New Center for a Stateless Society Articles
I didn’t post a link to my Center for a Stateless Society commentary last week. In Health Care Anger, Anarchist Solutions, I described how potentially violent power struggles can be defused by ceasing to struggle for power over people:
Consistent libertarian thought offers a clear path out of the conflicts that occur when people struggle to rule over each other.
Governments, or factions within governments, fight over who, what, and where they are to exert their authority. When these turf battles get serious, words like “war” are used.
My March feature article examines What the State is Made Of:
The state is an organization through which some people exercise political authority – coercive power with a claim of legitimacy – against other people.
A state is said to have the right to do things that ordinary individuals do not have the right to do. The state is conferred the right to rule over individuals. It works to control life in order to safeguard or expand the power of the people in charge and the powerful interests they answer to. Individuals may not opt out of state demands without being subject to legal sanctions (unless state agents find the cost of enforcing an individual infraction too high for the perceived benefit).
My latest commentary describes how A Free Society Would Have Safer Subways:
The recent Moscow subway bombings brought out the only response the state could make – more cops, harder crackdowns, and tougher talk. But what if there was another way?
