Saturday 15 March 2014

'Let the Poor Starve!' and other Anarchist Observations

“Political theory and political practice are dominated by a myth, the myth of the necessity and the legitimacy of the State.”
Gerard Casey, Libertarian Anarchy. 


One of the most common objections raised to the idea of a stateless society is that government is necessary to look after the poor and the vulnerable, whom without its protection would be dying on the streets! Professor Casey is going to tackle this problem head on in a new lecture he's preparing called 'Let the Poor Starve!', which is an examination of the welfare state. In this context, 'the poor' include the biggest welfare recipients of all, the big banks and corporations (or hotels on the Isle of Man!). He will also examine how a stateless society might come up with creative solutions for caring for the real poor and vulnerable, solutions that don't include the inefficiency and violence of the state.

You can listen to Gerard Casey being interviewed on this and other aspects of anarchism on the Tom Woods Radio Show-




And to give you more of an idea of what to you might expect if you come along to his lecture next Saturday, here are some quotes from his book 'Libertarian Anarchy'

On Drug Prohibition - 

"Some will reject the charge of false Imprisonment or kidnapping that I lay against the state. People are put In gaol, they will say, only if they are convicted of committing a crime; the fact that they are in gaol means they are criminals The state is not only not doing anything wrong In putting them there, it is doing something positively good by protecting us from these miscreants. This objection, of course, draws our attention firmly to the question of which courses of conduct actually constitute crime. While most people will agree that murder, robbery, kidnapping and assault are crimes involving, as they do, gross interference with the lives, liberties and properties of others, it is not entirely clear just what awful deed is being done by Tom, Dick and Harriet when, for example, they smoke pot in the privacy of their rooms and why it should require violent intervention by the state to prevent it." 

and

“While libertarians may be willing to concede that the use of many chemical substances is individually and socially harmful, they will oppose attempts to proscribe or regulate either drug-taking or drug commerce. This for two reasons The first, principled, reason is that such proscription or regulation is a violation of individual liberty; the second, consequentialist, reason, is that history shows that such attempts at proscription and regulation inevitably make a bad situation worse. Alcohol prohibition of the 1920s was an unqualified disaster and today's so-called war on drugs is no more successful in reducing the incidence of drug-taking. (Isn't It remarkable that whereas in the good old days we used to wage war on countries, nations or states, now we wage war on inanimate objects like drugs and abstract nouns like terrorism?) The 'war on drugs' merely increases the price of drugs to consumers and profits to retailers, corrupts those charged with enforcing the anti-drug laws and ensures that large numbers of people who otherwise would not come to the attention of the police receive a first class criminal training at the public expense in state-run penal facilities. Legal and physical compulsion is not a sound foundation upon which to build the moral character of individuals or a better society.”

On Immigration -

"Immigration? Libertarians, for the most part, will support immigration There's nothing special about the territory of a particular state. If someone Is willing to hire or sponsor an immigrant that should be the end of the matter."

On Bailouts - 

"Bailouts for businesses? Libertarians reject them No one Is entitled to demand that others be forcibly required to support his business, whatever that business may be, whether farming, shoemaking or banking."

On Compulsory School Attendance and Military Conscription - 

"What of compulsory school attendance? Libertarians reject It State- enforced school attendance Is a form of involuntary incarceration that violates the rights of both parents and children. Only the parents or guardians of children and the children when they are old enough to assume responsibility for themselves can make such decisions. What goes for compulsory school attendance goes even more for military conscription. Conscription is sometimes justified on the grounds that we need it to defend our countries. Unless we equate our countries with the states operating in our countries, and putting to one side the obvious point that if there are no states there would be no states to attack or be attacked, the libertarian will argue that conscription is a form of involuntary servitude - more bluntly, a form of slavery - and so is to be rejected on libertarian grounds."

On law and Order - 

“If I can show that justice, law and order can be provided without a state, then the state begins to look like the Wizard of Oz, a small man with a megaphone pulling levers behind a curtain.”

On Society - 

“Much of the inchoate support for the idea of a state results from a conflation of the ideas of state and society. Of course human beings are not Isolated individuals; of course we are born in, live in and can only flourish in society where 'society' denotes the sum of the complex, overlapping system of voluntary relations between individuals. But It IS a gross mistake to conclude from this that because we need society we therefore need the state.”

On Murder - 

“Given that the core function of the state is said to be the preservation of law and order and the protection of life and property, it ss perhaps not irrelevant to note that recent history shows that most killing has been done by one state or another or by some armed group seeking to be the government of a state and to control its coercive apparatus. The number of people killed in the twentieth century in state-sponsored conflicts or state-related victimization is, at a conservative estimate, between 175,000,000 and 180,000,000.”

On Anarchy - 

“The only mode of social organisation that is ethically acceptable is one that respects our liberty, namely, anarchy. Perhaps It may be worthwhile to point out that anarchy is not chaos or disorder or mayhem but the spontaneous order that arises from free and mutually acceptable human interactions, Most human beings for most of human history have lived in a state of anarchy; most of our daily interaction with our family, friends, neighbours and colleagues is framed by anarchy, and anarchy is the only mode of organisation that is consistent with our accepting responsibility for ourselves, our families and our communities in an adult way.”



Gerard Casey- Libertarian ANARCHY on the Isle of Man
Saturday 22nd March, 7:30pm, Hydro Hotel Douglas. Event Funded Solely by Donations. For further information email deepstatenews.blogspot@gmail.com or call Richard on 476370.


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