Read "The Right to Ignore the State"

The Right to Ignore the State, by Herbert Spencer, is tough reading (Spencer died in 1903). It takes work to get through what it says, assembling the meaning of complex sentences from difficult words, and then following the train of logic from sentence to sentence.

But I found that Spencer said, eloquently and intelligently, exactly what I believe to be true.

Misimpressions about pollution

Problem: "people wrongly believe that the world is dirtier and less healthy today than in the past."
Problem: "they blame capitalism."

Reality: "the free market is the greatest cleanser and disinfectant of the environment — the most successful pollution fighter that the world has ever known."

Why America today can handle more immigrants than ever before

How many people can America support?

Okay, now that you've answered, how do you know that your answer is correct? What reasoning lies behind it? Is there any other rational reasoning process that could lead to a different result?

America today is far wealthier, healthier, resource-rich, and spacious than it was a century ago. Our ability to absorb immigrants is greater than ever. There's one reasoning process, and it makes perfect sense to me.

Of course, the fact is that the correct answer will be decided by the free market, if it's not injured and deprived of its free and moral character by regulation and socialism. And for that matter, a free market will be able to absorb more people, anyway, because it creates wealth and prosperity. But the thing you should realize is that you really have no idea how to decide how many people can be absorbed into our economy, and therefore you shouldn't seek to impose policy based on your estimate on everyone else.

"We" -- agents for the collective

I loved this quote:

"Society remains primitive insofar as individuals are regarded as agents [for] the collective. Society progresses only as the depraved romance of the collective gives way to respect for the individual - the individual whose life and property are never regarded as being at the disposal of the state."

I couldn't agree more. The original context was about the possibility of a military draft, but this is the truth for every issue. "We" need to quit talking about what "we" need to do. "We" especially need to stop talking about what "we" need to do for "our" children. My children are not your children, and your children are not mine. For you Christians out there, where does your Bible authorize you to make decisions about the raising of other people's children? Where does your Bible command you to participate in and advocate some big collective of society with one common purse making decisions for the "common good"? The only thing I can find on the subject is Proverbs 1:10-19, and I think that sums up the matter quite well.

Shared items

Sorry my posting has been light this week. I've lost a lot of sleep, and that makes it hard to turn one's mind toward writing early in the morning sometimes. Hopefully this weekend I will get well-rested and resume the normal pace. :)

In the meantime, you might like to check out my Google Reader shared items page, which mostly consists of articles on political theory, liberty, and other related topics that I've found interesting. If you use a feed aggregator/news reader software like Google Reader or bloglines, you can even subscribe to the feed from my shared items and have them delivered to you as soon as I add them. I like this system where I can easily click a button that gives something I find interesting to lots of people who may also like it.

The Philosophy of Liberty

Here's a short little movie you must see, entitled the Philosophy of Liberty.

You can view it directly here. Or you can view it in its original webpage here. Finally, you can install it as a screensaver to educate others. :)

This little film explains what is right and wrong, politically, in a very simple manner, from basic concepts with which we should all agree. (If you believe in the right to enslave others you might disagree with its basic concepts.) It explains why we are required, morally, to support liberty, and why exercising power over other people is immoral.

The presentation contains no reference to religious concepts. However, its fundamental principles are things that are taught in the Christian religion. Everything else it says is proved from those fundamental concepts. Thus, we should recognize that this is not just someone's political fantasy: it is binding on Christians.

Moreover, the truly wonderful thing is that Austrian economics has proved that if we would respect liberty, as taught by this presentation and on this site, we would see maximum economic prosperity. All attempts to interfere with liberty result in a suboptimum result: we tamper with things to make them "better" and make them worse, overall. This should not surprise us. If we would just have faith in what God teaches us, which means being willing to trust and obey Him and do what He says simply because He says it, we would not need to have mathematical proof that His way is best. Nevertheless, it seems that God has written His laws into the very fabric of the universe, in such a way that nations and groups that disregard them find themselves penalized for it. Want prosperity for your nation? Then practice the liberty that God decrees.