breaks down completely. When that time comes it will help greatly, I imagine, if the ideals of Libertarianism are firmly planted in the minds of our children so that future generations may just have a chance of living free once more.
If you think libertarianism is about a bunch of people who just want to sit around and smoke pot and do whatever the heck they want with no consequences then you’ve gotten the wrong idea. That’s not libertarianism. So, do your due diligence and do the research. There’s no excuse in this day and age for ignorance.
If You Don’t Want To Be Thoroughly Offended Do Not Read Past Here:
Let me say that, regardless of what condition your country is in there is really only one freedom that counts in the long term and that’s the freedom that exists in God’s salvation which, was purchased for all mankind 2000 years ago when Christ was in the world and God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not county their sins against them. And now, since God as taken sin off the table of his justice by placing it all on Jesus Christ and making him who, knew no sin to be sin for us, belief is the only thing one needs in order to be saved. When we believe God about what Christ accomplished, having died for the sins of the world which, would include you and me, he places us into the body of Christ and everything that belongs to Christ now belongs to us and we are made the righteousness of Christ.
You see, it’s not enough to have your sins forgiven because in fact, the sins of the whole world have already been forgiven. God has reconciled the world to himself. No one will ever not go to heaven because of their sin. It will be because of their lack of righteousness; you must also have perfect righteousness and no man has that save the God-man Jesus Christ. So by God’s grace, when we simply take him at his word about what Christ accomplished by his death, burial and resurrection, he identifies us with Christ and just like in a marriage what belongs to one now belongs to the other and since Christ is perfectly righteous, God, by judicial decree, imputes Christ’s righteousness to our account. It’s as simple as that.
This is what the Apostle Paul, the apostle of the gentiles, calls “my gospel” or the gospel of Christ and it is this gospel by which we are saved today. (gospel means good news. Contrary to what most Christian denominations teach not all gospels in the bible are the same) This is the gospel that is seldom taught or understood by the, so called, church and of which, religion knows nothing about because they always want to make your sin the issue in order to keep you under control by using your guilt to coerce you to be good and or to fill their offering plates.
Sadly, there are some libertarians, who are atheists, who think that libertarianism is incompatible with belief in God but they’re wrong which, is why you find a great many libertarians who also profess belief in God. You’re never more free than when you know that this life is not all there is and that there is a God who made and loves you and wants you to be with him forever.