Why Liberty?

By Keith Nobles

This should not be difficult to understand: Every law, every tax, and every regulation is enFORCEd by, well, threats of violent force. Fail to comply and…watch out. Someone from the government, probably armed with military-grade weaponry, is coming for you, sooner or later.

The threat of government violence quickly becomes an act of government violence force whenever a citizen is incompliant.

GOVERNMENT IS FORCE

That’s why every new law, new tax, and new regulation makes ours a more violent society, a society increasingly predicated on people in government using threats of force as well as actual force to get what they want from others.

Does that mean we should have no laws, no taxes, and no regulations? No.

It means is that every law, tax, and regulation ought to be evaluated, carefully, on whether the purported object can be achieved and whether it is worth government using violence against my neighbor and myself to enforce it.

• Should there be laws against murder, rape, assault, property crimes, theft, fraud? Of course.
• Should there be a law against walking down the street with an open beer? (I kind of think walking down the street drinking a Bug Light on a hot day does not warrant violence.)
• Should there be a law, enforced by violence, against working on your own car in your own garage?
• Is it worthy of violence to choose healthcare that the government does not approve of or to choose not to purchase health care at all when the government commands us to do so?
• Is it worthy of violence to own a weapon of which the government does not approve, even though the government itself owns millions of the same weapons?

This list is endless.

LIBERTY MEANS COOPERATION AND NEIGHBORLINESS

Politicians, of course, make careers out of proclaiming the calamity du jour in order to justify more laws, more taxes, and more regulations, which means more force and more violence. Rarely do they advocate for less government control and more individual liberty.

Yet, more individual liberty might be just the thing we most need today.

Which would you prefer, after all, a society predicated on force and violence or a society predicated on cooperation and neighborliness? It is an either/or question. You cannot have both at the same time.

Some people assert that the force and violence inherent in laws, taxes and government regulations are inseparable from “civilized society.” Strange, isn’t it, that anyone would describe a society predicated on force and violence as civilized.

I am of the mind that there are far too many laws, taxes, and regulations. We can do away with 80% or more and improve the lives of American citizens and others by doing so. In the process of getting rid of unjust, unnecessary, counterproductive, and in most cases unconstitutional government policies, we will see a reduction in the threats and acts of government violence against its own people.

Many, however, disagree. Those who describe themselves as “progressive” talk and vote as if there are far too few laws, taxes, and regulations, as if we need more. As every law, tax, and regulation means force and violence, these folks, whether they know it or not, are calling for an increase in levels of government force and violence.

The question, therefore, that should be front and center in our political discussions is: How much of your society do you want to operate by force and violence? Answer that question honestly and it will guide you into new realms of thinking that you might find surprisingly refreshing, free, and cooperative.