The Voluntary Church
July 28, 2009
Separation of Me and State by B.K. Merrick
Word. At least you can walk away from the church, and people do it every day:
The voluntary church, as illogical, absurd, and misguided as it can be, has murdered less people, and done far more good for individuals and families (including my own) than any involuntary government ever has or will. The church did not bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki . The church did not put ovens in Auschwitz. The church did not set up the “Gulag Archipelago.” The church did not produce tons of useless steel in China, leading to economic ruin and the deaths of millions. The church did not botch rescue operations for Hurricane Katrina. The church is not responsible for the Cold War and the Berlin Wall. The church doesn’t force me to contribute money. The church doesn’t create prisons and overcrowd them with non-criminals. The church doesn’t unwittingly send innocent men to Death Row. The church doesn’t confiscate weapons and set up threatening regulations, making it virtually impossible for innocent people to defend themselves. The church doesn’t electrocute people. The church doesn’t pull me over and threaten me when I drive slightly faster than someone, somewhere decided was acceptable. The church doesn’t come up with endless regulations from mindless bureaucrats that destroy the market, tradition, and all other sorts of voluntary associations. The church doesn’t push poor and powerless people (and it’s never the rich people with governmental connections) off of their land, claiming “eminent domain.” In short, the church doesn’t force me to do anything. I left my church and no one came after me. If I do everything I can to leave the government peacefully, and desire to live among my neighbors in the only land I have ever known and loved, the state will come after me and destroy much, if not all, of my life.
…You want to save us all from religion. Who will save us from yours? Your incomprehensible belief in the power of a benevolent government is nothing less fanciful than hope in Jesus, Jehovah, Allah, or even Santa Claus. I live in a theocracy of your making, a satanic cult that receives your continued support. Personally, I’d much rather go back to church.
Yes, the church has often allied with the state throughout the centuries; but so has industry, and libertarians, for the most part, are able to discern that peaceful, voluntary transactions are valuable, even if some of those transactions seem useless or disgusting. The voluntary church, even if you disagree with some or all of its teachings, has been similarly valuable to many; and on its own it has certainly never been responsible for a fraction of the horrors attributed to the state.
McArdle on the Elitism of Universal Health Care
July 28, 2009
This is gonna go all up ons Strike the Root Thursday, if I have a say in it:
A Long, Long Post About My Reasons For Opposing National Health Care – Megan McArdle
The other major reason that I am against national health care is the increasing license it gives elites to wrap their claws around every aspect of everyone’s life. Look at the uptick in stories on obesity in the context of health care reform. Fat people are a problem! They’re killing themselves, and our budget! We must stop them! And what if people won’t do it voluntarily? Because let’s face it, so far, they won’t. Making information, or fresh vegetables, available, hasn’t worked–every intervention you can imagine on the voluntary front, and several involuntary ones, has already been tried either in supermarkets or public schools. Americans are getting fat because they’re eating fattening foods, and not exercising. How far are we willing to go beyond calorie labelling on menus to get people to slim down?
These aren’t just a way to save on health care; they’re a way to extend and expand the cultural hegemony of wealthy white elites. No, seriously. Living a fit, active life is correlated with being healthier. But then, as an economist recently pointed out to me, so is being religious, being married, and living in a small town; how come we don’t have any programs to promote these “healthy lifestyles”? When you listen to obesity experts, or health wonks, talk, their assertions boil down to the idea that overweight people are either too stupid to understand why they get fat, or have not yet been made sufficiently aware of society’s disgust for their condition. Yet this does not describe any of the overweight people I have ever known, including the construction workers and office clerks at Ground Zero. All were very well aware that the burgers and fries they ate made them fat, and hitting the salad bar instead would probably help them lose weight. They either didn’t care, or felt powerless to control their hunger. They were also very well aware that society thought they were disgusting, and many of them had internalized this message to the point of open despair. What does another public campaign about overeating have to offer them, other than oozing condescension?
Yes, seriously. Libertarians warned about this–jokingly at first, and then with growing seriousness, and now in futile despair–that government efforts at controlling bad habits like smoking and drug use would eventually turn to the management of nearly every aspect of personal health, including food and exercise. The irony is that the wealthy elites are indeed at the forefront of this movement, as McArdle pointed out, and so there is a greater emphasis on sexual license than ever, though arguably unprotected sex has caused greater misery, infection and death than promiscuous snacking ever could. Nonetheless, while freedom in sexual matters is still recognized, at least in some respects–who would ever dream of forcing condom taxes on us the way cigarette and gasoline taxes are pushed down our throats?–the freedom to eat what you want and remain sedentary is losing ground.
See also “Is Food the New Sex?” by Mary Eberstadt.
To be clear, I am not advocating federal programs that push any supposedly healthy agendas on us, whether in eating, exercise or sex. I am pointing out that such agendas usually track according to party lines: when the so-called conservatives get back into power, we may see the further criminalization of consensual sex acts between adults, or more wasted dollars on programs that try to push premarital abstinence and marriage. (Most government wars-on-stuff usually wind up perpetuating whatever it is they are supposed to vanquish, hence the failure of Bush-era abstinence programs and D.A.R.E.) In essence, I anticipate that the nation will become fatter and sluttier. You read it here first.
