Tag: Not So Crazy Libertarian Ideals

Politics, the Art of Force

Anybody who has been reading this blog for more then a day has probably come to the conclusion that I hate politics. Politics, to me, is nothing more than a sick amusement. When politicians explain their next plan to fuck us over I just sit back, laugh, and try to let people know what the ruling party of this country are doing. We may not be able to avoid getting screwed but it’s still nice to know how we’re going to get screwed.

While politics is nothing more than a sick for of amusement for me it’s worth analyzing what politics really is. Politics is nothing more than a socially acceptable way to force people into doing what you want them to. Going up to somebody, putting a gun to their head, and demanding they dance like a trained monkey is generally frowned upon; but if you run for office, get elected, and pass a bill that legally requires people to dance like trained monkeys that’s perfectly acceptable. Every legislative initiative ultimately boils down to this: one side wants to force the other side to comply with a list of demands.

Nowhere is this more apparently than political conventions. I’ve already written two rants about the basic political organizing unit (BPOU) convention I attended last week but I feel a point needs to be driven home. At that convention I was surrounded by the most disgusting, vile, and monstrous people in existence. These people claimed to be there for the good of the country but ultimately they were there to force the country to obey one or more demands. Some people were there hoping to raise support for the upcoming vote to ban gay marriage in Minnesota. Others wanted to push for war with Iran. Many attendees wanted to push for laws that would make abortion in all forms illegal. There were even individuals who wanted to advocate for laws that would ban all gambling in Minnesota.

What every one of those individuals have in common is a desire to use the state’s gun to force people to comply with their ideals. Then you have the politicians, the people who are no longer content with forcing people through indirect means and have opted for more direct means. Political conventions really shed light on the political process, politicians show up and tell the crowd how what they will force people to do and the crowd bases their vote on those promises of force. If you want to stop gay marriage you vote for the politicians promising to prohibit gay marriage. Those who want to force people into sobriety can vote for the politician who promises to force sobriety through stronger punishments for drug use. Convention are where the monster meet. Those unwilling to directly force other into obedience can elect those who are willing to directly force others into obedience. It almost causes me to vomit thinking about it.

Politics is disgusting. It requires a devious mind in order to counter other people who oppose your desires. Underhanded trickery and schemes are de facto strategies at political conventions because power hungry monsters known only force but also wish to avoid being forced into a course of action. Eventually everybody who plays the political game gets burned by an opponent who is more devious and cunning. Decisions are never based on mutually agreeable terms because those who end up being affected have no say in the matter.

Libertarians suck at politics because we have no interest in controlling the actions of others. I have no interest in running your life so I’m ineffective when it comes to politics. Political deals can’t be brokered when you have nothing to offer. In order to make a political exchange one must have something to offer in the realm of force. For example, if one wanted a candidate to ban drug usage they may accept a law banning gay marriage as well. A politician who wants to ban gay marriage may be willing to support bans on drug usage if it means the advocates will provide votes. Basically one trades their form a tyranny for another’s form of tyranny.

The political ineffectiveness of libertarians isn’t due to apathy or laziness, it’s due to the fact that we have no tyranny to offer and therefore we have no effective means of making political deals. It always confuses me when people criticize libertarians based on our ineffectiveness at politics. People don’t seem to understand that our ineffectiveness derives from our beliefs in personal liberty, we have no interest in running the lives of others. Our ineffectiveness actually demonstrates our ideology better than any book, speech, or movie could. In the world of coercion we simply shrug our shoulders, tell everybody to run their own lives, and dabble in politics only as a means of self-defense (in general we are only interested in limited how screwed we’re going to get).

The people who worry me are those who are good a politics. Being good an manipulating others into supporting force is not something to be looked upon favorably. When somebody says the Republican Party is better than the Libertarian Party because the Republican Party actually gets people elected they’re actually saying the Republican Party is better at negotiating with force. Republican candidates can offer up ways they desire to force others, libertarians can not. A Republican candidate can say he’ll support another’s desire to enforce sobriety but wants the ability to stop people from gambling if elected. Such an ability should never be considered a merit. Politics is the art of force and being good at it should be seen as monstrous.

Human Achievement Hour

March 30th is a day when we’re supposed to turn off all of our lights, forgo the use of electronic devices, and otherwise act like we’re in the fucking stone age for one hour. This idiotic idea has been going on for a few years and it’s called Earth Hour. During Earth Hour I always make it a point to turn on all of my lights, computers, and run my truck because I like celebrating the fact we’re not living in the stone age. Well this year I wasn’t alone because Earth Hour has been renamed Human Achievement Hour:

The Competitive Enterprise Institute plans to recognize “Human Achievement Hour” between 8:30pm and 9:30pm on March 28, 2009 to coincide with Earth Hour, a period of time during which governments, individuals, and corporations have agreed to dim or shut off lights in an effort to draw attention to climate change. Anyone not foregoing the use of electricity in that hour is, by default, celebrating the achievements of human beings.

We salute the people who keep the lights on and produce the energy that helps make human achievement possible.

Green and private conservation are fine. We have no problem with an individual (or group) that wants to sit naked in the dark without heat, clothing, or light. Additionally, we would have no problem with the group holding a pro-green technology rally. That is their choice. But when this group stages a “global election” with the express purpose of influencing “government policies to take action against global warming,” we have every right as individuals to express our vote for the opposite

Sadly Human Achievement Hour has already passed for the year but if I know my readers, and I believe I do, most of you likely had every light, computer, and red dot sight turned on. The achievements of the human race should not be looked down upon, they should be embraced and celebrated. How many lives have been saved by medical technologies made possible through the invention of electricity? How many man hours have been saved by these wonderful devices we call computers? How much more connected are we as a race with the invention of the Internet? All of these things, things many environmentalists decry as evil, are the products of human minds.

Whenever an enviro-Nazi (I would call them environmentalists but most of them don’t respect private property) tells you electricity is killing the planet remind them that they wouldn’t likely be alive without it since electricity makes many medical marvels possible. When they tell you automobiles are evil remind them that American cities are dependent on them, we couldn’t live in our cities as they’re currently designed without the invention of automobiles. Don’t let people get away with decrying the achievements of great minds, point out their idiocy so all can point and laugh at those who advocate we return to the stone age.

You Decide, Sting Operation or Giving the State the Finger

I’m not sure what to make of this:

A retailer selling tools to grow cannabis has opened in the US capital, just a few miles from the White House.

WeGrow sells plant food and lighting – but no cannabis or seeds – to help cultivators grow medical marijuana.

The chain, dubbed the “Walmart of weed”, launches its latest outlet just as Washington’s medical marijuana laws come into effect.

Is WeGrow a legitimate business run by people that love to give the state the middle finger or is it run by agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency who are using the chain as a clever type of sting operation?

The store claims to sell people equipment so they can grow marijuana at home:

WeGrow’s founder says he hopes his company will help create a “green rush” by selling the equipment needed to grow cannabis at home.

“The more that businesses start to push the envelope by showing that this is a legitimate industry, the further we’re going to be able to go in changing people’s minds,” Dhar Mann told the Associated Press news agency.

If the chain was targeting the medical marijuana business I would imagine they would setup a system to ensure they only sell to licensed growers, although I could be wrong. While I hope this is an actual business and not a fancy sting operation I’m left wondering. Has anybody heard of this chain before? Is there any news regarding their customers mysteriously being arrested after busying supplies from one of the stores?

Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter the Political Realm

As I said in my previous post, I attended my local basic political operating unit (BPOU) convention last night. Why would a man who despises politics, politicians, and the entire system of the state participate in such a thing? Because I would like to see Ron Paul get elected.

Unfortunately I left with my hatred of everything politics reaffirmed. You can never understand the idea of adults acting like children until you’ve attended a political convention. I felt as though I was in a kindergarden class full of unruly children who all wanted the same toy during recess.

I came as an alternate, which is a fancy way of saying a poor schmuck who becomes a voting delegate if the designated deletes from your caucus don’t show up. We had seven delegate seats available, two delegates and myself showed up meaning I got seated. When we registered delegates received blue name tags while alternates received red ones, after being officially seated we were told to go to the front to receive blue tags.

Although I’m poor with estimations I’d guess something like 1/4 to 1/3 of the room left to get new name tags, at which point a bunch of shit got rammed through because the chairperson knew it would be far easier to ram shit through with a good chunk of people missing. Yes, the people running the convention purposely put the alternates into a position where they would be forced to leave the room just so some shitty rules could be rammed through with less opposition.

From here things just went downhill. It demonstrated how corrupt party people are and how willing they were to toss the rules to the wind in order to get their way. My objections to the fact we were told to leave the room only to come back to rules being passed was entirely dismissed by the chair, in fact the chair lied by stating we were told not to leave the room. Yes, he just flat out lied in front of everybody and there wasn’t a damned thing we could do about it. I tried following the guidance of several members of the Paul campaign that came to help us fight against such party shenanigans but my attempt was only met with the threat of having me removed from the convention.

For those of you out there that hold any hope of reforming the Republican Party let me just say this: abandon all hope. The higher ups; or as I like to call them, the inner party; don’t want us involved in their political process. They want obedient automatons to tow the party line, people who won’t challenge the desires of the inner party. All their talk about wanting young people engaged in the party is complete bullshit. If the inner party had any decency they would tell the truth, they want people who won’t shake up the status quo. Members of the inner party don’t believe in liberty, limited government, or free enterprise; they only care about power.

Trying to reform the Republican Party is an act of lunacy when you think about what the plan entails. In order to reform the Republican Party from within one must play by the Republican Party rules, rules that are ignored of changed whenever it suits the inner party. Calling the inner party members out on their blatant disregard of the rules they put into place is a futile effort as well because the majority of people in the audience are mindless obedient automatons, they will shout you down because their masters in the inner party desire it. The combination of a power hungry inner party and followers unwilling to critically think leads everywhere but towards liberty.

Obedient automatons are members of what I call the outer party. These are the people who want power but don’t have the influence to obtain it. They exist on one hope, the hope that their service to the inner party will eventually be rewarded by inclusion in the inner party. What these people fail to realize is that the outer party are seen merely as trained monkeys to those in the inner party, trained monkeys who will continue doing what they’re told so long as a banana is thrown to them once in a great while. One does not move from the outer party to the inner party, hoping for such is futile but when you lack the ability to think critically you never come to understand this fact.

Everybody involved in politics has an agenda. My agenda is getting somebody into office who is actually liberty minded, really it’s self-defense against an ever more tyrannical state. Outer party members have varying agendas beyond simply moving into the inner party, they also want to use the state’s gun to force make people comply with their petty desires. Some outer party members want to ban gay marriage, others want to ban gambling, others desire war with Iran, etc. They see these conventions as a way to get Republican Party candidates to move these petty desires through the legislature, failing to realize the fact candidates don’t follow the party platform. In the end the outer party members spend hours debating something that is entirely pointless because it won’t lead to any changes. Finally inner party members continue with their agenda to gain more power for themselves.

Think of the ability to fulfill agendas as a toys and those trying to get their agendas fulfilled as children. The children fight over the toys. It’s not enough for each child to get the toy they really want, they also want every other toy because seeing their fellow children happy causes them great discomfort. This fighting over toys leads to some of the most ruthless non-physical combat you could ever witness. Nothing is off the table, every dirty trick is pulled out in the hopes it will allow one to achieve victory. Are the rules previously agreed to inconvenient to your hopes of getting all the toys? Ignore them, you’ll probably get away with it because other children also want to ignore the rules so they can get all the toys. Some of the children hope they can get the toys by forcing everybody to strictly adhere to the rules, a hope that is pointless because the other children were the ones who wrote the rules.

I’m shocked that the attendees of the BPOU convention weren’t throwing themselves to the floor screaming and crying. Their demeanor was literally that bad. Most of the people attending this convention pay lip service to the idea of party unity, but throw that idea to the wind the second something doesn’t go their way. “We’re all Republicans” they say (obviously they don’t know me), “we shouldn’t be fighting one another!” It sounds good but you only need wait two minutes to hear the same people denounce supposedly fellow Republicans.

The convention went from approximately 19:00 to 1:30, and in all those hours we had nothing to show for it. Some people were vote to move up to the state and congress ion district conventions where they would be forced to play the same game again, but nothing of actual value was accomplished. No experience is an absolute waste of time mind you, I feel my hatred of politics and politicians was strongly reaffirmed, but that’s it.

Hoping to reform the political process through the political process is akin to hoping for a rainbow farting unicorn. The system is rigged against reform, every rule is geared towards maintaining the power of the inner party. Those who walk in with hopes of changing things only have to options; realize the futility of the effort and leave or get sucked into the monster and become another cog in the political machine.

Abandon all hope ye who enter the political realm. There is nothing to gain and much to lose. Decades have been spent molding the system to ensure the power of the inner party. Members of the inner party are specialists, their specialty being the ability to maintain power. Those entering the carefully crafted system can’t hope to fathom a machine so large and complex, and that lack of understanding leads to defeat. Only the most devious mind could hope to understand a machine developed to be so convoluted, and those minds will tend towards the power of the inner party instead of the liberation of others.

The Flawed Sheep, Sheepdog, or Wolf Analogy

Are you a sheep or a sheepdog? It’s a question periodically asked by advocates of self-defense that tries to shove the person being questioned into a false dichotomy, either you’re a helpless sheep that simply follows the flock or you’re a brave sheepdog who guard the vulnerable sheep from the wolves.

In one of the more annoying advertisement e-mails I received it stated:

Christopher – you are it. You are the country’s last line of defense. The minute-man…. the sheep dog.

[…]

This guy completely understands sheepdogs like you and I.

I’m not a bloody sheepdog. The sheep, sheepdog, or wolf analogy pisses me off because it exists mainly to boost the egos of those who carry firearms. Instead of merely being a man who happens to carry a firearm one can now think, “I’m a sheepdog, the protector of the sheep, I am what lies between the average man and evil doers in our society, I am Batman!” Using the analogy seems rather mastubatory to me, a way of making one’s self feel good.

Since I refuse to adopt the sheepdog nomenclature I must be either a sheep or a wolf, right? Wrong. I’m a human being, but if we’re going to use animal analogies I’ll take a page from the Free State Project and use the porcupine as my totem animal. Porcupines are great, they walk around foraging for food, and avoid starting shit with other animals. So long as you don’t attack a porcupine you’ll be OK but if you fuck with a porcupine you’re going to get a face full of wrath filled quills.

The most important part of self-defense is mental. Even if you have a quality firearm with the skill to utilize it you’re likely to lose if you’re not in the game mentally. Thinking of yourself as a sheepdog put you in, what I believe to be, a bad mental state. Instead of merely being out to protect you and yours you’re now assuming responsibility for others. Putting yourself in harms way is the opposite of self-defense and I believe it to be poor form to adopt an attitude of being a guardian to everybody else. Don’t be the sheepdog, be the porcupine.

Meeting Gary Johnson

Last night one of my friends hosted Gary Johnson as his home so I had a chance to meet the man and grill him on political issues. I don’t have time to write about the details at the moment but I will be working on that this weekend, suffice to say he’s a pretty cool guy for a politicians. My ability to make every politician I meet squirm is lacking though as he managed to leave without the usually utterances of ‘uh’, ‘um’, and ‘ah’ that most politicians spew out when I ask them questions. He also had no problem posing with me holding up the metal horns:

When Currencies Collapse

The problem with fiat currency is the fact it doesn’t have any intrinsic value. Worth of fiat currencies, like the United States dollar, is judged entirely on the decree of the issuer. For example the $5 bill is worth $5 only because the state, which issues the currency, says it’s worth $5. On the other hand commodity based currencies hold intrinsic value, they have actual worth through their utility. If a culture decides to base its currency on wheat, probably not the best commodity to use as it spoils but that’s beside the point, each currency unit would be a fixed amount of wheat. Let’s call this hypothetical currency the Whollar (wheat dollar because I’m super creative), and each Whollar is fixed at 1 pound of wheat. If you take your Whollars to a bank you can exchange them for their value of wheat, so taking 100 Whollars to the bank would result in you walking away with 100 pounds of wheat. Since wheat is a staple foodstuff it has actual value in its utility.

Fiat currencies are easily manipulated but fail to hold value once trust in the currency is lost. While the state may say the $5 bill is worth $5 sellers in the market place may assign it a value of zero. Once faith in a fiat currency is lost it no longer because usable for the exchange of goods and at that point real trade resumes. The faith most people hold in Greek money has vanish and in its place comes the return of barter:

In recent weeks, Theodoros Mavridis has bought fresh eggs, tsipourou (the local brandy: beware), fruit, olives, olive oil, jam, and soap. He has also had some legal advice, and enjoyed the services of an accountant to help fill in his tax return.

None of it has cost him a euro, because he had previously done a spot of electrical work – repairing a TV, sorting out a dodgy light – for some of the 800-odd members of a fast-growing exchange network in the port town of Volos, midway between Athens and Thessaloniki.

In return for his expert labour, Mavridis received a number of Local Alternative Units (known as tems in Greek) in his online network account. In return for the eggs, olive oil, tax advice and the rest, he transferred tems into other people’s accounts.

The only common item everybody has to make exchanges is their labor and the reason people make exchanges is to fulfill wants. Why would I work for two hours programming a computer in exchange for something that won’t allow me to fulfill my wants? If United States dollars or euros won’t buy me food, shelter, and clothing then they are of no use to me. On the other hand I can directly exchange my labor for those wants.

Bater isn’t ideal as it can be complicated but it’s far better than exchanging your goods and services for worthless paper that won’t buy you similar goods and services due to inflation and lack of faith in the currency.

As fiat currencies continue to collapse we’re going to see more people resorting to barter.

If You Disobey You Will Be Put in a Cage

Periodically I bring up the state’s obsession with using violence to enforce its decrees. Many people seem to believe fines aren’t examples of state violence but they never stop to think about the reason people pay fines. You pay a fine because of the implicit threat: if you don’t pay the fine you will be kidnapped and held in a cage. Many Americans have been held in cages for incredibly stupid reasons. A stupid reason we can add to the list is not siding a house:

A Burnsville man on his way to work was arrested and thrown in jail without bond, and then subjected to electronic home monitoring.

But it wasn’t for drugs or a DWI or some other major crime.

Burnsville city leaders say Mitch Faber’s dealings with the law all stem from his failure to properly put up siding on his house.

Yep, siding.

Faber says he had every intention of completing the stucco and decorative rock project on his home but he ran into money troubles when the economy soured. Burnsville leaders say they had no choice to enforce the law.

Here’s how a simple code violation spiraled into a criminal case:

Mitch and his wife Jean say it all began back in 2007 when they received a letter from the city of Burnsville saying, in part, “you must complete the siding of your home.”

“We were in the process of finishing,” Mitch insists. “This wasn’t something that we were trying to avoid doing.”

But in 2009 there were two more warning letters, and in 2010 yet another–this time requiring Faber to appear in court. Burnsville leaders provided 5 Eyewitness News with these 2010 photos of the Fabers’ home as proof there was a problem.

“I was expecting maybe a $700 fine,” Faber said. Instead he was given an ultimatum — finish the siding or go to jail.

[…]

After two days locked up, a judge agreed Mitch should be released but required him to submit to electronic home monitoring. In Dakota County, that process requires participants — no matter what their crimes — to blow into a drug and alcohol device every time an alarm goes off.

“They could call me at 2 in the morning and they did,” Faber said.

The state didn’t even get to the part where they threaten to kidnap Mitch unless he paid an extortion fee, they just went straight to the kidnapping part. In essence Mitch is being punished for not having enough money. He began stuccoing his home but didn’t have the money to complete the upgrade. Here’s the thing, it’s Mitch’s home so why the fuck should the state be able to tell him what to do with it? Perhaps he wanted a home that had unfinished stucco siding, then what? Too bad? Finish the siding, do with your home what you do not wish to do, or be held in a cage?

My question is this: where is the victim of this supposed crime and what harm do they claim has been done to them? Without a victim claiming harm there is no ground for punishment in my opinion. In this case the state has demonstrated their willingness to bring violence where no violence previously existed. Nobody was harmed by Mitch’s home not being fully stuccoed yet he was kidnapped.

This is yet another example of the police state we live in.