What do libertarians propose as the alternative to state coercion?
Statists use the same approach to every problem…
- Legislate
- Dictate
- Threaten
- Punish
Statists always want to initiate force to impose speculative, untested, single-sized schemes on all of society. Libertarians view this as immoral and anti-social.
Libertarians propose peaceful persuasion and voluntary cooperation as the alternative to state coercion. If you have an idea for solving a social problem, don’t ask The State to impose your idea on people. Instead, pursue your idea in a pro-social way…
- Use persuasion
- Appeal to empathy
- Take direct action
Why waste time lobbying Congress to impose your scheme by force, when you can persuade people to start executing your idea instantly, voluntarily?
Libertarians believe governments must obey the Zero Aggression Principle. Governments must not initiate force. They must only use force defensively.
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By Brian Mast April 19, 2016 - 3:51 pm
I agree with you, but I would add that voluntary decentralization needs to take place to bring about peace. There is no such thing as a genuine representative government. Under our current system, people use the club of government to restrict other peoples freedom, and it would take more than convincing the entrenched government to embrace the NAP to end it.
We as a society should create a searchable database of neighborhoods having certain values so that others can move there, forming over time communities of like-minded people. Purely hypothetical examples include: Baptists who value pristine lawns but think smoking weed is fine could live among each other. Catholics who like working on their cars up on blocks in their yards can live among themselves. Atheists who wish to live in travel trailers can live among themselves. People who are happy living among either group can stay put. There is no limit to the number of completely different communities that can be established, and doing this removes the temptation to create laws and ordinances.
By Roland Peterson September 8, 2017 - 3:17 pm
What a novel idea, that like minds can live in communities of their choice! I suspect that many would like to live in a free Nevada county but are not willing to admit it. Perhaps they do not want to rock the boat. How can we encourage folks to create or move to a community of their liking? Perhaps it is easier to suffer and complain that work to establish a more suitable environment.
By Brian Mast September 22, 2017 - 10:58 pm
I would move to Nevada if I could earn a living working about 8 hours per day, and if I could move to an area with enough rain for growing and raising human food.
By voluntaryist December 17, 2019 - 4:43 pm
R.P.: The masses want a contradiction, their individual freedom, their sovereignty, but no sovereignty for others. They want to sacrifice reason to force, rights to authority, individuality to conformity, and achieve social stability. They keep getting chaos but won’t give up their superstition, their faith in force.