The Gun in the Room

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:43:34 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

Puck T. Smith - echoes L. Neil Smith's distillation of the Zero Aggression Principle, and Neil's and Stefan Molyneux's Vulcan Mind Melds.

As far as I can tell from his writing Smith and I part company on one point. He seem to still be entertaining the notion that a magic piece of paper will ward of the depredations of thugs. For Smith, the X-ray machine, the Vulcan mind-meld, is a tool for making voting simpler. If I thought voting mattered I'd agree.

But, you might ask, what has this to do with Stefan Molyneux? Well, to him I owe the title of this essay and my X-ray machine, my Vulcan mind-meld--perhaps even my Gold Kryptonite--to cut right to the core of what I consider arguments against freedom and in defense of government in the form of a coercive monopoly on violence.

...

What to do? Well, pull out the kryptonite. Point out the gun in the room. As Stephan Molyneux pointed out in the video that crystallized the concept in my mind...

"Statist violence always escalates until the violence is visible. Slavery continues until the humanity of the slaves becomes visible. Aggression against women and children will continue until the humanity of women and children becomes visible.

"Statist violence always escalates until the violence is visible. If you keep pointing out the gun, it will be lowered."

...

Put down the gun. Then we can talk.

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