Curt Doolittle

Category: Politics, Power, and Governance

  • LIBERTARIAN TERMINOLOGY: STATE AND GOVERNMENT ARE NOT SYNONYMS THE PROBLEM IS NO

    LIBERTARIAN TERMINOLOGY: STATE AND GOVERNMENT ARE NOT SYNONYMS

    THE PROBLEM IS NOT GOVERNMENT: THE PROBLEM IS THE STATE.

    One of the problems we face in the libertarian movement is the confusion between the terms “state” and “government”. A government can consist of a constitution enumerating property rights, a private judiciary, and a volunteer militia. This government need not assist in the concentration of capital into infrastructure. It needs only to define a monopoly of property rights, and to provide the means by which to evolve that definition via the evolution of the common law along with the means of evading property rights that evolve along with the market .

    When we use the term “state”, we refer to a bureaucracy that holds a monopoly on the use of violence and which holds a means by which to arbitrarily redefine property rights, and to confiscate and make use of property.

    Our alternatives to the state rely on a formally articulated property rights and obligations, private judiciaries, competing insurance companies that provide all of the services we attribute to the monopoly that is the state, and private institutions (like stock markets) that concentrate capital for the purpose of creating infrastructure.

    Libertarianism does not suggest solutions for creating a social order – the ability to cooperate at scale – that are without “government”. Even the anarchic program relies upon articulated private property rights – a government of norms, meaning informal but not formal institutions.

    Instead, Libertarians argue against the “state” because it is a fictitious representation of a collective will that is better able to provide for wants than is the market. When in fact, the state is a vehicle by which a class of individuals profits by stealing from some constituencies to give to others.

    We argue that the products of modernity exist because of the market, and that this prosperity exists in spite of statist governments who plunder us, not because of such statist governments.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-16 20:15:00 UTC

  • WHATS WRONG WITH UKRAINE: SYSTEMIC ENDEMIC CORRUPTION The bureaucrats prey on th

    WHATS WRONG WITH UKRAINE: SYSTEMIC ENDEMIC CORRUPTION

    The bureaucrats prey on the citizens. Who despite this level of corruption are, from my subjective opinion, the finest people currently living on planet earth.

    “Ukraine suffers from widespread corruption throughout its economic and political system. Many businesses are subject to theft, extortion and fraud. The problem has been exacerbated by the existence of poorly paid police forces which have failed to combat the significant levels of organized criminal activity” – Chadbourne, Kyiv

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-15 12:58:00 UTC

  • LIDDEL-HART’S ORIGINAL “It is folly to imagine that the aggressive types, whethe

    LIDDEL-HART’S ORIGINAL

    “It is folly to imagine that the aggressive types, whether individuals or nations, can be bought off … since the payment of danegeld stimulates a demand for more danegeld. But they can be curbed. Their very belief in force makes them more susceptible to the deterrent effect of a formidable opposing force.” – Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart

    REVISED VERSION

    “It is folly to imagine that the members of the bureaucratic state can be bought off… Since the payment of taxes stimulates the demand for more taxes. But they can be curbed. The very belief in force makes them more susceptible to the deterrent effect of a formidable opposing force. “

    Let all men be armed.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-15 11:05:00 UTC

  • WAR IS COMMERCE BY OTHER MEANS? “While there are many causes for which a state g

    WAR IS COMMERCE BY OTHER MEANS?

    “While there are many causes for which a state goes to war, its fundamental object can be epitomized as that of ensuring the continuance of its policy — in face of the determination of the opposing state to pursue a contrary policy. In the human will lies the source and mainspring of conflict.”

    “War is always a matter of doing evil in the hope that good may come of it.”

    “Inflict the least possible permanent injury, for the enemy of to-day is the customer of the morrow and the ally of the future”

    – Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-15 10:38:00 UTC

  • A DEFINITION OF ANARCHO CAPITALISM: ANARCHO CAPITALISM: “A research program whic

    A DEFINITION OF ANARCHO CAPITALISM:

    ANARCHO CAPITALISM: “A research program which seeks to provide public services assumed to be necessary functions of a bureaucratic state, without the need for the artifices of state: politicians and bureaucrats in an organization with a monopoly on the definition of property and the means of violence with which to redefine property at will. This program has so far been successful in defining the first testable ethics (See Rothbard), and the first solution to the problem of small scale institutions in a homogenous state. (See Hoppe).” – Curt Doolittle

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-15 09:36:00 UTC

  • “It is folly to imagine that the aggressive types, whether individuals or nation

    “It is folly to imagine that the aggressive types, whether individuals or nations, can be bought off … since the payment of danegeld stimulates a demand for more danegeld. But they can be curbed. Their very belief in force makes them more susceptible to the deterrent effect of a formidable opposing force.” – Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-15 07:38:00 UTC

  • DIPLOMACY: The art of saying “nice doggy” while looking for a rock

    DIPLOMACY:

    The art of saying “nice doggy” while looking for a rock.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-14 19:12:00 UTC

  • THE VIRTUE OF MONARCHIES Monarchies, or “private governments” denied access to p

    THE VIRTUE OF MONARCHIES

    Monarchies, or “private governments” denied access to political status to all but the family, and those few hired by the family.

    The remainder of the population sought status signals in the market, and within their identity groups. These societies were ‘diverse’. Sections of each city were dedicated to the cultural expression of their members, and signals within those sections served to convey status without the need for political power to convey such status.

    Under representative democracy, heterogeneous societies compete for the political power necessary to alter their status in relation to other groups. Instead of using the market, and market behavior to signal status. IN other words, we harm cultures by giving them access to political power.

    The answer is not how we share power. It is how we have no ability to use the violence of the state to create signals that are only mutually beneficial if they are manufactured do to the most important community service we can deliver: market participation.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-13 18:18:00 UTC

  • A QUESTION FOR THE LEFT: IF IT MEANT THAT IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO PRODUCE A FAR

    A QUESTION FOR THE LEFT: IF IT MEANT THAT IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO PRODUCE A FAR MORE MATERIALLY EQUAL SOCIETY, PERHAPS THE MOST MATERIALLY EQUAL IN THE WORLD, WOULD YOU THEN CEASE DENIAL OF INEQUALITY OF ABILITY, INEQUALITY OF RACES, AND THE IRRECONCILABILITY OF GENDER PREFERENCES?

    I think you would. And you should. Because that is what it will take for you to have a heterogeneous society that includes redistribution.

    Propertarianism solves the problem of politics.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-13 18:06:00 UTC

  • I WOULD LOVE TO HELP CONSERVATIVES WITH MESSAGING STATEGY If I could find one sm

    I WOULD LOVE TO HELP CONSERVATIVES WITH MESSAGING STATEGY

    If I could find one smart enough to talk to about it. (sigh)

    I realize that we are supposedly the thought leadership for the conservatives.

    Unfortunately we provide all the thought and they provide all the leadership. 🙁

    ( I think I made a rare bit of humor there. Ironic humor. Sad humor. But still humor. )

    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-12 17:23:00 UTC