ars libertatis

For some time I have come to the conclusion that the grave deficiency in the current output and thinking of our libertarians and “classical liberals” is an enormous blind spot when it comes to big business. There is a tendency to worship Big Business per se. . . and a corollary tendency to fail to realize that while big business would indeed merit praise if they won that bigness on the purely free market, that in the contemporary world of total neo-mercantilism and what is essentially a neo-fascist “corporate state,” bigness is a priori highly suspect, because Big Business most likely got that way through an intricate and decisive network of subsidies, privileges, and direct and indirect grants of monopoly protection.

~ Murray Rothbard

“Neilette: ‘We put all our politicians in prison as soon as they’re elected. Don’t you?’ Rincewind: ‘Why?’ Neilette: ‘It saves time.’ ”

~ Terry Pratchett (The Last Continent (1998))

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to get better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.

~ Albert Camus (7. November 1913 – 4. Januar 1960)

The welfare of the people…has always been the alibi of tyrants…giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.

~ Albert Camus (7. November 1913 – 4. Januar 1960)

Schlimm nur die Zähne. Ich habe sie immer gefürchtet; was man auch dagegen tut: ihre Verwitterung. Überhaupt der ganze Mensch! – als Konstruktion möglich, aber das Material ist verfehlt: Fleisch ist kein Material, sondern ein Fluch.

~ Max Frisch – Homo Faber (Zweite Station)

Das Glühbirnenverbot ist in seiner Sinnlosigkeit und Dreistigkeit ein Menetekel für die zunehmende Entmündigung der Bürger durch abgehobene, vermeintlich wohlmeinende Bürokraten. Es ist höchste Zeit, dass wir Bürger uns dem Staatspaternalismus entgegenstellen und uns nicht mehr wie Kleinkinder von der vermeintlichen Fürsorge des Nanny Staates einlullen lassen.¹

1. Christian Hoffmann – Planwirtschaftlicher Öko-Wahn, die Fortsetzung [↩]

„Deutschland hat den Zweiten Weltkrieg ausgelöst. Wir haben unendliches Leid über die Welt gebracht.“ [s]agt Angela Merkel. Meine Frage: Wer ist “wir”? Also, ich habe bestimmt nicht “unendliches Leid über die Welt gebracht”. Können Merkel und andere Irre bitte aufhören, mir (und anderen) Massenmord zu unterstellen?

~ Marco Kanne

Ausformuliert: Wenn Menschen keinerlei Tiere töten sollen, dürfen dann nichtmenschliche Tiere andere nichtmenschliche Tiere töten?

First step: eliminate the killing of animals by humans for food. Step two: rearrange the entire ecosystem so that predators cannot harm conscious prey. A fairly modest proposal, if you ask me.¹

1. Michael Anissimov – In-vitro Meat: Would Lab-Burgers be Better for us and the Planet? [↩]

The simple fact of the matter is that it is much easier to take the world as one finds it than to deeply question the prevailing social order. Basically decent people will go along with indecent schemes if these seem to be inevitable features of their world. To many, questioning the need for the state seems as daft as arguing with gravity.

~ Gene Callahan – The State and Illusion

“Confiscate all weapons, and crime would go down. It made sense. The flaw though…was this: criminals don’t obey the law. It’s more or less a requirement for the job. They had no particular interest in making the streets safer for anyone except themselves.”

~ Terry Pratchett (Night Watch (2002))

Americans have a right to seek medical treatment of whatever kind they wish and to make treatment choices for themselves. Good and generous people should help ensure that their less fortunate neighbors receive necessary medical care. But no one has a “right” to force unspecified people to provide them with unspecified care. Even if they did, they wouldn’t want to rely on the government to filfull that right.¹

1. Doug Bandow – A Right to Health Care? [↩]

Es ist gefährlich, Recht zu haben, wenn der Staat Unrecht hat.

~ Voltaire

Individuals have rights and there are things no person or group may do to them [without violating their rights].

~ Robert Nozick – Anarchy, State, and Utopia