Expressive Non-voting

 Posted by at 10:41 am  1 Response »
Oct 022011
 

In Bryan Caplan’s book, The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, he explains how voters are “rationally irrational”. Since the probability of any single vote influencing the outcome of an election is vanishingly small, there is no incentive for voters to spend time informing themselves in order to vote wisely. So rather than vote for the best policies, voters indulge (rationally) in expressive voting (“irrational”), e.g., showing support for an ideal/party, or being part of the democratic process for its own sake.

Libertarians often don’t vote because there are no candidates that represent their principles. Furthermore, many libertarians dislike voting and would prefer not to participate in a coercive political process even if it is democratic. So libertarians are often expressive non-voters. Since our individual votes won’t make any difference, we may as well not vote—to express our objections to the coercive nature of democracy (as well as its non-trivial practical failings.) This way, when people bring up the topic in conversation, we can explain why we don’t vote (and why they shouldn’t either.) If other voters are going to vote expressively and ruin policy, then libertarians might be most effective by expressively non-voting.

 Economics, Non-voting, Strategy  Tagged with: ,

Evolutionary Psychology and the Antimarket Bias

 Posted by at 10:11 am  7 Responses »
Sep 152010
 

My article was published today as a Mises Daily. Following Paul Rubin, I argue that the antimarket bias is a cultural universal, a genetic leftover from our evolutionary past. Check it out:

Evolutionary Psychology and the Antimarket Bias

 Articles, Economics, Education, Strategy  Tagged with:

February Market Anarchist Blog Carnival

 Posted by at 10:01 pm  3 Responses »
Feb 282009
 

Good morning and welcome to the February, 2009 edition of the Market Anarchist Blog Carnival.

David Gross presents Like the withered stalk of a cattail posted at The Picket Line. David argues that there is growing awareness of the corruption in the central institutions of authority — government, economy, media, etc.

Andrew Q presents A Libertarian Defense of Property Redistribution posted at Capital Goods. He discusses Carson and Rothbard’s arguments on land theft and property redistribution.

Andrew Q also presents A Critique of Agorism posted at Capital Goods. Agorism is a novel strategy and merits further debate and discussion.

Scott Hughes presents What Freedom Means to Me posted at Philosophy Forums.

Francois Tremblay presents History is written by the idiots posted at Check Your Premises. He discusses the teaching of history and cautions anarchists in their choice of media.

John Petrie presents Toy lead-content regulations hurt small toy makers posted at Blagnet.net. Unsurprisingly, government regulations benefit big business while screwing the little guy.

John Petrie also  presents Saving is good, not bad, for American economy posted at Blagnet.net. John discusses the ecognorance of Keynesian pump-priming and the vilification of saving.

David Z presents Legalize ALL Drugs posted at No Third Solution.

Continuing with drug prohibition, see my article The Case Against Drug Prohibition. Not only is prohibition ineffective, but it causes crime, corruption, and increases the risk of overdosing.

That’s all for this edition, which will be the last due to a lack of interest. Thanks to everyone who submitted.

 Agorism, Market Anarchy  Tagged with: , ,

New Articles page

 Posted by at 6:08 am  No Responses »
Jan 272009
 

Check out the new Articles page for “Systematic, timeless, and comprehensive expositions of libertarian philosophy.”

My goal is to create a one-stop resource where someone can learn the main tenets of libertarian anarchism. One of the problems with the libertarian movement is that it is lacking an “argument database” where a newbie can find the answer to every one of their questions. Sure there are websites like Libertarian Nation and Mises.org, or books like Human Action and Man, Economy, and State, but the reader still has to do a lot of work putting the pieces of the puzzle together. I want to present a systematic, step-by-step analysis of the premises and conclusions of both libertarian and statist arguments. By doing the heavy lifting, hopefully I can shorten the learning curve and multiply the progress of the libertarian movement (at least concerning education).

There are no comments in the Articles section, so I will make a blog post for each article, where you can comment.

My first three articles are up:

I plan to write future articles on: price controls, the case against monopoly, education, roads, health care, money, courts and police, and more.

 Articles, Education, Market Anarchy, Strategy

Fallacies of the Button-Pushing Question

 Posted by at 9:36 pm  2 Responses »
Jan 262009
 

“The true test, then, of the radical spirit, is the button-pushing test: if we could push the button for instantaneous abolition of unjust invasions of liberty, would we do it? If we would not do it, we could scarcely call ourselves libertarians, and most of us would only do it if primarily guided by a passion for justice. The genuine libertarian, then, is, in all senses of the word, an “abolitionist”; he would, if he could, abolish instantaneously all invasions of liberty, whether it be, in the original coining of the term, slavery, or whether it be the manifold other instances of State oppression. He would, in the words of another libertarian in a similar connection, ‘blister my thumb pushing that button!’” – Murray N. Rothbard, “Why Be Libertarian?“

The button-pushing question is the test of radicalism and consistency. Being an abolitionist is what it means to be a libertarian. As libertarians we must advocate the instantaneous abolition of injustice, because any form of gradualism in theory means legitimizing the continuation of injustice.

But some have objected that pushing the button would be a mistake. If people still believe government is necessary, they argue, then another government will simply take over, and the resulting chaos will negate any possible gains. Keep reading...

 Market Anarchy, Strategy, The State  Tagged with: , ,

Community Conversions

 Posted by at 10:25 pm  3 Responses »
Dec 282008
 

An educational strategy for achieving anarchy I’ve thought up is community conversions: teaching anarchism to specific intellectual or cultural communities, like atheists, gun nuts, 9/11 Truthers, anti-war groups, personal development gurus, spiritual teachers, cannabis activists, etc. The best communities would be ones with a distinct leader, who could directly influence their followers. Web-savvy communities would be preferred, as virtually all of the anarchist community and literature is online.

Essentially, this strategy is just one result of applying the 80/20 principle to conversions. Who would be the most profitable converts? Who could promote anarchism most efficiently? Who would have the strongest influence on the masses, or on the elites?

In terms of actually converting a community, I would follow a two-step approach. First, make the standard case that government is immoral, unnecessary, and doesn’t work. Second, show how anarchism is congruent with that community. Make specific, practical links between anarchist philosophy and the community, and show why they should support anarchism. For example, anti-war groups should oppose the State because it is the institutionalization of war. Keep reading...

 Education, Market Anarchy, Strategy  Tagged with:

Against Democracy

 Posted by at 5:13 pm  37 Responses »
Dec 142008
 

Introduction

Democracy is universally held up as the sacred political ideal. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that democracy is a secular religion. Observe: We fight wars for it (“Making the world safe for democracy”). We are implored to blindly participate in it (“It doesn’t matter who you vote for, just vote”). And most tellingly, it is taboo to question it. Anyone who claims that democracy is bad is likely to be labeled a Nazi. (Even though Hitler was democratically elected and much of Nazism was promoted with democratic rhetoric.)

Nevertheless, I will attempt to prove that democracy is one of the worst political ideologies, on par with dictatorship and communism. My argument is three pronged. First, democracy is founded on initiatory violence. It is thus no more acceptable than murder or rape. Second, it can be refuted by a reductio ad absurdum; namely, that while we accept democracy for government, we would never accept it applied consistently in our lives. Third, democracy is unnecessary. What is there to vote on? All essential functions of society can be provided voluntarily and competitively on the market. Programs like the minimum wage and rent control are actually counter-productive, and can be eliminated altogether. There are many other problems with democracy: its ineffectiveness, its corruption, its total war, and its decivilization effect; but I will not address these here (see Hoppe). Last, I will address two strategies to undermine and weaken democracy: not voting and secession. Keep reading...

 Economics, Market Anarchy, Non-voting, Secession, Strategy, The State  Tagged with: , , , ,

Anti-intellectual Intellectualism

 Posted by at 11:41 pm  4 Responses »
Dec 052008
 

The first obvious strategy for anarchists is education: we need to teach people that government is immoral, unnecessary, and doesn’t work. But how do we achieve this? Do we convert the masses or the intellectuals? Do we emphasize morality or practicality?

Hans Hoppe has provided the answer to such questions with his strategy of “Anti-intellectual Intellectualism”. Following Boétie’s insight that governments derive their power and legitimacy from public opinion, we must recognize that it is the intellectuals who shape this public opinion. Accordingly, Hoppe calls for “anti-intellectual intellectuals” to take up the task of combating the state intellectuals, and ultimately delegitimizing, and hence destroying, the State. The two main branches of this strategy are (1) rooting one’s arguments in morality, and not mere utilitarianism, while (2) circumventing academia and reaching out to the general public. Thus, Hoppe writes, “states, as powerful and invincible as they might seem, ultimately owe their existence to ideas and, since ideas can in principle change instantaneously, states can be brought down and crumble practically overnight.” Keep reading...

 Education, Market Anarchy, Strategy  Tagged with: , ,

Immigration II: Electric Boogaloo

 Posted by at 6:20 pm  1 Response »
Dec 032008
 

This article is a sequel to my previous post “Root Causes and the Libertarian Immigration Debate”. Continuing the discussion on what strategy libertarians should follow with regards to immigration, I will argue that even if we accept the Hoppean argument for closed borders, the conclusion still violates libertarian principles.

Toward a Theory of Strategy for Liberty

In chapter thirty of his book “The Ethics of Liberty”, Rothbard laid down the groundwork of anarchist strategy. Basically, there are two principles libertarians must keep in mind when pursuing strategy. First, we must not violate the nonaggression principle. Second, we must be abolitionists, for advocating anything less than the immediate abolition of aggressive violence would mean the sanctioning of injustice. Keep reading...

 Agorism, Books, Libertarian Theory, Market Anarchy, Non-voting, Secession, Strategy  Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Root Causes and the Libertarian Immigration Debate

 Posted by at 4:34 pm  2 Responses »
Nov 272008
 

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
- Henry David Thoreau

The libertarian immigration debate is alive and well.1 Although there is no debate over the immigration policy of a free society, there is considerable controversy over the proper immigration policy in our currently existing statist society. However, this debate has neglected to address the root causes of forced integration and forced exclusion, and its solutions fail accordingly. This article will attempt to resolve the debate by addressing the root causes of forced integration and forced exclusion, and by proposing solutions that address these root causes.

Before we can address the problem of immigration under statism, we must establish several premises. Keep reading...

 Agorism, Economics, Education, Libertarian Theory, Market Anarchy, Non-voting, Secession, Strategy  Tagged with: , , , , , ,
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