I don’t agree with everything the speaker in this video says, but there is an awful lot of truth in his words.
For instance, I disagree with the statement that parents want the government to steal from their neighbors to pay for their children’s school. Everyone, including the childless, benefits from a robust public education, just as we all benefit from tax funded social safety nets such as Social Security and Unemployment Insurance.
It’s true that many people abuse their neighbors across town and around the world through the lecherous politicians they vote for year after year, and these injustices ought to be abolished immediately, but to say that we need no government at all is a myopic, selfish, sociopathic point of view. Government is necessary to facilitate those activities we cannot accomplish individually, on either the personal or the community level. Above all, it is the duty of government to uphold and protect the rights of the least powerful among us against those with the most, the minority against the whims of a majority.
I have often described myself as an anarchist sympathizer, and that’s precisely what I am. I sympathize with the anarchist position, but as I’ve stated elsewhere, pure ideology of any kind, whether anarchist, socialist, fascist, capitalist, or religious, must be tempered by a fully realized democracy that includes all points of view in all decisions and discussions.
What is real democracy? In my opinion, real democracy in a modern society like the one we live in today would include a reasonable, consistent set of ballot access laws across the board, guaranteed inclusion of all parties and candidates in debate forums, and the strict exclusion of all private money from all campaigns. We don’t yet have that form of democracy here in the United States, and it may not be possible to achieve given our current state of affairs, but it is a goal we must reach for all the same.
It is my sincere and well-considered belief that in such an environment, where diverse ideas are encouraged and respected, our leaders, and in many cases we the people, could reach the most productive compromises and respect the rights of all people without encouraging or allowing the tyranny we suffer today.
Again, there is much truth in the speech given above, but the abolition of all government and laws would be as intolerable as anything we suffer today, at least until our species takes the next big step forward in our evolution.
