Wednesday, August 18, 2004
A Rational Defense
We seem to have bought into the notion that the only way to defeat terrorism is to rely on the government. Now if the government turns into an instrument of terror what have we won? Governments have historically pushed their citizens into submission under the auspices of protection from some outside source such as an invasion or an infiltration. The Nazi’s were protecting the Germans from the Jews. The Russians were protecting the workers from the Bourgeois. Now our government has taken on the task of protecting us from the terrorists.
To protect us we are told we must cooperate and sacrifice some of our freedoms (temporarily) . To protect us we are told that commercial airlines must submit to government regulations that forbid pilots the means of self defense. To protect us we are told that passengers must not be profiled and those most visibly identifiable as likely terrorists must be protected from discrimination. What is wrong with this picture?
What’s wrong is the government is using suppression instead of freedom to win this “war on terrorism”. Instead of letting the airlines decide how best to protect their property and customers the government is claiming it is responsible for the industries failings and will do better by eventually nationalizing the industry in the name of protection. Doesn’t this smack of the protection that is being offered to the customers of the medical industry, et al.
No one wants to name the type of social system that will defeat the terrorists in a rational way because too many do not know how the system works, why it works and why the remnants of it are attacked by the terrorists and our government. The system is Capitalism, the defining ingredient is freedom and the need for its recognition and implementation has never been greater. If we want our freedom and to minimize our encounters with the terrorists we must work under the banner of freedom. We do not want an underground militia to be the last hope because the government has botched it’s role. For a government in a free society to be effective it must get out of the business of deciding what a person can do to protect his property and customers. Certainly an invasion needs the government to repel the invaders but we are not faced with an invasion. We are faced with infiltrators who private citizens should be free to discriminate against and protect themselves against. Just as self defense if justifiable so is any defense when the government cannot be available promptly.
The system of Capitalism is the answer to minimize terrorism and guarantee individual freedom and this means keeping government under control with limited powers with the stated objective of protecting the individual rights of its citizens. Letting government grow beyond these bounds is inviting the creation of that ugliness known as a police state. Our system of expanding government with more controls, regulations and the expense of implementing them must be reversed to a system that relies on the free citizen to do all that he can to protect his property and life and to only call on the government when a violation of his rights requires an agency that has a monopoly on force that is created to repel the initiation of force against its citizens. There are those who think that what we have is all there is or ever can be but they delude themselves. We have not always been what we are today nor will we be the same tomorrow. We will either travel toward more or less freedom for the individual and regardless of what other claims of out heritage may be made, it is individual freedom that is at the foundation of our country’s creation. And as individuals we are required to acknowledge and defend this honor.
To protect us we are told we must cooperate and sacrifice some of our freedoms (temporarily) . To protect us we are told that commercial airlines must submit to government regulations that forbid pilots the means of self defense. To protect us we are told that passengers must not be profiled and those most visibly identifiable as likely terrorists must be protected from discrimination. What is wrong with this picture?
What’s wrong is the government is using suppression instead of freedom to win this “war on terrorism”. Instead of letting the airlines decide how best to protect their property and customers the government is claiming it is responsible for the industries failings and will do better by eventually nationalizing the industry in the name of protection. Doesn’t this smack of the protection that is being offered to the customers of the medical industry, et al.
No one wants to name the type of social system that will defeat the terrorists in a rational way because too many do not know how the system works, why it works and why the remnants of it are attacked by the terrorists and our government. The system is Capitalism, the defining ingredient is freedom and the need for its recognition and implementation has never been greater. If we want our freedom and to minimize our encounters with the terrorists we must work under the banner of freedom. We do not want an underground militia to be the last hope because the government has botched it’s role. For a government in a free society to be effective it must get out of the business of deciding what a person can do to protect his property and customers. Certainly an invasion needs the government to repel the invaders but we are not faced with an invasion. We are faced with infiltrators who private citizens should be free to discriminate against and protect themselves against. Just as self defense if justifiable so is any defense when the government cannot be available promptly.
The system of Capitalism is the answer to minimize terrorism and guarantee individual freedom and this means keeping government under control with limited powers with the stated objective of protecting the individual rights of its citizens. Letting government grow beyond these bounds is inviting the creation of that ugliness known as a police state. Our system of expanding government with more controls, regulations and the expense of implementing them must be reversed to a system that relies on the free citizen to do all that he can to protect his property and life and to only call on the government when a violation of his rights requires an agency that has a monopoly on force that is created to repel the initiation of force against its citizens. There are those who think that what we have is all there is or ever can be but they delude themselves. We have not always been what we are today nor will we be the same tomorrow. We will either travel toward more or less freedom for the individual and regardless of what other claims of out heritage may be made, it is individual freedom that is at the foundation of our country’s creation. And as individuals we are required to acknowledge and defend this honor.
