There’s no room for violence in our political discourse? But politics is merely war by other means. Political discourse within the state inherently involves the threat of violence and is ultimately backed by it.
When Democrats exploit the recent Tucson shooting to call for stricter gun control laws, they are threatening and ultimately calling for violence against those who wish to keep and bear arms. When Republicans object to cutting military spending, pulling out of overseas wars and military bases, and anti-war sentiments, they are threatening and ultimately calling for violence against unwilling taxpayers, furriners, and anyone else who gets in their bloodthirsty way. When politicians, pundits, and media talking heads of both major parties called for the assassination of Julian Assange, that was political discourse.
Stefan Molyneux says it well:
As does Glenn Greenwald: “…the mentality endlessly eroding basic American liberty: namely, the belief that every tragedy must lead to new government powers and new restrictions on core liberties.” Click through to read his excellent article.
Geoffrey is an Aristotelian-Liberal political philosopher, an adjunct instructor for Buena Vista University, the founder and executive editor of Prometheus Unbound: A Libertarian Review of Fiction and Literature, and the webmaster of The Libertarian Standard. His work has appeared in Libertarian Papers, the Journal of Libertarian Studies, the Journal of Value Inquiry, and Transformers and Philosophy. He lives in Edgewood, KY with his wife and two children.
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Great post. The phrase “politics is merely war by other means” pointedly makes the libertarian case against government in just seven words, and it therefore contains as much if not more wisdom than Lord Acton’s dictum “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
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January 14, 2011RT @libstandard: New post: The Libertarian Standard » There's no room for violence in our political discourse? | http://bit.ly/eisXrN
January 14, 2011