Good Intentions + Politics = Evil Crap

“Wouldn’t it be great if we could help the homeless?”
“Wouldn’t it be great if employers paid people more?”
“Wouldn’t it be great if people didn’t use dangerous drugs?”
“Wouldn’t it be great if criminals always got caught?”
“Wouldn’t it be great if school was free?”
“Wouldn’t it be great if bad guys didn’t have weapons?”

Too many people still imagine “government” to be a combination of Santa Claus and a magic fairy. They think of an outcome they want, whether it’s free presents or people behaving differently, and then they beg government to make their dreams come true, completely oblivious to government’s horrendous track record of being helpful, and completely oblivious to exactly how those in power go about addressing such problems.

Politicians don’t have a magic button that makes wealth appear. They don’t have a magic button that makes bad people incapable of harming others. What they do have is a bunch of armed thugs who are willing to forcibly control others. Government does not create any wealth or resources. It can only rearrange wealth via taxation, and forcibly limit people’s choices via legislation. That is all it can do, and all it ever does, despite the mushy, dishonest rhetoric that politicians always use. In short, all government ever really adds to society is threats (“laws”) and violence (“law enforcement”). Therefore, unless you look at some problem and think, “What this situation really needs is a lot more widespread violence,” then looking for a government solution is a really bad idea.

Many people not only fail to understand this truth, but they actively resist being show it by others. If you oppose the giant coercive welfare state, the political left will declare that you must hate poor people. If you oppose the fascist “war on drugs,” the political right will declare that you want everyone to be a crack addict. Most of the time, neither can honestly consider the possibility that you don’t mind their desired outcomes (e.g., fewer poor people, fewer drug addicts), but that you do mind using mass authoritarian violence to try to achieve those outcomes. The disconnect in people’s minds, and the psychological denial that goes along with it, is so strong that the average statist will actively try to avoid answering uncomfortable questions that expose what he is really advocating. For example, if an advocate of state welfare were honest, you might hear a discussion like this:

A: “I want government to help the poor.”
B: “Where would it get the money?”
A: “Through taxation.”
B: “What happens to anyone who doesn’t pay up?”
A: “He is harassed, threatened, and eventually caged.”
B: “You want widespread forced extortion to fund ‘charity’?”
A: “Yes.”

Instead, advocates of government solutions constantly use vague euphemisms and pleasant-sounding but inaccurate rhetoric to hide what it is they are actually condoning.

A: “I want government to help the poor.”
B: “Where would it get the money?”
A: “From people who are asked to pay their fair share.”
B: “Asked? What if they are ‘asked,’ and they say no?”
A: “Then there will be consequences.”
B: “What consequences?”
A: “It’s against the law to not pay taxes.”
B: “And what do you think should happen to those people?”
A: “They are greedy criminals who should be punished.”
B: “Greedy for not wanting to be robbed? Punished how?”
A: “Through the legal process.”
B: “You mean prosecuting them—trying to cage them?”
A: “It’s their fault. If they just complied, they would be fine.”
B: “You want people caged for not funding what you want?”
A: “That’s the system we have! If you don’t like it, leave!”

And so on.

Because most people have been taught to believe that “legal” violence and robbery is legitimate and acceptable, and have been taught to believe that voting to have your neighbors robbed and controlled is perfectly moral, they—the political left and right—tend to use terminology that hides the reality of the situation. What makes the belief in political “authority” truly insidious and destructive is that it dupes many millions of otherwise decent people into unwittingly advocating oppression.

To be pro-government is to be pro-violence. To be anti-violence requires being anti-government. And despite what most of us have been led to believe, you deserve neither credit nor respect for trying to achieve noble goals by way of violent aggression, which is all that political action and legislation ever are. Look up the speeches of any tyrant in history and you will see that every one cited noble motives and good intentions as the reasons for his authoritarian agenda. You cannot improve the world by adding more violence to it, so government is never the solution. However noble your goals may be, trying to achieve them by way of government action immediately makes you an enemy of peace, freedom and justice.