Government Commits More Crimes than We Know

[Brian4Liberty]

Government Commits More Crimes than We Know | Guest: James Bovard | Ep 273

In the information age, it’s ironic that the government is becoming more secretive than ever, with an increase in classified documents and a growing reluctance to engage in any sort of transparency. Today's guest is James Bovard, author of "Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty," which is about the massive amount of illegal activity the government routinely engages in and the ways in which whistleblowers like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden are punished for attempting to reveal the truth. In this atmosphere of lies and deception, is there any hope for the preservation of American liberty? All I know is, my gut says “maybe.”

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[Occam's Banana]

Government Commits More Crimes than We Know

"The state is a gang of thieves writ large." -- Murray Rothbard

The State Is Too Dangerous to Tolerate | Robert Higgs
https://odysee.com/@mises:1/the-stat...-to-tolerate:9
{Mises Media | 29 July 2013}

Archived from the live Mises.tv broadcast, this lecture was presented by Bob Higgs at the 2013 Mises University [see this thread - OB], hosted by the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 27 July 2013. Includes a Question and Answer period.

The debate between statists and anti-statists is in my judgement not evenly matched. Defending the continued existence of the state, despite having absolute certainty of a corresponding continuation of its intrinsic engagement in extortion, robbery, willful destruction of wealth, assault, kidnapping, murder, and countless other crimes, requires that one imagine non-state chaos, disorder, and death on a scale that non-state actors seem completely incapable of causing.

[Anti Globalist]

I'd like to think that one day all of the governments crimes will be revealed but that's nothing but a pipe dream.

[ClaytonB]

I'd like to think that one day all of the governments crimes will be revealed but that's nothing but a pipe dream.

"There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." (Luke 12:2,3)

Truth will out. All of it will out. This is why the Gospel begins with ourselves. All of our own sins are coming out as well, so get ready now and don't delay.

[PAF]

"The state is a gang of thieves writ large." -- Murray Rothbard

The State Is Too Dangerous to Tolerate | Robert Higgs
https://odysee.com/@mises:1/the-stat...-to-tolerate:9
{Mises Media | 29 July 2013}

Archived from the live Mises.tv broadcast, this lecture was presented by Bob Higgs at the 2013 Mises University [see this thread - OB], hosted by the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 27 July 2013. Includes a Question and Answer period.

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Higgs @ 27:10
The debate between statists and anti-statists is in my judgement not evenly matched. Defending the continued existence of the state, despite having absolute certainty of a corresponding continuation of its intrinsic engagement in extortion, robbery, willful destruction of wealth, assault, kidnapping, murder, and countless other crimes, requires that one imagine non-state chaos, disorder, and death on a scale that non-state actors seem completely incapable of causing.

@Anti Federalist @susano

Also, what are your thoughts on the Q&A?

[Anti Federalist]

@Anti Federalist @susano

Also, what are your thoughts on the Q&A?

Well, it's hours of video to look over, I'll give it a watch when I get a chance.

Off the top of my head, based on some of the quotes, I'd be inclined to say it was just more philosotarian naval gazing or John Lennon-esque mooning over a world that will never be.

Does the state commit awful crimes? Of course.

They are on the verge of committing the worst and final one, the release of a manmade killer plague that will exterminate mankind.

People being people, you cannot rouse them to lift in finger in their own defense.

Which is the conundrum that makes government of any type even possible.

Most people on this planet do not want freedom and are not capable of living in freedom.

Most people need to be told where to squat and $#@!.

For the few that can, separation, with closely guarded or denied entry of non freedom understanding people, is the only answer.

Lacking the will to do that, the result will always be an unwholesome flood of wretched refuse from around the globe that will descend on you and pick the fatted carcass that grew and prospered under freedom, clean to the bones, and they will wipe their backsides with the documents of liberty that were used as an instruction manual to build it.

[ClaytonB]

@Anti Federalist @susano

Also, what are your thoughts on the Q&A?

My thoughts weren't requested, but it was an excellent talk (yes, I watched the whole thing) and I hope to read the paper when I get time. The Q&A questions are missing the point, as usual. Higgs doesn't directly answer the first question because he wants to be polite to that audience member and not just rip it to shreds, but there's really nothing else you can do with the inevitability argument.

Let's suppose we were all trapped in a foreign POW camp, like in The Great Escape. And let's suppose that someone proposes an escape plan. "First, we secretly remove a floorboard and dig a little dirt from under the barracks every day, then we begin tunneling. After several weeks by my calculation we will be able to escape." But someone else raises their hand to object: "Yeah, but once we escape the POW camp, then what? Someone among us is just going to start their own POW camp and imprison us all over again. So what's the point of trying to escape?!" Yes, the inevitability argument for the State is that stupid. "They're going to hunt us down and we will be on the run" is at least a true objection, but it also shows that there is absolutely nothing inevitable about the State, so long as we have the courage to truly leave it, once and for all. If we're serious about escaping the POW camp, we can escape, and there's nothing they can do to stop us. But once we escape, obviously, the same agents who imprisoned us in the first place are going to hunt us back down and try to imprison us again. The solution is to plan for it. Once we're outside the POW camp, we can fashion or steal weapons, and we can fight back. And with proper planning, the chances of success are not zero. So no, the State is not inevitable.

In addition, even if it were true that the State cannot be defeated by any means (and it's not true), it is still right to oppose it. Higgs rightly points out that it is foolish to make yourself an especially ripe target for the State to obliterate because... they will. Nevertheless, because we have eternal life through the Gospel, if we believe, we ought to reject the State's crimes as crimes, and we ought to reject any State that is not in submission to the lordship of Jesus because it is therefore antichrist -- even on pain of death. In short, this is ultimately a spiritual matter, it is not a purely material calculation. "No Lord but Jesus. No Kingdom but God's." Or, as Dale Gribble eloquently put it, "I am not questioning your authority. I'm completely denying its existence."

[Occam's Banana]

Higgs doesn't directly answer the first question [...], but there's really nothing else you can do with the inevitability argument.

"What are presented as the strongest critiques of anarchism are invariably descriptions of the status quo." -- Michael Malice

https://twitter.com/michaelmalice/st...37467144454351

[Occam's Banana]