Nathan’s Rants: Living Free

Government (and by that I mean mandated, nonvoluntary, “monopoly (or near-monopoly) of force” government), is bad for people. History demonstrates that government and its actions have violently killed and caused directly or indirectly more premature deaths of humans in the six thousand or so years of recorded history than ANY other cause. From Nimrod and the various kings of Mesopotamian and Canaanite cities through Pharaoh and Assyrian and Babylonian and Persian kings right down to the present regimes in places like DC and Kiev and Peking, governments are bad. Bad for people and society and other institutions and technology and health and everything else. Even for the people who RUN government and supposedly benefit from it, from absolute monarchs and tribal chiefs and elders to “we, the people.” It is NOT “government gone bad,” it is “government IS bad.”

Let us look at a few examples of why government should be kept away:

Church: We once thought this was a “lesson learned” at least here in America. “Separation of church and state” wasn’t for the protection of the state, but for the protection of the church and people. From Nimrod and Semiramis to the Sanhedrin of Jesus’ day to Constantine and Benedict and Henry VIII to the Iranian Islamic Republic and ISIS, government controlling religion (seldom the other way, although “religion controlling government” is often used as an excuse) has proved a disaster to humans and all our activities.

School: Back in the 18th Century, basic education had no real connection to government anywhere, and neither did higher education. But this changed with the rise of Prussian absolutism and its implacable enemy, Marxism. That was brought to America by the people who also brought us the GOP, Honest Abe, Teddy Roosevelt, and Tricky Dick. It took more than a century to turn into the hideous mess it is today, where education is 99% a branch of government, from pre-pre-school right up to the most grandiose post-doc programs you can imagine. And a total disaster for people, for their learning, and for their pocketbooks.

Press (Media), actually more broadly “Communications:” For this, once again, we have to go back to ancient times, when literacy became a near monopoly of the religions which were part and parcel of government: the priests of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the priests of the Roman Catholic Church, the imams and such of Islam. Once again, it seemed that in 1776 (if not a century earlier in England and Scotland) we had learned our lesson. Of course, the Germans, the Russians, the Chinese, Latin America, the Islamic world and more all have shown us in modern times how much of a disaster government control of communications is. And even in America we let the states and Fedgov regulate, dictate, and spy. More and more government intervention, and more and more disruption and harm as a result.

Family: Government has always sought to gain control over families, and here in the 21st Century in America, we may be approaching a level of control that is unprecedented in history. Government controls/defines marriage, “child welfare” and dictates “aid to dependent families with children,” and interferes in divorce, inheritance, taxation, and many other things: all of these regulate and damage families. The rise of the welfare class in ancient Rome, and its rise in America in the later 20th Century both show how bad government is for families. Dictating acceptance and endorsement of transgenderism, homo- and transexual relations and concepts speeds this process up: the damage to society and the liberty of people is already evident.

Welfare (including Health): Welfare has traditionally been a family and religious matter, with involvement by the clan and other mostly voluntary relationships, but starting with Bismarck’s Germany and expanding to America and the rest of the world, we see that physical and economic welfare is a major way in which government meddles with society, causing harm. Here in America, from Social Security to Medicaid and Medicare and ObummerCare and all the other elements of the welfare state, government has made health and welfare an intolerable and unsupportable burden to society, the economy, and productive individuals.

Utilities (yes, Utilities) and Transportation: It is no coincidence that the flowering of communications (including the internet) came about after the deregulation era of the 1980s in America. That did not remove all government control but partially reformed it and reduced the burden. The same thing can be seen across the board: the invention and deployment of electrical power, clean and safe water systems, clean and environmentally sound disposal of waste and waste water, canals, railroads, highways, aircraft transportation, steamships and modern shipping. These ALL developed by private effort and cooperative (voluntary) organizations (businesses). Often in defiance of and despite government efforts to maintain the status quo, overcoming regulations which damaged and often destroyed the various industries. Although it is frequently claimed that government “established” and “encouraged” and allowed such things as modern highways, transcontinental railroads, water and sewer systems, the reality is that government created NONE of this: but instead took these over, allowing monopolies to develop and flourish, stifling technology. And government involvement (even if sometimes beneficial in the short-term) ALWAYS has resulted in long-term negative effects costing money, time, health, and sometimes lives. The history of rail systems, especially urban systems in America, illustrate that perfectly.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Government is bad, in specifics. Taken altogether, they demonstrate that government is bad in general. And this doesn’t even touch on the way that governments have killed billions in war and other violence.

The solution is simple, if very hard to implement: reduce and eliminate involuntary government, creating societies in which everything is done through peaceful and voluntary cooperation. Yes, even when violence is necessary as a response to those who are aggressive, lawless, and unable to behave like adult humans. But the benefits are obvious.

More on this subject later.

Mama’s Note: And, as we’ve said so often, the way to reduce and eliminate this involuntary government is to accept personal authority and responsibility for our lives and stop expecting any government to take care of us or defend us. A key part of that is to stop, as much as possible, complying with the illegitimate “authority.” To stop obeying the dictates of our would-be masters. As more and more people see this and take charge of their own lives and families, the power of the “rulers” will erode and, eventually disappear.