Jacob Halbrooks' Columns
An Anarchist's Reaction to Saddam's Capture
"Saddam was not the problem with Iraqi government. The problem with Iraqi government was the same problem with all governments everywhere: people believe in them. As long as there are people willing to use force on their fellow man and others to recognize such force as legitimate, it does not much matter who the exact people at the top are. There will always be Bushes and Saddams." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
Non-Coercive Justice and Simple Punishment
Recommended "I hope to show here that not only is Rothbard’s analysis grossly incorrect, but that no rational punishment theory can ever be proven a priori. My analysis will end with an investigation of how a perfectly libertarian justice system could work without even trying to answer this unsolvable problem." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
"Nowhere
else in the country do you have more direct access to the tyranny that is local
government. Have a plan to raise
your neighbor’s property taxes? Want
to force out a few unsightly businesses on the other side of town?
Want to zone all existing forestland so that no one can develop it?
Easy. Just 'move' it at your
next friendly town meeting. There is
sure to be at least one other busy-body to second the motion, and then it will
be put up to a vote with the other 12 people there.
Voila! Democracy in action.
Ain’t this country great?" Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
A Nation of Armchair Dictators
"Democracy
is the insidious lie that tells the common man: your opinion matters.
Your opinion is the difference in whether the government steals
from Peter or Paul. Your
opinion is the difference between war with Iraq and war with Iran.
Democracy produces a nation of dictators, each shouting his
opinion at the television, directing armies and tax collectors from the
armchair." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
The Nature of Humanity and Rights
"There exists no rationalization that can justify government. There is no justification ever for one human being using another human being as a natural resource. Your right to act exists no matter how much property you justly acquire or how many people vote to take control of your life. When the government does infringe upon your right to act, its criminality does not derive from any social contract or utilitarian concerns. It derives from the fact that it has violated your intrinsic nature as a human being." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
"Most people who consider themselves libertarians do not extend the non-aggression principle to its ultimate logical end, anarchy. Most libertarians, in fact, consider themselves Constitutionalists and can be spotted from time to time waving around those CATO Institute pocket-sized editions. These libertarians have one last remnant of statism to work out, one last demon of collectivism that must be exorcised before they can take the final plunge to being anarchists. This last belief is that a government is needed to provide and enforce law." Another excellent column by Jacob Halbrooks.
Fundamentals of Liberty: Government, Market and Civilization
The outstanding Part 2 of Jacob Halbrooks' "Fundamentals of Liberty." If you know someone who doesn't get it, send this to them and they will!
Fundamentals of Liberty: Law and Liberty in America
"...no
government can completely be based upon voluntary cooperation, because the
Constitution is not a true contract. It
was ratified by a vote, thus contradicting its own statement of being based upon
a voluntary union, since there were many people who did not wish to live under
it. With this beginning, it was only
a matter of time before the logic of its ratification was applied to other
areas. If only votes were necessary
for its ratification, then only votes were necessary to decide whether the
government should build railroads in the West or war with
"The problem is that liberty is not something that Michael Cloud keeps in his basement. There is no 'Freedom Store,' with Libertarians behind the counter dishing out a little gun rights here and some tax cuts there. When LP candidates write direct mail sales letters for their 'high-profile' campaigns, they are only serving to do two things. One, part money from gullible libertarians who think that anyone who calls himself a Libertarian can be trusted without question, and two, anger people who believed the sales pitch." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
"The Constitution is a piece of paper; it does not legitimize aggression, nor is it any more relevant what it says about my rights than the back of a napkin I find in the trash." Another excellent column by Jacob Halbrooks.
What If Hitler Had Never Been Born?
"When people say, "Hitler killed six million Jews" they are placing the blame entirely on a single individual. But what of the millions of Germans who actually did pull the trigger on Jews? What of the millions of Germans who called the Gestapo to report their neighbors? What of the millions of Germans who used the electoral process to secure themselves a national socialist police state? The Holocaust indeed resulted from much more than the actions of one man; it was the combined result of millions of people who directly or indirectly used the state to aggress upon, enslave, and kill others. Hitler was not the root of the problem. He was merely the symptom of a larger disease inflicting a great many of people. That disease was statism." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
"In truth, the state is the biggest illusion, the most masterful feat of trickery, that has ever happened. Imagine that you were raised in a parallel universe with no such thing as government as we know it, and you observed our society. How ridiculous would it look? Half the people in the country pull various levers on a certain day, and based on this, a few hundred people are chosen that enforce their arbitrary wills on everyone else with the threat of violence. I imagine watching this from space is like watching "Evil Dead" over and over again; you know the cabin's a bad idea, everyone knows it is, so just turn around." An excellent column by Jacob Halbrooks.
One of the best columns I've ever read about inflation, by Jacob Halbrooks.
The Rise of the State and the Decline of Coins
An outstanding column by Jacob Halbrooks. Remember: when they start putting living politicians on coins, it's time to head for the hills.
Economics in One One-Hundredth of a Lesson
Jacob Halbrooks explains why graphs and mathematical formulas can't be applied to human action.
The Resignation of Jacob Halbrooks
He's
had enough of the social contract, and now wants to divest his share of
public property.
"But the most important distinction is not by what process a few men come into the power of government, but the means by which government power is legitimized and upheld." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
"Libertarianism is the only system that allows every individual to seek his own arbitrary desired ends while forbidding only those actions that forcefully interfere with others' such ends." Column by Jacob Halbrooks.
A brilliant column by Jacob Halbrooks. Now that schoolchildren are not allowed to maintain a blacklist, they no longer have a powerful but nonviolent tool to deter aggressors, which makes it more likely that they will be picked on and will have to retaliate against aggressors using violent means.
Government and the Cycle of Violence
An excellent column by new Root Striker Jacob Halbrooks.