Saturday, 20 April 2013

George Ought to Help - A Thought Experiment on the Legitimacy of the State



"If, then, taxation is compulsory, and is therefore indistinguishable from theft, it follows that the State, which subsists on taxation, is a vast criminal organisation far more formidable and successful than any "private" Mafia in history."
             Murray Rothbard


The following two videos (the second is the squeal to the first) offer up a thought experiment exploring the legitimacy of the State, its policies of taxation and its foundations in violence.  On this blog I often post about all the nefarious things States do and speculate as to the deep power structures that may lie behind them. I don't know who's ultimately pulling the strings of this world, whether there's a conspiracy run by secretive Illuminati type group, a more poly-centric corporate power structure or just politicians short sightedly bumbling along from one genocidal disaster to the next.  Whilst it's important and also fascinating to speculate on such things, for any deep power structure to exert power over us they must first convince us of one thing, and that is that violence is acceptable when it's carried out by a group called 'The State'.

Margaret Thatcher's famous line that 'there is no such thing as society' has been endlessly quoted since her passing.   I want to suggest something different, I want to suggest that there is actually no such thing as the State, that it is a mythical entity no more real than dragons or unicorns and is simply a way in which we legitimising violence.  You may think that the State is necessary, that civilisation may collapse and burn without it and you may of course be right.  But given the inherent and unlimited violence from which it draws its power, would it not be worth at least exploring to see if there is an alternative?


Here we have the film 'George Ought to help'



And here we have the follow up, the disscusion that took place between two friends after watching the film


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