Become Dangerous
Paul Bonneau
2010-09-16 03:00
By Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
You know who you are. You're a "philosophical libertarian" or "philosophical anarchist." You might think of yourself as a bit bookish or intellectual. You tend to express yourself through words rather than action.
You have a philosophical agreement, perhaps including some discomfort, with the right to bear arms. You either...
It's Better to Lose an Election, Than to Win
Paul Bonneau
2010-10-08 03:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I've read lots of articles about the disutility of voting. It's not like there are a shortage of them! Here's my take on it, perhaps a bit different than most (my title refers to winning or losing from the voter's point of view, not the politician's).
At my age, 60, I've seen a lot of elections. Much of my life was spent in frantically...
Political Prisoners in America
Paul Bonneau
2010-12-13 04:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
One bit of indoctrination I have found it difficult to shake, is the notion that only other countries have political prisoners. Perhaps you have the same mental knee-jerk reaction that I do, when I hear that phrase: people rotting in prisons in Cuba, or some other banana republic run by a military honcho, or Burma, or North Korea. But are such examples...
A Response to 'More on Minarchism as Evil'
Paul Bonneau
2011-03-09 04:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
Responding to Per’s recent column, I will quote a couple of passages:
“...I have argued exclusively that a full-scale alliance (in the sense of an integrated, all-encompassing, and unified movement) is both counterproductive and impossible.”
I have to agree, as far as that goes. But there are a few problems with...
Some Problems With the Farm Analogy
Paul Bonneau
2011-03-31 03:00
Column by Paul Bonneau
Exclusive to STR
Recently, STR linked to a video of “The Story of Your Enslavement”. While I largely agree with his view on this, and while I think his exposition is effective in breaking through all the lies we have used to enslaved ourselves, still there are some points about it that bother me.
What Molyneux is using here, is analogy. Analogy is a...
Don’t Leave Me Alone... Not!
Paul Bonneau
2011-05-02 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
One of the Strike The Root guest editors linked to an article a few days back, Steve Horwitz’ "Don’t Leave Me Alone". This was an opportunity for a little personal edification. One question that arose was, “What is a libertarian?”
Apparently the answer is, “Who the Hell knows?” In other words, it...
The Secret Ballot: A Tool For Tyrants
Paul Bonneau
2011-05-12 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
It’s funny how human beings can become so attached to a meme, that they can’t even imagine life without it. As the Wikipedia article on the secret ballot puts it, “Today the practice of casting secret ballots is so commonplace that most voters would not consider that any other method might be used.” It is somehow imagined to...
Not Enough Enemies? Let’s Create More!
Paul Bonneau
2011-09-08 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau
Exclusive to STR
I was just reading how anarcho-syndicalists are so bad, that they are even worse than the state.
Wow, that is something else. We have no idea what things are going to come about at this end of empire, what our true enemies will be; but we are already searching for other dragons to slay. The more obscure, the better!
The article, by...
What Would Free Market Justice Look Like?
Paul Bonneau
2011-12-05 01:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I was reading a chapter of Jim Corbett’s My India, when I ran into an illuminating clue about the range of possible judicial solutions where freedom exists. Most people seem to imagine free market justice working more or less like our current system, just better and cheaper and more fair. But would it actually look anything like that?
To get...
Government, a Force of Nature
Paul Bonneau
2013-02-21 06:56
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
When I go outside this time of year, I get cold. I compensate by getting a coat on, and then go about my business. This is the standard way of dealing with forces of nature. I don’t spend a lot of time lying in bed wishing it weren’t cold. I have better things to do with my time.
Why is government any different?
Government is just a gang of...
Dehumanizing People is Fun
Paul Bonneau
2012-03-13 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
It is clearly fun to make fun of people. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be such a popular pastime.
One can imagine why we are prone to this kind of behavior. For example, in the old days, if you wanted to slaughter another tribe and steal their women and take all their stuff, dehumanizing them first was eminently sensible. It erases all inhibitions...
How to Know When You Have Liberty
Paul Bonneau
2011-12-12 01:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
There seems to be a lot of confusion on this point. Many people believe they are living in a state of liberty, while others don’t think so. How can you know for sure? I have devised a simple test that, I believe, can be used to determine when you have liberty.
I am here following the distinction that some use, between freedom and liberty:...
A Momentous Anarchic Event: The 2008-2009 Great American Gun Buy
Paul Bonneau
2010-09-27 03:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
Anarchy is often all around us, yet we do not see it. Perhaps we have been conditioned by the state propaganda organs too well. One recent event, perhaps the most significant anarchic event ever, was the huge ramp-up in sales of military-pattern rifles starting on Obama's election in November 2008 and tapering back down to normal in the...
Discrimination
Paul Bonneau
2012-04-24 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
The sign in the window said, “No Firearms Allowed Inside”.
First thing that came to my mind was, “Great, now what am I supposed to do? Leave my gun out here lying on the sidewalk?” My next thought was, “I am trying to do business with morons.”
I was in front of the local office of my ISP provider, a company...
CISPA: Should We Care?
Paul Bonneau
2012-06-07 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
Yet again the puppet masters have gotten all the puppets jumping about in a frenzy. It makes me wonder whether there is actually reason to get exercised about this bill.
Certainly, the notion that the U.S. government will protect the Internet from attacks is absurd, given that the source of all the most serious attacks (of which CISPA...
Voting With Our Feet
Paul Bonneau
2013-04-29 07:31
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I was listening to Stewart Rhodes' stirring speech in Connecticut and finding myself in (reluctant) disagreement.
He was talking about all the sacrifices made by men in WWII and other wars, and yet how their efforts were betrayed by the destruction of liberty back home.
Now setting aside for the moment the question of what those men were actually...
The Republic Is a Fraud
Paul Bonneau
2011-02-01 04:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
Have you ever noticed how many people have bought into this notion that America is a republic? It’s amusing in a forum to use the word “democracy”; invariably, someone huffily states we have a Constitutional Republic, as if that statement closed the matter for good. How silly is that?
The Wikipedia article for the...
Should Anarchists Be Tolerated?
Paul Bonneau
2012-02-10 01:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I had earlier addressed the question of tolerance of anarchists, in this article. At some point, it occurred to me to actually ask the question. After all, we have these wonderful forum tools that include polls!
I went to my favorite gun forum, one I recommend, by the way, Oleg Volk’s Gun Rights Media. On a sub-board called “Ethics...
Voting Is Not Irrational
Paul Bonneau
2012-10-22 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I just got done reading another article whacking the practice of voting. This one declares that voting is a fool's game. One begins to wonder if this is a productive tack. How many voters are convinced by such arguments? Aren’t we just “preaching to the choir”? Are we hacking at the branches of evil, or striking the root?
I have made...
Private Property vs. 'Your Stuff'
Paul Bonneau
2012-02-21 01:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I don’t know what it is about the word “property.” Every time I think about it, the thought seems to include such state baggage as titles, and places to record those titles like county courthouses, and arguments in court over who owns it, and state regulations on transferring it, and even taxes! The latest big fuss over “...
What's So Special About Newtown?
Paul Bonneau
2012-12-24 08:46
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
By now it seems everything that could be said about Newtown, has already been said--multiple times in some cases. Here’s an attempt to bring something new to the discussion.
Why are people horrified? When I sit back and think about this, a few things come to mind.
First is the thing that virtually every parent must feel: the dread that they may...
Life Without Rights
Paul Bonneau
2010-06-25 03:00
By Paul Bonneau
Exclusive to STR
What if you woke up one morning, no longer believing you had a "right to life" - whatever you mean by that? How would your life change?
Some have contended that one would immediately commit suicide! Or they somehow imagine that people would no longer defend their lives from killers, passively awaiting their fate. Of course...
It's Not That Bad After All
Paul Bonneau
2012-09-25 00:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I was talking to a friend who was worried and depressed about NDAA and “rendition” and that sort of thing. She had been reading a lot on lewrockwell.com (or maybe even prisonplanet.com). It struck me that this normally-happy woman was actually worried, as if she feared imminent arrest.
Imagine you own the most reliable car in the world;...
There’s No Such Thing as a Statist
Paul Bonneau
2011-02-21 04:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
Nor are there any minarchists or anarchists.
In this brouhaha stirred up by Per Bylund, some strange lines of argument have appeared. Here is an example:
----------------
"There are a huge number who would reject abolishing the state while consenting to leave us alone." [quoted from previous comment]
That is redundant...
Voting Is Even More Worthless Than You Think
Paul Bonneau
2010-11-01 03:00
Column by Paul Bonneau.
Exclusive to STR
I wonder how many of our readers ever participated in an election, in which their vote was the decisive one? The chances are pretty small, mathematically. But they are actually even smaller than the math predicts!
Let’s imagine a race between Statist Candidate A and Statist Candidate B, and in the vote count, they differ by only...
Reprint Rights
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