Abolish Public Education

"I believe a man is happier, and happy in a richer way, if he has 'the freeborn mind'. But I doubt whether he can have this without economic independence, which the new society is abolishing. For economic independence allows an education not controlled by Government; and in adult life it is the man who needs, and asks, nothing of Government who can criticise its acts and snap his fingers at its ideology." ~ C.S. Lewis

I like Lewis believe that we should abolish public education and I especially agree with his statement that man should not need anything from his government because if the government is providing economically for someone that person cannot criticize their policies for fear of being punished economically. Even if a person being supported by the government is not politically minded they will most likely support the system of government that gives them the most money, which is bigger government.

C.S. Lewis and the State

"The modern State exists not to protect our rights but to do us good or make us good—anyway, to do something to us or to make us something. Hence the new name ‘leaders’ for those who were once ‘rulers’. We are less their subjects than their wards, pupils, or domestic animals." ~C.S. Lewis

Most people have only read Lewis' fiction but as I recently found out he also wrote many political essays. I shall be investigating these works and will soon have more quotes to share.

Taxes

Today's quote comes from Robert Heinlein

"There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him."

Don't ask me what I want it for, If you don't want to pay some more. Cause I'm the taxman... And you're working for no one but me ~ The Beatles

Today's quote comes from Albert Einstein

"The state is made for man; not man for the state."

Anytime anyone speaks of doing something for the greater good or for society they are making man the possession of the state.

Camus and Net Neutrality

Today's quote comes from French author Albert Camus.

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

Yesterday a federal appeals court ruled that the FCC does not have the authority to enforce net neutrality on internet providers. If the court had upheld the FCC ruling we would have been moving towards an unfree world. On the surface net neutrality seems to be for freedom but in fact nothing could be farther from the truth. Supporters of net neutrality say that to support my freedom of speech all internet providers must provide a connection to my blog for all of their customers for a single set price. I say this is ridiculous that is like saying Barnes and Noble must stock and display my book to support my freedom of speech. If Comcast only wants to sell access to only Facebook for $10 a month or access to only Facebook and Google for $20 a month that's their right to do so; they would quickly go out of business as people want to view more of the internet but the government has no right to stop them.

Bastiat

Today's quote comes from the very first Anarcho-Capitalist Frederic Bastiat.

"The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else"

I think this quote is extremely relevant for today when so many in our society feel entitled to live by the state and when people speak out against the welfare state they are attacked by the state. Bastiat noticed this as well.

"Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim - when he defends himself - as a criminal."

If I choose not to pay my taxes because I know they will go to provide entitlement to someone else the police will arrest me and a judge will fine me or send me to prison. The state is so readily abused that I question the need for it at all.

Words of Truth

Today's author is the sole survivor of human experiments conducted by a totalitarian government. He then went on to extract revenge on those who conducted the experiments eventually causing the downfall of the government when he blew up the Parliament Building. Today's author is none other than a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. Today's author is V.

"Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense."

I will be the first to say that something is not horribly wrong with our country, but something is wrong. We are submitting more and more to the government because we are afraid. We fear terrorism so we allow the government to create new agencies that have almost unlimited power to spy on and arrest us. We fear disease so we set up an agency that has to approve every product on the market and can regulate virtually every industry. We can still say what we want but how long will that continue if we are afraid and are robbed of our common sense?

So how can we stop this slide down the slippery slope towards Totalitarianism? With words, we need to remind each other that war, terror and disease are temporary but a loss of freedoms and liberty are not. Words offer the enunciation of truth and an open dialog amongst concerned citizens will be the only thing that will save us; if it ever comes to Totalitarianism we will only need to look into the mirror to see who lets us fall.

Philosopher King

Today's quote comes from Plato in his book the Republic.

"And so we see that it is the Philosopher who should rule, as of all men only he has no desire to..."

It has been said that those who crave power are unfit to have it and those that are fit do not want it, of course a Philosopher ruling is only one part of Plato's ideal government. His main point is that individuals should do what they do best according to their class in society. By doing this, Plato argued, ones soul would be content as long as they stayed within their class and did what their class does best. I must admit that having ones class decided for them intrigues me, it could be very nice to not have to worry about what I'm going to grow up to do, but at the same time choice in what one will do with ones life is such a cornerstone of our society that I would be somewhat afraid to such drastically change our society as I fear what may come out.

Also there are plenty of Philosophers I wouldn't want as a Philosopher King and how do I know they wouldn't be making the rules?

So I guess while a Philosopher King is something fun to talk about with some more philosophically minded friends and I personally have written a short story about it I think we're doing okay with the government we have now and maybe we should work on fixing it before we start looking for a new one.

A Classic

Today's quote is most often attributed to Ronald Regan all though he most likely isn't the creator of this quote. But I thought in today's troubled economic times this classic stand by would be appropriate.

"The nine most feared words in the English language are I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Today the government is helping a lot whether we want it or not. Bank of America, my personal bank, was nationalized by the government even though they were financially sound and were in fact buying up the struggling banks. The $700 billion bail out package passed but already Congress is calling for another bail out bill.

The government is not always the answer in fact in so many situations it's just what we don't need. When our country is suffering economically taking $700 billion from the people and buying up banks is not going to help. When stocks are dropping in value forcing the nine largest banks to create more stock for the government to buy only decreases the value of the stocks even more.

What we need in America today is more personal responsibility; let the banks who made risky loans collapse and let the banks who were smart and didn't give loans to no income families buy the failing banks. Let the people who took risky loans be foreclosed don't take money from me to pay for their homes.

Legal Plunder

My quote today comes again from Bastiat, normally I will not repeat an author so soon but because of the current financial disaster being hoisted upon the American public in the form of a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street I felt that the words of Bastiat would be appropriate for the situation.

"It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.

What are the consequences of such a perversion? It would require volumes to describe them all. Thus we must content ourselves with pointing out the most striking.

In the first place, it erases from everyone's conscience the distinction between justice and injustice."

When the government talks about a bail out they are talking about plunder, stealing my money and giving it to a company I would not choose to invest in normally. This is redistribution of wealth and has no place in a lawful society. During the Cold War America stood against Communism yet less that thirty years after the fall of Communism we are adopting many of their economic positions.

Many of these bailouts the government is doing are in the form of buyouts meaning that the government is nationalizing these companies and running them. This is of course what started the whole problem; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were quasi government agencies who started the practice of risking loans and mortgages because the government wanted more low income and minority families to own homes. Because these companies were subsidized by the government they controlled a large part of the industry and could preform risky business procedures, however everyone else in the industry had to start preforming similar risky business procedures or risk being put out of business by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. When their risky business procedures caught up with Fannie Maw and Freddie Mac they started the collapse of large parts of the industry; what is not needed at this point is more government intervention but less; government intervention is what started this mess.

Unfortunately neither of the Presidential candidates realize this and talk of more government regulation and intervention. I recently got a call from the Obama campaign asking me if I was supporting Obama and whether I had any questions about the issues. I asked what was going to be done about the economic crises and the Obama person said that they were going to be taking money from CEO's of oil companies because of all the money they make that we the consumer have to pay them when we need relief because of high oil prices. At this point I said "No thank you I don't believe in theft." And I hung up the phone. Unfortunately McCain is no better he also believes that the "crooks" on Wall Street can't be trusted and that Wall Street needs more oversight from Washington.

There is no Hope, there will be no Change in our future if most American's can no longer tell the difference between Justice and Injustice. If CEO's of oil companies can have their money stolen is our money any safer?

American Inclinations

My quote today comes from another Frenchman but is actually a real person. Frederic Bastiat was a philosopher in the 1800s who wrote about the purpose of government.

"They [Socialist writer] assume that if the legislators left persons free to follow their own inclinations, they would arrive at atheism instead of religion, ignorance instead of knowledge, poverty instead of production and exchange. According to these writers, it is indeed fortunate that Heaven has bestowed upon certain men — governors and legislators — the exact opposite inclinations, not only for their own sake but also for the sake of the rest of the world! While mankind tends toward evil, the legislators yearn for good; while mankind advances toward darkness, the legislators aspire for enlightenment; while mankind is drawn toward vice, the legislators are attracted toward virtue. Since they have decided that this is the true state of affairs, they then demand the use of force in order to substitute their own inclinations for those of the human race"

Now I assume that we can agree that certain humans don't have better inclinations than all other humans and that the government shouldn't tell us what to believe or tell us we need to be enlightened. So I would ask why do so many people believe that America has better inclinations than other countries? If legislators don't need to tell us to yearn for good, to be enlightened, or to be virtuous why does America need to tell countries to like freedom, to hate despots, or to be enlightened?