Governments and Statists are an Anachronism

I listened to a debate today between Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute and Doug Casey on Kerry Lutz’ fine Financial Survival Network that frankly shocked me.  I’ll tell you why in a moment.  But first, some background.

I’m fairly new to the intellectual discussion of liberty.  While I’ve been anarchist minded since my early adulthood I was only officially beknighted an anarchist by Doug Casey himself somewhere around 2004.  Before then I thought what most of the brainwashed public thought, that the word anarchy meant violence and chaos.  I hadn’t even heard the word libertarian until that same evening.

But I’ve dug my head deep into the virtual library that is the internet for the last eight years reading everything I can get my hands on.  So, I’ve been coming onto things somewhat like a newbie… or a virgin you might say. This parallels my experiences of being the father of young children. As we go through life, unless we are incredibly careful, we get tied down with all sorts of intellectual baggage that simply makes no sense in a rapidly changing world.  That is why having a young child around is a laugh a minute as they point out ways of seeing things that you would never, in a million years, have imagined. Everything is new for them, everything is questioned – their inquisitive nature allows us to see the world with fresh eyes. Like the kid who asked his mom why she had two.  Is one for hot and one for cold milk?

And so, like a newborn anarchist I’ve wandered the world.  I have read quite a bit about liberty and freedom, but I haven’t met many who call themselves “libertarians”.  I always assumed that anyone who denotes themselves as “libertarian” was “on the same team” as me.

AN ANARCHIC AWAKENING

Well, there have been three distinct moments in the last month where I realized that is simply not the case.  It’s not the case at all.

The first was when I was invited to an LA cocktail party hosted by Reason.com.  Reason proclaims it is “libertarian” so I couldn’t wait to get to the party and have some interesting freedom minded conversations.  To be honest I was shocked by what I heard – one starry eyed attendee celebrated Barack Obama’s calls for socialized medicine during his State of the Union. I quickly became castigated just for mentioning I am an anarchist.  The top speaker at the event was the former mayor of Washington, who everyone cheered heartily.  Apparently he closed down a few public schools.  I could tell that my question, “Why not close all of them?” would have been met with great distress so I didn’t bother.  In fact, just mentioning I lived in Mexico just drew glares and puzzlement.  Why would you live there, it’s so dangerous, they’d ask… right before I headed into Hollywood and saw some things that really scared the crap out of me.

The next thing that awoke me to the world around me was when I went to FreedomFest in the Bahamas.  It is Freedomfest after all, I thought some people might be interested in Freedom.  I was on a panel with Richard Rahn a self described “Libertarian Conservative”. Rahn, a senior fellow at the “libertarian” CATO Institute, seemed disgusted to meet me after I was described as a prodigy of Doug Casey’s and then he went on to natter on about how governments need to change how they regulate banks.  To give you a sense of the type of worldview that CATO espouses, check out the following blog post from CATO celebrating the “death” of Osama Bin Laden:

All Americans celebrate the news that we have been waiting to hear for over nine and a half years: Osama Bin Laden is dead. The operation that resulted in his demise is a credit to the prowess and professionalism of the men and women in our military, and our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. All Americans — and the world — owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

I’ve since learned that this particular species of statist is what Lew Rockwell calls a “beltway libertarian”. The model of the “beltway libertarians” is to whisper in the ear of the king, and hope that he changes his ways. Accordingly, the name of his speech was “Nine Countries That Did It Right”.  Yeesh.

And then, today, I was listening to the debate between Yaron Brook and Doug Casey and it was all crystallized.  Doug attempted to be cordial with Yaron, stating that Randians and anarchists are on the same team to which Yaron stated that they weren’t.  Anarchists are against freedom and are for tyranny, he said!  I almost choked on my coffee and Baileys!

He went on to gush about how the US Military is such a force for good.  Yes.  He said that.  And, in some sort of bizarre, perhaps early onset of alzheimers, paranoid statement, said that if it weren’t for the US Military spending more than the rest of the world combined that the “barbarians would be on our shore’.  Yes.  He said that.

BRAINWASHING OF THE PRIOR GENERATIONS

In fact, most of these so-called libertarians seem to really love the US Military.  You know, the one that kills more men, women and children every year than… anyone.  For decades in a row.

Poor guys.  They’ve been brainwashed.  They need to watch “The New American Century” to see what happened to them.  They’ve been systematically lied to their whole lives… by many of the same people decades ago who are still around today.  Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and other scoundrels have a sick belief that the only way America can be prosperous and safe is to always have an enemy.

The Soviet Union was certainly a murderous totalitarian state, but the Military Industrial complex was happy to have an “Evil Empire” that would require a permanent war footing. In fact none other than Henry Kissinger, power hungry sycophant said:

“And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”

And, when the Soviet Union fell they scrambled to find a new enemy.  They chose muslims.  It could have been anything really… it could have been pygmies.  Close call pygmies!

The entire US is a big propaganda pit.  That’s why Americans seem like complete morons when they leave their protected walls and go out in the world and try to talk to the unbrainwashed.  Because they rattle off all sorts of nonsense that can only make sense to someone who also has been brainwashed.  “They hate us for our freedom”, “If we didn’t go to Europe in World War II we’d all be speaking German now,” etc.

If you don’t believe propaganda surrounds Americans like an ubiquitous blanket just look at the movies.

RAMBO III – LIBERATOR OF THE MUJAHEDEEN

Try to get a copy of US Government propaganda in its golden years with Rambo III.  It’s hard to find nowadays – a bit embarrassing to all involved.  For those who forgot this piece of expertly packaged patriotism, John Rambo was sent in to defend the Mujahedeen (soon to be the Taliban) of Afghanistan from the Soviets.

I just re-watched it today and here is some of the dialogue:

US military officer: You talk peace and disarmament to the world and here you are wiping out a race of people (in Afghanistan)

Soviet officer: We are wiping out no one!  I think you are too intelligent to believe such absurd propaganda

US officer: You expect sympathy?  You started this damn war and now you have to deal with it

Soviet officer: And we will.  It is just a matter of time before we achieve complete victory

US officer: (laughs).  You won’t get victory.  Every day your war machines lose ground to a bunch of poorly armed, poorly equipped freedom fighters.  The fact is that you underestimated your competition.  If you’d have studied your history you’d know that these people have never given up to anyone.  They’d rather die than be slaves to an invading army.  You can’t defeat a people like that.  We tried.  We already had our Vietnam!  Now you are having yours.

Soon after, Rambo and an Afghan horseman ride into a beautiful valley and the horseman states, “This is Afghanistan.  Alexander the Great tried to conquer this country.  Then Genghis Khan, then the British.  Now Russia.  But Afghan people fight hard, they never be defeated.”

Then as Rambo enters into the Mujahedeen camp the music turns sweet and angelic.  The Mujahedeen riders depicted as heroes and freedom fighters, little doughie eyed kids looking up to the strong American to help them out of their horrible ordeal.  The rest of the movie is to be expected… bombs, explosions, heroic music and Rambo defeating the entire Soviet Army single-handedly.

But the irony of the whole thing today is the point.

So, where is Hollywood with “Rambo V: Return to Afghanistan”, to once again free the Mujahedeen from the latest occupying force?  Not. Going. To. Happen.

STATISTS OF ALL FORMS ARE AN ANACHRONISM

In the debate, Doug Casey finished off by stating that governments are an anachronism.  I’d add to that.  Statists are also an anachronism.  Mostly older and heavily scarred from decades of brainwashing, these so-called libertarians cling to the need for government.  What they actually have is a fear of freedom.

And, really, given what they’ve been through, you can understand.  But it’s time to step off the stage folks.  You are embarrassing yourself.  Since the advent of the internet ALL of these topics have been talked over countless times and anyone who looks objectively at the discussions cannot possibly think the state has any role in modern life.

Yaron Brook not only embarrasses himself with his out-of-touch, anachronistic comments but he actually outs himself as a traitor to Ayn Rand by his statements.  He uses the collectivist words “we” and “us” with great abandon, something for which his supposed idol, Ayn Rand (a friend of Doug Casey’s by the way), warned against.  And, he states the necessity for a coercive government countless times in the debate.  But, let’s listen to what Ayn Rand said:

“In a fully free society, taxation—or, to be exact, payment for governmental services—would be voluntary. Since the proper services of a government—the police, the armed forces, the law courts—are demonstrably needed by individual citizens and affect their interests directly, the citizens would (and should) be willing to pay for such services, as they pay for insurance.”

Let me know when payments are voluntary, Yaron.  And, if they are, don’t be expecting a cheque.

CONSERVATIVE LIBERTARIANS

Most of those listed above, including Richard Rahn of Cato, publicly call themselves “Conservative Libertarians”.  A libertarian means that freedom is of your utmost concern… choosing things to which you think freedom applies and choosing other things to which it doesn’t is disingenuous at best, cognitive dissonance at a minimum and mostly just outright fraudulent.

If there is one group, the “conservative libertarians” or the anarchists who don’t deserve to even be mentioned on the freedom political spectrum it is “conservative libertarians”.  Take heart that out of respect to the memory of Ayn Rand, Doug Casey didn’t wipe the debate floor completely with you today, Yaron.  The millions of anarcho-capitalists rising up worldwide will do you no such courtesy.

That is a guarantee.

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