State actors have no special *moral* status.In other words...
If a private party did it...and would be morally condemned for doing so...
If a group of people did it...and would be morally condemned for doing so...
So too should agents of the state...and their masters.
Libertarianism is first, and deeply, an ethical theory (as Kent always says).
(From an argument about gun rights, wherein I argued that the liberal position in favor of restrictions on gun rights is predicated on an absurd moral distinction in favor of state actors)
Posts
7 comments:
Sometimes I just state it as "No double standards".
Here was a column based upon that idea: No room for double standards
Well said, sir!
However, state actors do represent a collective agreement to allow a monopoly on such things as field artillery and naval guns.
The problem is that some of our fellow citizens want the gov't to have a monopoly on all weapons, and on education, and media content, etc.
Well, if one goes back in US history, the government didn't have a monopoly on field artillerry or naval vessels with modern naval guns. But you'd have to be mostly before the Civil War for that.
Kent,
I have to work on that idea...which is very good. See how far it takes me into crazy. I am almost 100% onboard...but I occasionally like to check consequences.
The way I have always put it to "thinking liberals" is this:
Is it OK for you to hold a gun to my head and force me to give you money?
Ok, now, that guy over there is starving. I am not. Is it OK for you to hold a gun to my head and force me to give HIM money?
(at this point, if their answer to that question is yes, then I know they are absolutely hopeless)
Third question... Is it OK for you and a friend to agree that the other guy needs the money more than I do, and your FRIEND holds the gun to my head and makes me give the money to the other guy?
Final question...
If it's not OK for you to hold a gun to my head, and make me give you money, and it's not OK to hold a gun to my head and make me give someone else money, and it's not OK for your friend to hold a gun to my head and make me give someone else money...
... How does having 50 million of your friends get together and vote to have someone else hold a gun to my head and make me give them money, make it suddenly OK?
Chris,
Half my active commenters are Moldbuggian formalists. I can't just suppose support of democracy.
Post a Comment