statism

Are you for peace? The great test of your devotion to peace is not how many words you utter on its behalf. It__ not even how you propose to deal with people of other countries, though that certainly tells us something. To fully measure your __eacefulness_ requires that we examine how you propose to treat people in your own backyard. Do you demand more of what doesn__ belong to you? Do you endorse the use of force to punish people for victimless __rimes_? Do you support politicians who promise to seize the earnings of others to pay for your bailout, your subsidy, your student loan, your child__ education or whatever pet cause or project you think is more important than what your fellow citizens might personally prefer to spend their own money on? Do you believe theft is OK if it__ for a good cause or endorsed by a majority? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then have the courage to admit that peace is not your priority. How can I trust your foreign policy if your domestic policy requires so much to be done at gunpoint?

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.

Go into the London Stock Exchange _ a more respectable place than many a court _ and you will see representatives from all nations gathered together for the utility of men. Here Jew, Mohammedan and Christian deal with each other as though they were all of the same faith, and only apply the word infidel to people who go bankrupt. Here the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist and the Anglican accepts a promise from the Quaker. On leaving these peaceful and free assemblies some go to the Synagogue and others for a drink, this one goes to be baptized in a great bath in the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, that one has his son__ foreskin cut and has some Hebrew words he doesn__ understand mumbled over the child, others go to heir church and await the inspiration of God with their hats on, and everybody is happy.

If you are for gun control, then you are not against guns, because the guns will be needed to disarm people. So it__ not that you are anti-gun. You__l need the police__ guns to take away other people__ guns. So you__e very pro-gun; you just believe that only the Government (which is, of course, so reliable, honest, moral and virtuous_) should be allowed to have guns. There is no such thing as gun control. There is only centralizing gun ownership in the hands of a small political elite and their minions.

There's a huge swath of humanity that has developed verbal abilities to extract resources from guilt-ridden people.They used to be priests, and now they're leftists.

The world, viewed philosophically, remains a series of slave camps, where citizens _ tax livestock _ labor under the chains of illusion in the service of their masters.

If you can convince people that freedom is injustice, they will then believe that slavery is freedom.

When people have invested their identities into clichés, the only counter argument they have is 'being offended'.

We are supposed to call poison medicine and we wonder why we're always sick.

Awkward silences rule the world. People are so terrified of awkward silences that they will literally go to war rather than face an awkward silence.

Distraction serves evil more than any other mental state.

It is easy to be conspicuously 'compassionate' if others are being forced to pay the cost.

Government as we now know it in the USA and other economically advanced countries is so manifestly horrifying, so corrupt, counterproductive, and outright vicious, that one might well wonder how it continues to enjoy so much popular legitimacy and to be perceived so widely as not only tolerable but indispensable. The answer, in overwhelming part, may be reduced to a two-part formula: bribes and bamboozlement (classically "bread and circuses"). Under the former rubric falls the vast array of government "benefits" and goodies of all sorts, from corporate subsidies and privileges to professional grants and contracts to welfare payments and health care for low-income people and other members of the lumpenproletariat. Under the latter rubric fall such measures as the government schools, the government's lapdog news media, and the government's collaboration with the producers of professional sporting events and Hollywood films. Seen as a semi-integrated whole, these measures give current governments a strong hold on the public's allegiance and instill in the masses and the elites alike a deep fear of anything that seriously threatens the status quo.

Our politicians tell us we are free, even though most governments take over 50% of what we earn. They claim we get services that we need for our hard-earned money, even though we could buy the same services at half the price from the private sector. Today, we ridicule the slave-owners' claim that they "gave back" to their slaves by housing, clothing, feeding them, and bestowing upon them the "benefits" of civilization instead of leaving them in their native state. We see this as a self-serving justification for exploitation. In the future, we will view being forcibly taxed to pay for things we don't want, such as bombs for the Middle East, subsidies for tobacco, other people's abortions, regulations that put small businesses out of business, prisons for people trying to feel good, keeping life-saving medications out of the hands of dying people, etc., as taking away our freedom. When even a small portion of our lives is spent enslaved, that part tends to dominate the rest of our time. If we don't put our servitude first as we structure the remainder of our lives, our masters will make sure we regret it. How much freedom do we need to survive and how much do we need to thrive?

It__ been easier to convince people to hand over half their income, their children to war, and their freedoms in perpetuity, than to engage them in seriously considering how roads might function in the absence of taxation.

The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.

Producing laws is not an easier job than producing cars and food, so if the government is incompetent to produce cars or food, why do you expect it to do a good job producing the legal system within which you are then going to produce the cars and the food?

Liberty means refusing to allow some men to use the state to compel other men to serve their interests or opinion.