The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
― Alexis de Tocqueville

oops, too late.

While the trend on Steemit is towards an ancap worldview, I am a contrarian.

Not only am I a minarchist (a Constitutionalist, towards American government specifically), but I also tend to hold the view that Hobbes was right in Leviathan, that there should be a overwhelming amount of force used to protect liberty.

Quite frankly, as long as you can keep your damn dirty ape hands off other people and their property, then you should be left the eff alone.

However...

...because humans, IMO, consist of a plurality (if not a majority) of some combination of cowards, idiots, liars, and leeches, it is a pipe dream to suggest that if we all hold hands and sing cumbiya, we will usher in a new age of peace and prosperity.

Yes, yes...I know that if we just got rid of (...the Deep State, the Jews, the rich, the government, the poor, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, the corporations, that short-fat-obnoxious Steve...roll your own...), then NOBODY ELSE would be evil and selfish.

Oh wait...not only do I not know that, I see history has an entirely different take on the problem. But I need to be very clear that several of these groups, or sub-sets wherein, are evil back-stabbing bastards indeed.

We run into two problems here:

• A certain percentage of humanity are psychopaths; they will always seek to rule or to steal
• A certain percentage of humanity will always seek to be led...What, me be responsible for my own actions? Fuck that! I just want some UBI and to smoke weed! Someone else should set that up and finance it!

And there are two...additions... to these problems:

• Going back to my earlier statement about the plurality of man (morons, cowards, and leeches, oh my!), we can see how goddamn gullible mankind is, and how easily people allow themselves to be misled. You can go back to The Prisoner contest we ran for informationwar to see that.
• The idea that government is a necessary evil. This idea is wrong on all counts
  1-ANY arrangement under which men live together is a form of government. To claim otherwise is just to play at semantics.
  2-Government is created by and ran by people, with all their own flaws. Increasing levels of power bring out the problems integral to man's nature. "Governments" do not plot murder and thievery...the people running that government do.
  3-A better view is that Government is a dangerous tool...just like all dangerous tools, they require man to PAY THE FUCK ATTENTION WHILE USING THEM

@richq11, if you're around and remember the discussion about formalized government arising from banditry, please chime in with the source if you can!

Just for shits and giggles, let's pretend that we magically get rid of evil evil government...if the bad people that used to use government to steal no longer have that tool, I want to point out that the bad people will simply revert back to banditry.

So we run into a paradox with more than two components here

• You can't be free under liberty if you are constantly beset by bandits
• You can't enjoy liberty under a government led by psychos and thieves
• Morons and leeches will always use their vote to elect thieves, liars, and narcissists who promise them "gimmes"; cowards will refuse to confront that
• Under such systems (idiocracy + kakistocracy), voting competitions will become kabuki theatre
• I don't expect little kids, old ladies, retards, knocked up chicks, chicks in general, and cowards to be able to defend themselves, period. One of the reasons we group up is to provide protection to our friends and neighbors that can not do it themselves.

Remember, the protection of liberty for man to run his own affairs is one of the VERY FEW legitimate purposes of government

Looking at our paradox above though, we run into some big problems...

• Voting is force...period. And while I don't agree with the view that taxation is theft, I certainly understand the very legitimate argumentation supporting that view.
  Digression -Does the taxation support liberty or not? Can we let folks opt in or out of taxes, and simply withhold government service for those that choose to opt out?
• Why does a welfare leech have the same vote as a productive citizen? Why do we allow the takers to outvote the makers, when we know what the end result of that situation is?
• Why do we allow people that are openly hostile to our liberties (ahem, leftists) make decisions regarding our liberty?

What is the solution? Meritocracy

People should only vote when they are able to do so in support of liberty...when they understand it, when they understand the history of humanity, and when they are personally willing to pay the price to maintain it.

The idea that liars, cowards, leeches, and dumbfucks should not be allowed to vote should be obvious...as long as we understand that voting should not be used to strip these people of their right to fuck up on their own accord.

Rule of law is designed to accomplish that, but rule of law is easily corrupted by a corrupt people.

So to fix the problem, we should set up some requirements that keep the Takers from outvoting or subverting the liberty of the Makers.

Before I start my list, I will point out there there are issues with my criteria. I will attempt to resolve those issues in my next post.

The requirements for holding office or voting:

• Military Service
• An IQ above the mean
• A taxpayer
• To pass a competency test which shows the citizen understands liberty, rule of law, cause and effect, logic, and capitalism. The citizen does not have to agree with the common ideas, but absolutely must understand them
• A history which demonstrates self-control: weight within certain limits, no felony arrests, no DUIs.

I'll point out that I would not be able to vote under these rules.

A last thought, while you digest these ideas and start picking at them...which you should

When the taste for physical gratifications among them has grown more rapidly than their education . . . the time will come when men are carried away and lose all self-restraint . . . . It is not necessary to do violence to such a people in order to strip them of the rights they enjoy; they themselves willingly loosen their hold. . . . they neglect their chief business which is to remain their own masters.
― Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America Volume 2