Life With Less Government: It’s Not As Distant As You Think

By Stefan Molyneux, MA , Host, Freedomain Radio www.freedomainradio.com

I am always astounded when someone rejects even the possibility of a non-coercive society by demanding that I supply proof such a society has ever existed, or could ever work.

“But I can give you an example of a perfectly functioning non-coercive society right now!” I reply.

“Oh yeah?” my interrogator will demand.  “Where?”

“Well, it’s… you!”

There is always a pause.  “What are you talking about?”

“Well, are you married?” I ask.

“Yes, but…”

“Did you force your spouse to marry you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“When you proposed, did you hold a gun to her temple and threaten to pull the trigger if she didn’t marry you?”

“No, but…”

“Do you have a job?”

“Yes…”

“And when you went to that job interview, did you hold a knife to your interviewer’s throat until you got the job?”

“No…”

“Do you shoplift when you go to stores? Do you leave restaurants without paying the bill? Do you ‘pump and run’ at gas stations?”

Of course not! Over the past twenty years, over thousands of conversations, I have never once met anyone who regularly used violence.  I’ve met a few people who’d been in bar fights, heard of a few bad marriages and seen some nasty parents, but I have never once met a single person who regularly and systematically used violence to force obedience out of others.

So naturally, I am quite confused when people demand that I produce historical proof of functioning non-violent societies.  It’s like a panting man asking me to produce proof of the existence of air.

You do not use violence in your life.  You do not force people to do your bidding.  You do not shoot or stab or poison people who disagree with you.

And I would guess that you don’t know anyone else who does.

Now that’s quite remarkable when you think about it.  Just looking at your own life, you can see a community of hundreds or thousands of people composed entirely of pacifists.  A community composed of people who resolve all their disputes without pulling out knives or guns.

People generally respond to this, of course, by arguing that people don’t use force because the State has courts and the police and so on, and without State protection we’d be in that mythical state of nature, stealing and killing each other at will.

That’s an interesting objection, but I have a hard time taking it very seriously, because all I have to ask in return is this:

“Have you ever actually tried to use the State justice system?”

Of course not.  If they had, they wouldn’t speak so blithely about how the ‘thin blue line’ is all that separates us from cannibalism.

Does this approach prove that a non-coercive society will work flawlessly? Of course not.  However, I hope it helps you see that in your life, a non-coercive society works beautifully! I don’t expect that this approach will convince you of the practicality of a non-coercive society as a whole, but in the society that you live in – surely the most important to you – it does highlight the simple fact that non-violence is the norm, and that voluntary cooperation is in fact how most people actually live.

If we actually look at our own lives, and set aside propaganda and fear, it becomes clear that non-coercive societies are not only possible in the future, but alive and well in the here and now.  To see the future of freedom, we need only look in the mirror today. 

Libertarians Support Rural Revolution and Tobacco Farmers’ Protest

By Jim McIntosh

 Mike Kennedy, founder of Smokers Choice, called Paolo Fabrizio several times , encouraging him to go to the protest for the Tobacco Farmers in south-western Ontario, organized by Randy Hillier of the Rural Revolution and the Ontario Landowners’ Association.  The Rally was to start at 8:00 AM Monday March 27 in Delhi, not far from Tillsonburg.  Mike also had a meeting planned for the afternoon in Simcoe (the closest hotel with a meeting room). 

I agreed to pick up Paolo and go to the rally.  I called Kaye Sargent, Deputy Leader of the Ontario Libertarian Party and perennial candidate in the area, to see if we could pick her up on the way.  Unfortunately she had other commitments. 

We arrived at the tobacco auction exchange in Delhi about 9:45 AM.  Lots of people (300-400?) were standing around chatting or wandering in and out of the auction barn.   

Around 10:15 Randy Hillier took the “stage” (a farm wagon).  He noted that the Ontario Government had declared war on tobacco, and in war, if you don’t fight back, you get killed.  Randy said the government is bringing in billions of dollars in taxes, the big three tobacco companies posted $1.5 billion in profits in 2004 and the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers’ Marketing Board is making a profit. Meanwhile, farmers are going broke.  He announced that today they would sell tobacco directly to anyone who wanted it, in defiance of the law that requires all tobacco to be sold to and bought from the Tobacco Marketing Board.  The proceeds would go directly to the farmers.  Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be many people there who were not tobacco farmers. 

I bought a bale of tobacco (40 pounds) to show my support and was given the opportunity to speak to the gathering.  I expressed my support for their civil disobedience, and asked who they could vote for if they wanted to fight on the political front.  All the other parties are against tobacco, but the Libertarian Party supports property rights and individual freedom. 

After I finished, Paolo and I handed out pamphlets .  No one turned them down, and several people commented favourably. 

After lunch we went to Mike Kennedy’s meeting in Simcoe.  The only other person there was Mike’s friend, Donald Crawford.  Both Mike and Donald signed up as voting members and paid membership fees.  We left Simcoe and headed home about 3:30. 

It was a full day, but a worthwhile trip.  We signed up two new members, added one inquiry and introduced the Libertarian Party to a large number of people who are mad at the government. 

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for what to do with 40 pounds of cured tobacco leaves, especially for promoting the party.

Barbeque was a Great Picnic

Close to twenty people showed up at Garrett Pittenger’s place on Humber Station Road in the Caledon Hills for the Annual Libertarian BBQ on May 7.  It was a pleasant day with a mix of sun and cloud. 

Garrett seemed to enjoy his position as chief chef and made sure everyone had enough burgers and sausages.  Plenty of wine, beer and soft drinks were available as well.  There were lots of friendly and sometimes spirited discussions, both political and otherwise. 

Dave, a friend of Garrett’s gave us a tour of part of the 45 acre property.  A few hikers were a little concerned about the bees as we passed their hives, but even they follow the dictum ‘live and let live.’ 

If you couldn’t make it this year, try next year.  It is usually the first Sunday in May. 

The Upcoming By-Election in Parkdale-High Park

The Libertarian Party of Ontario has an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of libertarian issues in the upcoming Parkdale-High Park by-election. A review of the demographic characteristics of the riding and past election results suggests issues that may resonate particularly well with local residents.

Demographics

Parkdale-High Park has more in common with the downtown ridings of Trinity Spadina, St. Paul’s and Toronto-Centre than the ridings adjoining its boundaries to the west (Etobicoke Lakeshore), north (York South Weston) and east (Davenport) although Parkdale-High Park does share a few blocks of boundary with Trinity Spadina south of Queen Street.

Three features set Parkdale-High Park apart from most other Toronto ridings.

(a)    Close to two thirds (62%) of Parkdale-High Park residents rent their home, a proportion exceeded by only two other ridings - St. Paul’s and Toronto-Centre.

(b)   In only three other ridings (most notably Trinity-Spadina and Toronto-Centre) and are there higher proportions of single adults and people living in common law relationships.

(c)   One in four (25%) employed adults works in the health, government or arts sectors as compared to the citywide average of one-in-six (18%). In this respect, Parkdale-High Park has much in common with Trinity Spadina and St. Paul’s.

Adult residents of Parkdale-High Park are better educated on average (37% have university degrees) but have household incomes 10% below the Toronto-wide average. Most residents (56%) were born here in Canada (Toronto average 50%) and only one-in-four (27%) are members of visible minorities (Toronto average 42%). The population is generally younger with less than one-in-four (24%) being over the age of 54.

These demographic characteristics favour a Libertarian candidate and campaign that put more emphasis on civil liberties (e.g. the pit bull and smoking bans) than on traditional economic issues such as taxes.

Voting Patterns

 The upcoming by-election will draw considerable national interest as it is necessitated by the resignation of Liberal MPP Gerard Kennedy, one of the front-runners to succeed Paul Martin as federal Liberal Party leader. The Liberal candidate will be the odds on favourite to win the by-election because Kennedy took 55% of the vote in the 1999 election and 58% in the 2003 election.

 It should be noted, however, that Kennedy was not a shoo-in for victory in the 1999 race. This was a newly amalgamated riding that combined areas of Liberal dominance in the eastern half (part of the former riding of Parkdale) with areas of Tory and NDP strength in the northern and western portions (the former riding of High Park Swansea). Number crunchers had calculated that if everyone voted as they had in the 1995 election, the Liberal, PC and NDP parties would win roughly equal shares of the vote.

 Libertarians face better odds in Parkdale-High Park than most other ridings, in part because we have been running candidates here since 1979 (federally) but mainly because voters are responsive to the smaller parties. In 1993, for example, seven smaller parties ran candidates and together they won 7% of the vote (1.1% for the Green Party’s Richard Roy and 0.9% for the Libertarian Party’s Haig Baronikian).

There have been five candidates from the smaller parties in each of the last two provincial elections. They won 3% of the vote in 1999 and 10% of the vote in 2003. Among the libertarian-leaning parties, Doug Burn won 0.8% of the vote in the 1999 election for the Libertarian Party and Dick Field won 0.4% of the vote for the Freedom Party of Ontario in the 2003 election.