So we’ve been discussing the proper role of the state on this blog recently, particularly as it relates to the legalization of marijuana. This discussion, in all of its unfortunate snarkiness and nastiness (to which I freely admit having contributed, not that I’m proud of it) is really a discussion on the proper role of the state.
I think it is rather uncontroversial to assert that America was basically founded upon the Lockean social contract theory. We begin with the proposition that everyone has basic natural rights: to life, liberty, and property. In a hypothetical scenario in which there is no coercive authority (the state/government), we must also act as our own judge, jury and executioner. In this anarchic situation, our rights to life, liberty and property are unsecured. In order to secure them, we collectively renounce our right to be our own personal government and transfer that right to a government we establish by contract. Our property – life, liberty and estate – is more valuable and necessary for life than our “right” to do as we please, when we please, to whomever we please.
The terms of the contract are rather simple. They are stated very simply in the Declaration of Independence. Governments exist to protect our natural rights. They don’t exist to make us “better people” – that’s what the Church is for. They don’t exist in order to achieve “social justice” – that is what private charity and free markets are for. The individual American states were founded by people of like-minds who wanted to establish communities that reflected their religious values – Pennsylvania for Quakers, Maryland for Catholics, and so on. The Constitution was created by the states mostly for the purposes of common security.
Government is not a positive good. It is an evil necessary to prevent the greater evils that would result from total anarchy. As such, it must be kept on the tightest of all possible leashes, which is why so many Americans demanded a Bill of Rights as a condition for the ratification of the Constitution. If men in a state of anarchy would be evil, they don’t suddenly become angels because we give them titles, badges, and offices. The evil in our hearts is the evil in their hearts, and the greater the scope and depth of the powers we give to governments, the greater potential for evil we establish.
This is all the more true when governments are run by people who don’t believe in natural rights at all, and who likely, if they believe what is academically fashionable, don’t believe in free will and the dignity that attends it. It is all the more true when they are run by people who don’t believe in, or seem to understand, the concept of private property, and who consequently believe that their role is to decide how much of our own labor we are allowed to keep for ourselves. It is the absolute worst when it is run by people who believe it is their mission, divine or self-appointed, to save people from themselves – to rule and use coercive force for people’s “own good” in the manner of a parent to a child who doesn’t yet have the use of reason.
We are entitled to personal liberty within the limits of other people’s rights because we have souls, because we do have free will, the use of reason, and therefore the inherent capability to choose our own path in life, and in this our dignity as human beings lies. There is no practical or consequentialist argument that can override this basic fact about human nature, because it was established by God Himself.
None of this entails an endorsement of immoral and anti-social behavior. Moreover, I don’t object to local communities placing severe restrictions on individual liberty, provided that individuals are free to leave at any time. A monastery is a good example of what I have in mind: it is voluntarily formed, it is a life of rigorous discipline, and no coercive force keeps a man in it. He submits his own will to a higher rule of life. A workers cooperative is another example. So are the American colonies I mentioned previously. Voluntary collectivism (particularly in the service of God) may be our highest calling as individuals, but involuntary collectivism is among the most degrading things we can possibly be subjected to.
We don’t have to fit the textbook definitions of a communist or fascist state to experience what it is like to have our dignity violated either. We can have pockets of vicious totalitarianism alongside pockets of ideal liberty and natural order. We can walk around the streets freely while possibly being guilty of one of tens of thousands of obscure federal crimes that no one has ever heard of, until the unfortunate day that the government finds a reason to look. We can quietly work and pay taxes to fund activities that none of us would ever morally approve of and some of which we find horrifying. We can get by, because no matter how bad “it” gets, “it” can’t happen here – right?
Believe that if you like. But don’t talk about the law as if it as anything other than violent coercion. In order to secure our rights, I’m willing to say that some violent coercion is necessary. Beyond that, there had better be a darned good reason. Saving people from themselves (and punishing moderate users indiscriminately), bringing “democracy” to people who never asked for it (with drones and depleted uranium), and achieving “social justice” (i.e. radical egalitarianism) are not good reasons. That’s why I’ll always vote for the most libertarian candidate in the field.
So I’ll get this out of the way too: Rand Paul 2016!
PLEASE NOTE: Let’s try to keep it civil below. Snark is unavoidable I suppose, but insults will simply be thrown in the trash.
As I understand it, the terms of the social contract are simply that “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.”
From this it follows that the people are sovereign and law is an expression of the general will. The laws are made by those who are to obey them, not by the government, which is to enforce them.
Thus, by the social contract, each individual gives up only so much of his powers, goods and liberty as it is important for the community to control, but, then, the people is the sole judge of what is important. This must be so, for the people have no master and no judge and decide all questions finally and alone.
It also follows that the government is the appointee and agent of the people, holding power under an imperative and revocable mandate and accountable to the people for its acts. No one may exercise any power over another that does not proceed from the people.
“I think it is rather uncontroversial to assert that America was basically founded upon the Lockean social contract theory. ”
I am not sure that Lockean social contract theory was the basis of America’s founding. Russell Kirk, among others, makes the convincing case that the Founders were more influenced by Burke, Blackstone, Montesquieu, Hume, and Hooker than by Locke in their design of the Constitution and government. Essays such as this – http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=176&Itemid=259 – while not explicitly agreeing with Kirk’s thesis, at least provide that the Founders read and were influenced by a much wider selection of thinkers than Locke.
I think it is rather uncontroversial to assert that America was basically founded upon the Lockean social contract theory.
Agreed with Jonathan above. Read Kirk, Bailyn, and others who rebut the notion that our founding was all about putting in place Locke’s Second Treatise. If anything, historians of all ideological stripes overrate the importance of political theory at the time of the creation of the new government and overlook how much of it was based simply upon pragmatic principles.
“and overlook how much of it was based simply upon pragmatic principles.”
Agreed. This was the saving grace of the American Revolution as opposed to the disastrous attempt by the French revolutionaries to make the most hare-brained theories a reality. The Founding Fathers were veterans of the political systems of their colonies and were not about to confuse theory and reality.
“Saving people from themselves (and punishing moderate users indiscriminately), bringing ‘democracy’ to people who never asked for it (with drones and depleted uranium), and achieving ‘social justice’ (i.e. radical egalitarianism) are not good reasons.”
I agree. However, it is important to note that lead ammunition is as deadly as depleted uranium ammunition. When one wants to know about the hazards of rocket fuel, one asks a rocket scientist. When one wants to know the hazards of the chemicals used in the petro-chemical industry, one asks a chemist. And when one wants to know the hazards of depleted uranium, one asks a nuclear engineer / scientist. Anti-nuclear energy groups like WISE or NIRS, having a devout interest in smashing all things nuclear, are not repositories of the facts. But the US NRC, NEI, etc., are.
Now what is depleted uranium? Natural uranium is 99.3% U-238 and 0.7% U-235 (the number of neutrons is different between the isotopes, but the number of protons – 92 which determines chemistry – stays the same). U-235 is fissile with thermal neutrons. U-238 is not, but can be used in fast neutron fission or can be used to produced thermal fissile Pu-239 by resonance absorption of neutrons. To get uranium to the point when it can be used in thermal neutron, light water reactors such as what the US uses, it is enriched slightly to about 3 to 5 % U-235. You can’t use natural uranium in a light water reactor because the macroscopic absorption cross-section in hydrgen in the water coolant over-rides the low concentration of U-235, so the fission chain reaction is not self-sustaining. (Candu reactors in our neighbor to the north use heavy water and natural uranium – same physics and math, just different results – the deuterium in heavy water doesn’t absorb neutrons as well as the hydrogen in light water, but heavy water is way more expensive). Thus, in US reactors uranium has to be enriched by gas centrifuges (which is what iran is doing to get a bomb) or other means. (NOTE: a bomb requires 93+ % U-235; nuclear reactors require 3 to 5%. We know Iran is going for a bomb because they are enriching way beyond 3 to 5%). Now what is left over from the enrichment process is uranium whose U-235 is basically gone (because it has been concentrated elsewhere) and only the U-238 is left. We say this is depleted because the thermal fissile material is depleted. But U-238 could still be used in fast neutron reactors. Furthermore, it has even less radioctivity than U-235. In fact, it has less radioactivity than the bananas you ate this morning which has radioactive potassium in them, and you would get less radiation exposure from being next to a depleted uranium artillery piece than you would from the radium in the concrete and brick that make up Grand Central Station in NYC. Of course uranium dust is a hazard – it’s a heavy metal just like lead. The hazard comes not from its radiation which is miniscule but from its chemistry.
Now more facts on depleted uranium can be obtained here – please go to the nuclear engineers and scientists for the facts, NOT WISE and NIRS:
http://www.nrc.gov/materials/fuel-cycle-fac/ur-deconversion/faq-depleted-ur-decon.html
Please remember that more radioactivity is emitted into the environment by coal-fired power plants in the form of naturally occurring uranium, thorium and radium in the coal (that is burned and becomes ash dumped in ash ponds or released willy-nilly into the air) than by the use of any depleted uranium artillery.
Now the reason why depleted uranium is used in artillery is because it is very, very dense, more so than lead. So that old KE = (1/2) M V^2 law takes effect: more mass, more kinetic energy. Personally, I think that when we are fighting the enemy, we should use the best materials available and that includes depleted uranium. Now should we have wars of foreign adventurism in lands of Islamic fascism for oil when the depleted uranium can be better used as fuel in fast neutron nuclear reactors to generate low cost, cheap, pollution-free electricity? Of course not.
I hope this clarification helps.
I think it is rather uncontroversial to assert that America was basically founded upon the Lockean social contract theory.
The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut antedated the Two Treatises on Government by fifty years.
Jonathan
In 1984, Donald S Lutz published his findings that, in American polemical writings, published between 1760 and 1805, Montesquieu accounts for 8.3%. He is followed closely by Blackstone, with 7.9%. Locke comes in at 2.9%, closely followed by David Hume with 2.7. No one else achieves more than 1.5%.
Moreover, Locke was scarcely cited at all, before 1780, Blackstone seldom before 1770 and Hume very little before 1790. Montesquieu leads in every decade from 1760 and 1800.
Now, Montesquieu’s leading idea, in contrast to Locke, is that different laws and institutions suit different societies; he also attached great importance to situation, race and, especially, climate. In this, he was a far less prescriptive than Locke; the difference, perhaps, between a jurist and a philosopher.
This accords with Paul Zummo’s and Donald M McClarey’s assessment of the Founders’ pragmatism.
Michael,
If I understand you, that is not to say that those writers with later dates couldn’t impact the Constitution (of 1787), but only to say that Montesquieu was more influential?
I have used a list based upon Lutz’s writings, which is here – http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?Itemid=259&id=438&option=com_content&task=view.
I also think that Kirk argues correctly that the Founders had in their minds the rights of Englishmen, combined with a governmental form based upon Montesquieu and ideas he used from the Roman republic.
Jonathan
I imagine the big idea from Montesquieu was the separation of powers
The specific influences of the Framers is an interesting topic but it is on the margins of Bonchamps’ thesis and of marginal value in answering the question posed.
It is my view that Chief Justic John Marshall significntly altered the Constitution, defining it in exclusively Federalist terms rather than acknowledging the widespread and honest disagreement on form and substance of the debate. That is as it may be. We live under a Constitution defined as much by successive Statist courts from FDR’s administration through the first Clinton Administration.
Bonchamps’ post digs deeper to ask what the role of government SHOULD be, not what it has become, and I am in general agreement with his central thesis. Of course, one challenge of the thesis is that it is disconnected from reality by a giant chasm.
Man is generally unwilling to accept collateral damage in the exercise of liberty. This opens a hole through which Statism seeps.
I am willing to accept the proposition that men live with the consequences of their bad behavior. If a child is harmed by it, even without intention, we want laws to prevent the cause. This is a natural reaction and comes from a good impulse. Unfortunately, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Our system of government, in reality rather than theory, is a dance between Statism and Libertarianism; between those who refuse to accept collateral damage and those who believe that collateral damage is inevitable and choose only to alleviate or mitigate he harm caused by their own behavior.
G-Veg
I believe there is a further question.
A society that values equality as well as liberty will be on its guard against the growth of privilege inimical to liberty.
Jefferson was certainly alive to this; it was his motive in introducing into the Virginia legislature his law against entails and primogeniture, which he feared would create a landed aristocracy. He warned against “perpetual monopolies in commerce, the arts or sciences, with a long train of et ceteras,” such as the trade guilds of Europe enjoyed and he was suspicious of corporations with perpetual endowments. Hence, his insistence that the earth belongs always to the living, who cannot be restrained by the actions of the dead and he supported the French in their desire “to change the appropriation of lands given anciently to the church, to hospitals, colleges, orders of chivalry, and otherwise in perpetuity.”
Such concerns will lead men to support a strong central government. As Lord Acton says, “Government must not be arbitrary, but it must be powerful enough to repress arbitrary action in others. If the supreme power is needlessly limited, the secondary powers will run riot and oppress. Its supremacy will bear no check.” The power of the state is necessary to guard the individual from oppression by privileged groups; that is from regulation in an interest not his own.
You articulate your point well MPS and I concede that there may be other justifications for Statism. Are these shared by Americans though? I’m not sure that they are.
Jefferson had an affection for the theoretical underpinnings of the French Revolution that seem fairly unique for his time. I don’t recall reading anywhere that Rousseau’s writings had much currency with the Framers, Federalist or Anti-Federalist. Nor do I recall mention of French revolutionary ideas at the Ratification Debates.
So, while I think you articulate a point we shoul seriously consider in answering Bonchamps’ query, I don’t think it accurate to ascribe it much currency among the founders of our republic.
G-Veg
Franklin, writing in 1736, 26 years before Rousseau’s Social Contract and 53 years before the French Revolution, voices very similar ideas to Rousseau’s on popular sovereignty: “The judgment of a whole people, especially of a free people, is looked upon to be infallible. And this is universally true, while they remain in their proper sphere, unbiassed by faction, undeluded by the tricks of designing men. A body of people thus circumstanced cannot be supposed to judge amiss on any essential points; for if they decide in favour of themselves, which is extremely natural, their decision is just, inasmuch as whatever contributes to their benefit is a general benefit, and advances the real public good.”
Such ideas were the common currency of the age.
“I am not sure that Lockean social contract theory was the basis of America’s founding. ”
I consider the Declaration of Independence to be America’s first document, and it is a Lockean document. I don’t discount the influence of other sources on many other parts and aspects of the United States, but when it came time to philosophically justify what the American rebels were about to do, it was to Lockean principles that they turned.
Of course, there is a difference between who influenced the Declaration and who influenced the Constitution. I never claimed, or would claim, that the Constitution was primarily Lockean. So this isn’t mutually exclusive with the “practical” or “pragmatic” considerations mentioned by Paul and Don.
As for this,
“As I understand it, the terms of the social contract are simply that “Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.””
Those are the terms of social contract theory in general. But the American social contract is very specific in its articulation of the purpose of government, the reason for which the contract exists. We established the government in order to secure our natural rights. We crafted a Bill of Rights later on to reinforce this contract.
“The specific influences of the Framers is an interesting topic but it is on the margins of Bonchamps’ thesis and of marginal value in answering the question posed.”
Thanks for being the one person in probably 5 million who noticed or would even care to say it as if it mattered 🙂
“Our system of government, in reality rather than theory, is a dance between Statism and Libertarianism; between those who refuse to accept collateral damage and those who believe that collateral damage is inevitable and choose only to alleviate or mitigate he harm caused by their own behavior.”
I think you’re correct, G-Veg. The only distinction which I would draw is that the choice to alleviate or mitigate will almost always be the one which impinges least upon the ability to exercise the behavior as freely as possible. If one examines carefully the laws surrounding Religion and Sexuality (a.k.a. Family Law), one sees your idea borne out. It is without doubt that quick and easy divorce is ruinous to our country, yet we choose to employ armies of counselors, lawyers, judges, etc. to pick up the pieces rather than enact laws that make it more difficult to become divorced.
That is fascinating. I am embarrassed to say that I have not read any of Franklin’s writing. Perhaps there is a proviso though? The quote states something that I would not hold to be true. Take Sparta’ norms or Western culture’s abortion on demand theories, for example: how does the principle apply to the dastardly, self serving norms of fallen peoples? Perhaps there is more to the argument.
Perhaps i can coax you into exploing these ideas more fully. Whether the Framers of our constitution accepted Statisn ideas such as were proposed in France in the 1780s or not, the ideas are relevnt o this discussion since Bonchamps is exploing idels, not merely pragmatic realities.
I am curious, for example, how these ideas can be reconciled with the predominant wories of the Framers: tyranny of the few or the many.
G-Veg,
You constantly make excellent “points.”
I recently re-read my freshman Ancient History text chapters on Greece to refresh on the Persian Wars. An interesting factor in Sparta’s political development was that the polis’ council usurped the Spartan/Greek fathers’ traditional discretion to slay, or not slay, infant children. Interesting that we have government sponsordd abortion and soon Obamacare euthanasia/death panels.
Your most recent comment raises the issue of “tyranny of the few or the many.”
Over the years (I have a six in front of my age), I have seen the liberals (perennial bed-wetters and eternal whiners), call it “dictatorship of the majority” whenever their plots were legislatively dismissed.
Whenever I heard/read that pabululm, these words: “consent of the governed” would fly around inside my cranium.
Two thing: The Framers specifically denied the government the authority to impose taxes on citizens’ income or property; and they never intended the government to have power to take property from some citizens and transfer it to other citizens to buy political power.
“Consent of the governed” and as St. Augustine wrote, “Government without justice is organized brigandage.” We have duly elected “organized brigandage.”
The Framers specifically denied the government the authority to impose taxes on citizens’ income or property; and they never intended the government to have power to take property from some citizens and transfer it to other citizens to buy political power.
The federal government was debarred from levying direct taxes unless such taxes were apportioned among the states. State governments retained a power to tax as specified in each state constitution. The 16th Amendment extended the power to levy taxes on the income of individual households.
G-Veg
Franklin, writing in 1736, was not considering a Federal constitution, but the government of a state.
Under any system of government, sovereignty must be lodged somewhere, by which I mean the power to make and unmake all laws whatsoever.
In an interview with the Catholic News Service (June 14, 1996) Scalia J explained, “The whole theory of democracy, my dear fellow, is that the majority rules, that is the whole theory of it. You protect minorities only because the majority determines that there are certain minorities or certain minority positions that deserve protection. Thus in the United States Constitution we have removed from the majoritarian system of democracy the freedom of speech, the freedom of religion, and a few other freedoms that are named in the Bill of Rights. The whole purpose of that is that the people themselves, that is to say the majority, agree to the rights of the minority on those subjects — but not on other subjects. If you want minority rights on other subjects, you must persuade the majority that you desire those minority rights. Or else you take up arms and conquer the majority. I mean you may always do that, of course.”
The ultimate guarantee of freedom is that the laws are made by those who are to obey them; that they are the same for all, whether they protect of punish and, thus, no one can restrict the freedom ofothers, without restricting his own to the same degree. This was well known to the Greeks, who spoke of ???????? [Isonomia = Equal law]
I think I better understand your point. How do we reconcile it with Natural Law?
Abortion on Demand is a good vehicle for exploring this point, to my mind, because, in much of Europe, it is generally accepted as rightly and properly an individual concern, beyond the powers of the State to regulate; hence my Spartan reference eariier. Now, as a Christian, I know, with absolute certainty, that murdering children is inherently evil. In order for a law to be morally and ethically valid, it cannot directly contradict Natural Law.
So, is your point merely a practical one: that a minority, however righteous, has no power to make the majority do the Good? If so, it is an obvious point and I concede it unequivocally. However, if you are tying ethical and moral laws to majoritarianism, I am afraid you will have to explain yourself more fully since I am do not see the connection.
You have it wrong. Drugs are illegal because the people, through their governmental representatives, have said that they need to prevent those who use drugs from , in many ways, harming themselves and others. Now..some doper may ruin his life and never cost society anything (like whenTHE USER needs help in government-provided services like rehab and counselling-which cost you and me!). But often he hurts his family or co-workers or the public, and causes certian problems for which certain action is needed. You talk about this problem in a way that totally misconstruees the REASON drugs are illegal. It is NOT about what the user does to himself. I don’t want druggies free to use in public or without some criminal sanction.
How much government do you want to eliminate? Should we eliminate the following?
1. laws prohibiting prostitution?
2. any governmental agency that examines and protects the manufacture and distribution of food we eat and legal drugs ? Should ANYONE be able to make and package meat and then sell it without inspection?
3. laws that require testing of people before they get a license to drive?
4. allow doctors to practice medicine without a license?
5. legalize heroin?….meth??..
6. should I be able to demand,” I want 3 oxycontin a day and not the amount that the doctor says he can legally give me?” I mean…my” freedom” to reduce my pain should allow me to do that??
I love “liberty,””freedom,” and I like to use those words to make whatever I am discussing more palatable, but Mr Catholic, people who don’t use drugs, it has been proven, need some civil protection, from many, many dopers who decide to violate the laws and do things known by everyone from publicized stories from the last 40 years. Dopers do things that harm NOT ONLY themdelves, but others….just like the person who is not tested and licensed to drive. Why shouldn’t I be able to mary without a governmentally-required marriage license??
I would never vote for Rand Paul….unless he ran against this Catholic-hating doofus we have as President now….
G-Veg
The contradiction at the heart of liberalism lies in its simultaneous assertion of popular sovereignty and universal human rights. In the brief interlude between the absolutist state of the Ancien Régime and modern mass democracies, this was achieved by the separation of the public sphere of state activity and the private sphere of civil society. The state provided a legally codified order within which social customs, economic competition, religious beliefs, and so on, could be pursued without interference.
But, when the social consensus on which the distinction rested breaks down, as it did with the rise of organised labour and of mass political parties, liberalism has no way of defining or defending the boundaries of this sphere; everything becomes potentially political.
Rousseau saw this very well. “Each man alienates, I admit, by the social compact, only such part of his powers, goods and liberty as it is important for the community to control; but it must also be granted that the Sovereign is sole judge of what is important,” for “ if the individuals retained certain rights, as there would be no common superior to decide between them and the public, each, being on one point his own judge, would ask to be so on all; the state of nature would thus continue, and the association would necessarily become inoperative or tyrannical.”
His solution is well known: “whoever refuses to obey the general will shall be compelled to do so by the whole body. This means nothing less than that he will be forced to be free; [« ce qui ne signifie autre chose sinon qu’on le forcera d’être libre »] for this is the condition which, by giving each citizen to his country, secures him against all personal dependence.”
[…] The Origins and Role of Government – Bonchamps, American Catholic […]
Don Curry,
“Drugs are illegal because the people, through their governmental representatives, have said that they need to prevent those who use drugs from , in many ways, harming themselves and others.”
I don’t remember voting on a federal law prohibiting marijuana. I do recall two states, just recently in the last electing, voting to legalize it directly through ballot initiatives.
Anyone who votes for the use for force to save me from my own decisions is a moral fraud and my enemy. Protecting society is a different matter. On THAT point alcohol and pot are on the same level. Oh yes, the “long term effects” may differ, but to consider those isn’t to protect society, but rather to engage in social engineering, which is not a legitimate role of the state. Protecting society really means protecting the lives, liberties and property of its members, to which marijuana poses no greater threat (and considerably less of a threat in my experience) than alcohol.
“Now..some doper may ruin his life and never cost society anything (like whenTHE USER needs help in government-provided services like rehab and counselling-which cost you and me!)”
This isn’t a compelling argument, since I oppose those government-provided services as well. That’s what private charity is for. I’m all for you and I never paying another cent into such programs and letting churches and other groups deal with it. AA is pretty much a private religious group, as far as I can tell.
“But often he hurts his family or co-workers or the public, and causes certian problems for which certain action is needed. ”
So let his family and co-workers deal with him. The family can kick him out on his behind. His boss can fire him. As for the public, then yes, “certain action” is needed. There are plenty of people who use marijuana (and other drugs, I might add), in such ways that they never pose a threat to the public, and therefore they shouldn’t be punished at all for what they do in private.
I don’t believe in pre-crime. I don’t believe in punishing people because they ingest a substance that MIGHT make them a threat to the public. If I believed that, I would have to be for the total prohibition of alcohol, because it has destroyed far more lives, cost far more jobs, and caused far more public damage and violence than marijuana ever has.
The punishments of a free society – the loss of family, income, home, friends, respect – are severe enough for people who abuse drugs.
“You talk about this problem in a way that totally misconstruees the REASON drugs are illegal. It is NOT about what the user does to himself. ”
Really? Because you JUST mentioned people who are “harming themselves” in this very comment. Why did you do that? In any case, I have clearly addressed and acknowledged the other reasons as well. I don’t find them compelling, except in the case of drugs that have no other purpose than addiction, such as crack and meth. Those drugs we can and should eliminate as a public menace though I don’t think the users should be thrown in prison for possession (just destroy the dealers and their unholy laboratories).
Now, this will be fun. How much gov’t should we eliminate? Let’s see.
“1. laws prohibiting prostitution?”
Yes. All of them. Just like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas advised. Nature and organic society punish sexual abusers enough already. Human law doesn’t need to add to it.
However, and I’ll repeat this for almost every point on the list, this is under our Constitution a state and local issue, and that I don’t object to states and cities prohibiting it if that’s what they want, as long as people are free to live in a state or a city that decides to allow it.
“2. any governmental agency that examines and protects the manufacture and distribution of food we eat and legal drugs ? Should ANYONE be able to make and package meat and then sell it without inspection?”
Get rid of them all. People who sell bad drugs and bad meats will find themselves without customers. Consumers are capable of making their own choices and establishing their own rating agencies to spread information about products. Companies that avoid this voluntary process will find themselves with fewer customers than those that voluntarily submit to it.
No producer who wants to be successful sells poison and packages it as something healthy unless he’s getting government subsidies. If you sell bad drugs and bad meat on the streets, there are much more efficient ways of meeting out justice. Without governments to force people to buy your products or subsidize your loses, you have no choice but to compete for profits the old fashioned way – by actually giving people what they want on a consistent basis.
Finally, in spite of all of our wonderful and efficient regulations, tens of thousands of people still manage to die each year due to drug and food complications. It couldn’t have ANYTHING to do with the fact that there is a revolving door between the FDA and the corporate world, though right? The fact is that every time you establish some regulatory agency, all you are really doing is establishing an entity that the largest players in those markets can purchase and staff with their own people to crush the competition, keep new competitors from entering the market, and give legal sanction to defective goods and services. That is exactly what has happened with the US regulatory apparatus. We would all be better off without it.
“3. laws that require testing of people before they get a license to drive?”
That’s a state issue. I would oppose federal meddling in the issue, and I don’t rule out the possibility of private/free alternatives, but its really not very high on my priority list. Stopping midnight SWAT raids that resemble the tactics of the NKVD or Gestapo, drone strikes on innocent families across the ocean, and the destruction of religious liberty in the United States rate a little higher.
“4. allow doctors to practice medicine without a license?”
I don’t think governments need to be involved here either.A doctor whose practices cause harm to people won’t be in business very long. If the harm is unintentional, he can be sued in court, and if it is intentional, then he can and should be arrested and prosecuted for whatever harm he did. I don’t see why we need an army of bureaucrats who inspect things to be involved in this process.
On the other hand, there are people who want to practice alternative medicine whom the official licensing establishment would never grant a license to, for whatever reasons. People ought to be free to explore alternatives at their own risk, though. That’s what being a grown up is all about.
“5. legalize heroin?….meth??..”
Decriminalize possession in amounts clearly intended for personal use. Perhaps some kind of rehab can be mandated for repeat offenders. I’m all for aggressively going after meth labs and drug cartels, though.
“6. should I be able to demand,” I want 3 oxycontin a day and not the amount that the doctor says he can legally give me?” I mean…my” freedom” to reduce my pain should allow me to do that??”
Well, you are free to hurt yourself if that is what you are asking. But the doctor is also free to say “no.” So no, I don’t think we need a bureaucrat deciding how many pills a person can take.
“do things known by everyone from publicized stories from the last 40 years”
What sort of things did they do when all these drugs were perfectly legal? And why haven’t all of these laws stopped all of these people from doing all of these terrible things?
I’m for the protection of people’s rights from would-be violators, including drug users. I am opposed to laws that serve virtually no other purpose but to punish people for indulging in a substance that may or may not cause them to do something else. Moderate users who don’t violate other people’s rights should not be punished along with violent addicts. That’s not justice, it’s coercive Puritanism.
Anyone who votes for the use for force to save me from my own decisions is a moral fraud and my enemy.
Curious as to how you’d vote if abortion were ever on the ballot.
For that matter, what about legislation regarding rape, murder, arson and all other “decisions” you may make?
Now I know that you will retort that these are all actions that are much more serious than marijuana use, and you would be correct. Of course then you would be making a distinction – almost saying something akin to “No, that’s different,” which as we learned the other day would be hypocritical.
“I am opposed to laws that serve virtually no other purpose but to punish people for indulging in a substance that may or may not cause them to do something else.”
Has the writer used drugs, and if yes, then is he being being honest about the effect that the use of mind-altering substances has on his behavior? The question is rhetorical. I have the answer for myself. I did, and I became a lying, thieving, conniving reprobate deserving of incarceration, or worse. I have known of no exceptions, though I suppose there may be a few here and there.
I have often wondered how one can be so very brilliant in some areas, so miss the mark in other areas, and be completely (some would say even pridefully) unwilling to countenance a possible error in judgement. No offense intended. I simply know from first hand experience what drugs do.
“But what if the consumers are mistaken with regard to their own interests? Obviously, they sometimes are. But several more points must be made. In the first place, every individual knows the data of his own inner self best—by the very fact that each has a separate mind and ego. Secondly, the individual, if in doubt about what his own true interests are, is free to hire and consult experts to give him advice based on their superior knowledge. The individual hires these experts and, on the market, can continuously test their helpfulness. Individuals on the market, in short, tend to patronize those experts whose advice proves most successful. Good doctors or lawyers reap rewards on the free market, while poor ones fail. But when government intervenes, the government expert acquires his revenue by compulsory levy. There is no market test of his success in teaching people their true interests. The only test is his success in acquiring the political support of the State’s machinery of coercion.” — Murray Rothbard
Paul,
I’m really surprised that you would ask me such questions. Have you never read my posts? Is this the first thing of mine you’ve read?
“Curious as to how you’d vote if abortion were ever on the ballot.”
Against it, every time, because it is legalized murder. My guidepost isn’t “freedom to do as I please”, but rather natural rights to life, liberty and property. Abortion violates the right to life.
“For that matter, what about legislation regarding rape, murder, arson and all other “decisions” you may make?”
Seeing as how I clearly specified laws that would save me from my own decisions, I’m not sure how much sense laws against raping, murdering and setting myself on fire would make, but I would probably end up opposing them.
Laws that protect people’s natural rights from the decisions made by others to violate those rights, I’m fine with, and have never suggested otherwise.
“Now I know that you will retort that these are all actions that are much more serious than marijuana use, and you would be correct.”
More serious? No. All of those actions involve one person doing harm to another person. What I specifically mentioned were laws that would protect me from myself. Apples and oranges.
“Of course then you would be making a distinction – almost saying something akin to “No, that’s different,” which as we learned the other day would be hypocritical.”
And now you’re going to hold me to what someone ELSE alleged?
Really?
Unrealistic expectations about how the individual is going to be responsible. When the individual screws up, it is the victim of his drug use who suffers and the govermnent who pays…since the family has kicked the doper out, and he has no more money because he has sucked it into his nose.Yes freedom!!…liberty !! womnan’s freedom…woman’s liberty.. and so I guess you are for abortion rights. As a Catholic, you must have alot to explain. ..and by the way…why do you think they call it “dope?”
Bonchamps,
Just trying to follow the logic of your absolutism, is all. I am not sure that your explanation really distinguishes drug laws from the other matters sufficiently, but unfortunately I’m not going to have time to pursue the matter for now. But your pro-life bona fides are unquestioned – again, I was just pointing out the difficulties with that statement.
Paul P,
I’ve often wondered how someone who claims to be a Christian and usually displays Christian behavior can, in some instances, be so uncharitable and unreasonable.
“Has the writer used drugs, and if yes, then is he being being honest about the effect that the use of mind-altering substances has on his behavior?”
Not that it matters, but yes I have, and yes I am. I did far more damage to myself, others, and society when I was drunk than I ever did when I was stoned. I would say the same without hesitation regarding everyone I knew who used in both substances.
But who cares? Why do you relate everything back to the way YOU were? Why in heaven’s name would you conflate justice with whatever would have served to stop YOU from being an anti-social marauder? There are plenty of people who use marijuana in moderation. It is wrong to punish them for doing so.
The only thing they half-rght (for the wrong reasons) is opposition to the Fed. Bank of England’s Andy Haldane, “. . . the crisis started by the banks was as damaging as a “world war.” It will be central bank policies’ fault that the world will long-term suffer in abysmal economic growth and raging unemployment.
And, becuz on the list of evils that are destroying America weed is just above “Don’t shoot bigfoot or the aliens will become enraged!”
Paul Z,
“Just trying to follow the logic of your absolutism, is all.”
Having principles is now “absolutism”? Are you going to look at my defense of natural rights the way secularists look at your acceptance of Catholic dogmas?
“I am not sure that your explanation really distinguishes drug laws from the other matters sufficiently,”
The distinction is simply between what I said – laws that would save me from my own decisions – and what you proposed, laws against things that people do to each other.
When talking about legalizing marijuana, we need to get the facts from reputable medical sources (e.g., the National Institute of Health, the Center for Disease Control, or the US Surgeon General) just as when we are talking about new nuclear power plants or Fukushima Daiichi we need to get the facts from reputable engineering sources (e.g., the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the US Nuclear Energy Institute, or the International Atomic Energy Agency). The following web sites provide information that indicates that the use of marijuana is hardly harmless or relegated to impacting only the user (which of course confirms my own personal experience):
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001143.htm
https://www.ncjrs.gov/ondcppubs/publications/pdf/marijuana_myths_facts.pdf
Don C,
“Unrealistic expectations about how the individual is going to be responsible.”
I don’t know what you mean. One way or another, a free society imposes costs upon people who abuse themselves and others. If an individual doesn’t take responsibility, society will deprive him of more and more things until he either straightens up or dies in a gutter.
“When the individual screws up, it is the victim of his drug use who suffers and the govermnent who pays…”
How many times do I have to say it? I don’t want the government to pay for anything in this regard. It isn’t like that is necessary. It is a policy. It doesn’t have to exist.
“since the family has kicked the doper out, and he has no more money because he has sucked it into his nose.Yes freedom!!…liberty !!”
Yes, that’s what it means. That’s where you can end up. That’s what it means to have a soul – the possibility of choosing evil and spending eternity in hell. Do you curse God for your free will as well?
“womnan’s freedom…woman’s liberty.. and so I guess you are for abortion rights.”
You guess wrong. Abortion is murder.
I don’t believe in libertinism. I believe in natural law. And I believe nature and free society impose sufficient penalties for most bad behavior, and that the involvement of the state is morally unjustifiable and practically unnecessary.
“As a Catholic, you must have alot to explain. ..and by the way…why do you think they call it “dope?””
I never said it was good. I just don’t think the state should be involved. But I guess that’s just beyond some of you.
“Not that it matters, but yes I have, and yes I am.”
Someone who is using marijuana should stop driving or otherwise using heavy machinery until one month after ceasing the use of marijuana since the THC molecule remains in the myelin sheath of the neurons for up to a month after the last use of marijuana and can precipitate out, resulting in an unintentional state of intoxication at any time. People who are currently using it are a danger to themselves and otehrs.
Paul P,
“The following web sites provide information that indicates that the use of marijuana is hardly harmless or relegated to impacting only the user (which of course confirms my own personal experience)”
I never said it was harmless. I believe people should be free to harm themselves, within the limits of other people’s rights. That’s why we are free to smoke cigarettes, eat triple cheeseburgers, and consume alcohol by the gallons. I maintain that marijuana does not pose a greater immediate risk to the lives, liberties and property of others than these substances, and in many cases, considerably less of a threat.
There’s a lot of hypocrisy here, and a lot of absurdity. Rail against marijuana all day. I don’t like the stuff and I don’t smoke it. I don’t even like being around people who smoke it. But I will always oppose state involvement in what is clearly a private matter.
Paul P,
To be clear – I smoked it back in high school. That was over a decade ago.
I mean, heck, I only drink alcohol a few times a year.
I told you before, I’m addicted to stimulants. Starbucks is my drug dealer. Triple lattes.
Bonchamps, thanks for the clarification. In my line of work, I would be relieved of duty immediately if marijuana were detected in my blood, however minute the quantity. And you would want me relieved of duty.
I am glad you stopped using, as did I. Sadly, I required the baseball bat of the Lord’s grace aisde the head to get me to stop. As for alcohol, it’s not like marijuana and in moderation is harmless while for me it is a poison. But that’s different.
No, I don’t like the war on drugs and I think the solution is the 12 Steps. But society has to protect itself from the scourge of drug use. So I disagree with your supposition that private use of marijuana harms no one except the user. That’s not true because the behavior it causes almost always harms others. And comparing that to alcohol is like comparing apples and oranges.
” That’s not true because the behavior it causes almost always harms others.”
No it doesn’t. The behavior it causes is usually sitting around talking about nonsense, watching nonsense on the television and stuffing your face.
Alcohol, on the other hand, causes people to get loud, obnoxious, sexually promiscuous and physically violent.
Darn, I am not going to win this argument. Oh well! As long as there are no reactor operators at the panel using marijuana, or airplane pilots, or surgeons, or train engineers, or navigators of LNG or petroleum tankers, or any of a host of other occupations affecting public health and safety.
Having principles is now “absolutism”?
Sigh. Just forget it.
“Alcohol, on the other hand, causes people to get loud, obnoxious, sexually promiscuous and physically violent.”
That may be (in part) a societal reaction – see here, for instance: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1048596839.html or here: http://www.sirc.org/publik/drinking4.html.
At any rate, congratulations, Bonchamps – this blog post has produced the most diverse (verbose) reactions I have seen to any post on this site in a great while.
Paul Z,
You’re sighing at me – after using the word “absolutism” to describe my positions?
Was it supposed to be a perfectly neutral and objective description? If so, I’m really sorry for having assumed the negative connotation that almost is almost always associated with the word in modern political and philosophical discussions.
Of course, you’re just heaping insult on top of insult by sighing, rolling your eyes like a bored teenager, and assuming I’m just so hard-headed and fanatical that I can’t possibly be reasonably engaged. I’d love nothing more, absolutely nothing more, than to have a frank, open, honest and deep debate about all of these issues and I apologize if I unfairly or unnecessarily associated your word choice with ill-intent.
Alcohol, on the other hand, causes people to get loud, obnoxious, sexually promiscuous and physically violent.
No, people are inclined to be loud, obnoxious, sexually promiscuous, or physically violent; alcohol lowers inhibitions. It is quite unremarkable to imbibe quite a bit over one’s lifetime and imbibe to intoxication and be none of these things.
Bonchamps, With respect to all, you aren’t tinkering at the edge of government an everyone else is. Therein lies the problem.
Unless I am greatly mistaken, you aren’t asking how to change the existing laws and government to allow particular principles to operate. You are proposing a Libertarian answer to the question “what is the origin and role of government?” and inviting us to offer an alternative view. If I have that right, MPS is the only one to have done so and his championing of Statism as the indispensible instrument of freedom through majoritarianism seems to me to be the polar opposite of your proposition.
I have nothing so clever to say as either of you and, so, am egging you on from the outside of the ring. I should very much like to see a back and forth between ye.
Bonchamps…Terrific, just terrific. Your clear, concise, direct responses to the “arguments” of Paul P., Paul Z., Don C. in this comments section have been a real pleasure to read.
Your defense of the natural law and the principle of non-aggression is heartening and sorely needed among my fellow Catholics. I check this blog for your posts often and then look forward to the comments following them.
I have to think that your response to Don C. @ 3:57pm would cause any thinking person to sit back and at least begin to question their position on these issues.
Well done! Please keep it up.