Deep Thoughts




Of course, there are many others writing and speaking instructively, even brilliantly about Anarchy.  Selected quotes are posted below:


The goal of the state is to find some practice that is universally reviled and pose as the one and only way of expunging it from society. The best example today is child pornography, a grim and ghastly industry that every decent person would like to see eradicated from the earth. But in the name of doing so, the state invades everyone’s privacy, controls speech, interferes with families, and otherwise uses the issue as a wedge to undermine every freedom.

Thus do we see what is wrong with statements such as the following:

We have an obligation to protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse, and we can do this by increasing communication between state and federal agencies to help combat this repulsive industry. While privacy rights should always be respected in the pursuit of child pornographers, Mort needs to be done to track down and prosecute the twisted individuals who exploit innocent children.

Do we really want to unleash the state to solve this problem? Not if we understand the dynamics of statism. The power will not be used to solve the problem, but rather to intimidate the population and ways to which people will find it difficult to object. The trouble is that the above words were not written by the typically naïve and do-gooder, social worker, or Justice Department bureaucrat.   


Thus we can see the power of propaganda and its uses. Not even self identified libertarians can see that state authority over the family is a basis for the loss of liberty in our time, and that the state always poses a greater threat to society than whatever problem it purports to solve. There is a further problem: a concession that the state can indeed solve social problems that cannot be corrected without the state, is to give up the entire argument over the future of liberty itself.

Lew Rockwell - “Against The State


“I have been asked to present an argument for anarchy. This is an absurdly easy thing to do. In fact, it is a task that can be discharged in two words — look around.”

James Hasnas, The Obviousness of Anarchy


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"The state is the most dangerous provider of security, since it exacts liberty in exchange for its promises. Since the state imposes itself through violence and the threat of violence, and acts as a monopolist, it is also the worst provider of any service, including security. When the state promises security, it delivers insecurity." David E. Schellenberger, Security Means Liberty - Why You Cannot Trade One for the Other


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"I happened to just see a post in which someone was asking for book recommendations so he could study economics. While there are some great explanations, I would say the first two "sources" you should reference are: 1) yourself, and; 2) your life. Some people seem to think that economics is some magical, mystical fields of thought which only "the experts" could possibly understand. But the basics are available to all of us, every day. It's just cause and effect, and human nature. And most people have enough experience that if they would THINK about things, instead of choosing which "theory" to blindly believe, they would understand 95% of economics.






Example #1: If someone ELSE--someone you don't even know--was going to reap the rewards of your efforts, and you wouldn't, would you work harder, or not as hard? Answer that, and you'll know why communism is economically idiotic.




Example #2: Would you rather have a simple but nice-looking chair that someone made in a few hours, or some ugly, uncomfortable atrocity that someone spent weeks making? Answer that, and you'll know why the "labor theory of value" is stupid.




Example #3: If everyone stands in a big circle, and hands money around as fast they can, does society get richer? Answer that, and you'll know why trying to measure prosperity by measuring spending alone is stupid.




Example #4: If we destroy all the wealth in the world, thus necessitating lots of work to rebuild it all, which would provide lots of jobs for people, will that make us rich? Answer that, and you'll know why Keynes was an idiot.




Example #5: Does the world get richer if you blow up your house? Answer that, and you'll understand how stupid it is for people to claim that war-mongering helps the economy.




Example #6: If you forcibly prevent anyone from hiring anyone else for less than $100,000 a year, will that help the poor? Answer that, and you'll know why the "minimum wage" is both immoral and stupid.




Example #7: If we pay all the unemployed people to carry big rocks around in circles, does that make society richer? Answer that, and you'll know why "make-work" programs and obsessing over "full employment" is hugely misguided (to put it nicely).




Bonus Question: If the workers at some factory kill the factory owner, take over the factory in a communist uprising, and then vote that they all get paid ten times as much as before, what happens?




Yes, there are some people whose books simply expand on rational thought and obvious realities, such as "Economics in One Lesson" by Henry Hazlitt. And this can help people think clearly. But if someone tries to sell you some convoluted, twisted "theory" which doesn't reflect how YOU behave and what YOU see, then chances are it's bullpoop". Larken Rose, Facebook posting


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