Don’t Tread on Anyone 2 | The Libertarian Institute

What Democrats Need to Know About War

by Keith Knight | Feb 14, 2023 | Don't Tread on Anyone

My case for pacifism, to recap, comes down to three simple premises. The first two are empirical:

Premise #1: The short-run costs of war are clearly awful. [Empirical claim about immediate effects of war].

Premise #2: The long-run benefits of war are highly uncertain. [Empirical claim about people’s ability to accurately forecast the long-run effects of war].

These empirical claims imply pacifism when combined with a bland moral premise:

Premise #3: For a war to be morally justified, the expected long-run benefits have to substantially exceed its short-run costs. [Moral claim, inspired by Judith Jarvis Thomson’s forced organ donation hypothetical].

Bryan Caplan, “How Evil Are Politicians?: Essays on Demagoguery.” p. 125

Full video: Odysee

Book: In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace

Christopher Coyne is Professor of Economics at George Mason University and the Associate Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the Mercatus Center.

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What I Learned From Thomas Sowell – Thomas E. Woods. Jr.

by Keith Knight | Feb 10, 2023 | Don't Tread on Anyone

But the number of blacks in professional, technical, and other high-level occupations more than doubled in the decade preceding the Civil Rights Act of 1964.38 In other occupations, gains by blacks were greater during the 1940s—when there was practically no civil rights legislation—than during the 1950s. In various skilled trades, the income of blacks relative to whites more than doubled between 1936 and 1959…

Affirmative action hiring pressures make it costly to have no minority employees, but continuing affirmative action pressures at the promotion and discharge phases also make it costly to have minority employees who do not work out well. The net effect is to increase the demand for highly qualified minority employees while decreasing the demand for less qualified minority employees or for those without a sufficient track record to reassure employers.”

– Thomas Sowell, Ph.D Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality?

Thomas E. Woods Jr. is a New York Times Bestselling author and host of the Tom Woods Show.

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AntiWar Alliance: The Dissident Left & Libertarians

by Keith Knight | Feb 7, 2023 | Don't Tread on Anyone

To kill one man is to be guilty of a capital crime, to kill ten men is to increase the guilt tenfold, to kill a hundred men is to increase it a hundredfold. This the rulers of the earth all recognize, and yet when it comes to the greatest crime — waging war on another state — they praise it!… If a man on seeing a little black were to say it is black, but on seeing a lot of black were to say it is white, it would be clear that such a man could not distinguish black and white… So those who recognize a small crime as such, but do not recognize the wickedness of the greatest crime of all… cannot distinguish right and wrong.

– Mozi (470–391 B.C.), Condemnation of Offensive War I, Book V

David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is executive director of World BEYOND War and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie and When the World Outlawed War. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk World Radio. He is a Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.

Laurie Calhoun is the author of We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age, War and Delusion: A Critical Examination, Theodicy: A Metaphilosophical Investigation, You Can Leave, Laminated Souls, and Philosophy Unmasked: A Skeptic’s Critique, in addition to many essays and book chapters. Questioning the COVID Company Line: Critical Thinking in Hysterical Times will be published by the Libertarian Institute in 2023. Article discussed: Rage Against the War Machine (Together!)

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A Lawyer Explains “The Myth of the Rule of Law”

by Keith Knight | Feb 4, 2023 | Don't Tread on Anyone

I refer to the myth of the rule of law because, to the extent that this phrase suggests a society in which all are governed by neutral rules that are objectively applied by judges, there is no such thing. As a myth, however, the concept of the rule of law is both powerful and dangerous.

Its power derives from its great emotive appeal. The rule of law suggests an absence of arbitrariness, an absence of the worst abuses of tyranny. The image presented by the slogan “America is a government of laws and not people” is one of fair and impartial rule rather than subjugation to human whim. This is an image that can command both the allegiance and affection of the citizenry. After all, who wouldn’t be in favor of the rule of law if the only alternative were arbitrary rule? But this image is also the source of the myth’s danger.

For, if citizens really believe that they are being governed by fair and impartial rules and that the only alternative is subjection to personal rule, they will be much more likely to support the state as it progressively curtails their freedom.

– John Hasnas, The Myth of the Rule of Law

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Social Cooperation vs. Parasitic Barbarism (feat. Tom Woods)

by Keith Knight | Jan 30, 2023 | Don't Tread on Anyone

If all human beings are intrinsically power-hungry and savage, how can we solve our problems by giving ultimate law-making and law-enforcing authority to one particular group of such appalling animals?… The libertarian anarchist contention is not that under anarchy things would be perfect, but that they would be better than they now are.

– Gerard Casey, Ph.D., Libertarian Anarchy: Against the State (2012, Continuum International Publishing Group), pp. 74–75.

A free pdf of The Voluntaryist Handbook can be found here.

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