I’m not sure if this point has been made in this way before. We have certain rights by our very nature, that no man, and no god, can rightfully take away. But the greatest oppressor and violator of our rights, the State, also stems from our nature. We flourish when we are free, we create something new under the sun. Our nature demands freedom to reach our potential, and we feel a violation at every restriction of our freedom. At the very same time, and this is the most crucial point, we feel an impulse to control others. We value our freedom while resenting its use by others. We disapprove of how they make use of their freedom, and so we work to restrict it.
This simply is human history in a nutshell.
The trick is to enshrine into law as bulletproof a defense of liberty for those targeted. A general defense. And a consistently general defense moves to allowing every voluntary interaction between consenting adults, and disallowing any and all violations of another person. This is the libertarian philosophy of liberty. No real need for massive tomes that go unread, or even long-winded essays. Presenting the philosophical argument as succinctly as possible allows for anyone who reads it to then ponder it, and unfold it in their own mind.
But where libertarians go wrong, and most other political philosophers, is that within in lies the blueprint for the totalitarian state. We are genetically predisposed to violate the liberty of others. And we are genetically predisposed to build the superstructure to perform this violation on a society-wide scale. Thus have we become Irony’s ultimate victims: we, a species unique in its need for freedom, and unique in its desire to enslave.
And so, to mitigate the emergence of the State, we erect a government. We, or some far distance forefathers, deliberately invoke this inner demon, and then bind it with as carefully crafted incantations as we can muster. The demon always breaks through, with time, but we at least try. The alternative is to allow the demon to emerge fully formed at a time of its choosing. That route leads to Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Maoist China, the Khmer Rouge, and the mindlessness of prehistoric virgin sacrifices, blood drinking, Sun-worshipping. We create government because we understand the State, because we understand ourselves.
