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Good evening again, Robert!
Robert Goodman wrote to Travis Pahl...
Travis Pahl wrote:
> >Which is a great demonstration to people that most things are not
> necessary.
To which, you replied:
> Which you & I understand, and a few mostly wise guy columnists pointed out.
> Other than us, however, there was a clamor to re-open the Wash. Monument,
> etc., i.e. return to gov't business as usual. The clamor was vastly
> magnified by the mass media, which painted the shutdown in highly negative
> terms. In fact, one might say the clamor WAS the mass media, in that
> without them no such clamor would've been heard...but it moved the issue!
The shear number of government employees, bureaucrats, and
federally retired people also make for a giant clamour whenever
government is disrupted on a large scale such as this. Then the
millions on welfare or dependent upon government social service
and subsidies also adds to the list.
Which is why I wrote earlier about the probable necessity for a
large scale catastrophe for real fundamental changes directed at
less government and more individual freedom to make personal
choices.
Some meagre changes have been occurring for quite a while anyway,
but most people haven't noticed since it has never been
quantitatively studied until fairly recently. I'm talking about
the decline in 'force' that has been occurring on a global scale
for the last several centuries.
A new book was published early this year by James L. Payne, a
libertarian Political Scientist who resides 30 miles away in
Sandpoint, Idaho. The book, "A History of Force" is the first
book ever published that systematically documents in a
comprehensive historical chronology on the use of government
force throughout recorded history.
His striking conclusions show that such force has been on a
marked decline on a global scale. His conclusions also show that
in time people are finding ways to voluntarily tackle social and
economic issues without force, and he extends that to mean that
government, which is raw force, is increasingly becoming
irrelevant on various issues, particularly social and economic
issues.
How this fits into the context of this current thread is
important. It is important because mainly 'government' will
always be defined properly as an instrument of force. Of course,
such a definition is often hidden through deception and smoke and
mirrors to suggest that government, as a servant, has a
benevolent side.
Libertarians should be the chief catalysts here to debunk such
rhetoric by showing that government is an institution, and as
such, the institution is an instititution of power, and that no
benevolence exists outside of those who comprise or make up the
government.
The author of the above titled book is also an activist
libertarian. He has without fanfare moved to find ways in which
children in lower income families can find ways for their
children to attend private schools, or educational alternatives
by encouraging local businesses to support trust funds and
scholarships for such a purpose.
And, keep in mind, this is all voluntary! No force by
government, or anyone else is used for this effort at a local
level to succeed!
I guess what I am saying is that Libertarians must take the lead,
and some of that must be real leadership in solving problems
without invoking politics, and admittedly, that's hard to do.
Neither of the two major parties as far as I know, have exerted
very much effort to find non-government solutions to social or
economic problems. In doing this, we will help marginalize the
need for government 'services', including such as this case
shows, to provide quality education for those who otherwise might
not be able to consider it or afford it!
I differ somewhat with Payne's indifference to politics because I
believe running quality Libertarians for office is a good idea.
But I have to respect Payne's down to earth approach to solving
such problems outside of politics and outside of government
entirely. The 'wave of the future' for Libertarians might indeed
be in providing leadership in venues to tackle tough social and
economic problems in such a way that government becomes more
irrelevant than ever through such processes.
It stands as a reminder, that if 'force' is in decline, then by
default, government as such is in decline, or the need for much
of what government has assumed ought to be declining.
So maybe the focus of this thread ought to be directed more on
how Libertarians can make a greater impact upon making government
much more irrelevant that it obviously wants to be on the
immediate horizon. I know, that's difficult to do when we have
all of these 'wars' going on, like the 'war on drugs', the 'war
on terror', the 'war on food', 'cigarettes, and the whole gamit
of wars the politicians, bureaucrats and government minions seem
to find indispensible for their own job security.
Maybe we need to reinvent ourselves and redirect some of our
efforts.
Kindest regards,
Frank
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