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Indirect Democide
Democide: murder by government
Professor Rudolph Rummel of the University of Hawaii has spent decades researching democide. The number he came up with is staggering: 262 million people murdered by governments during the 20th century. As unfathomable as that number is, it’s an understatement.
First, it doesn’t include soldiers killed during war, but most of those people would not have died without state aggression. Many were conscripted. The rest were propagandized. Second, the list only covers direct murder, through guns, bombs and starvation, but coercion always has bad consequences and everything the government does is coercive.
When the government people aren’t drone-bombing wedding parties and throwing peaceful people in cages by the millions, the result of their coercion is still death and suffering. I wanted to look at some of the less obvious, but still lethal, ways government kills. This list is nowhere near complete, and I plan on updating it in the going forward, so if you have any information you’d like to add, feel free to send it to me.
The FDA
The FDA’s drug approval process kills in three different ways. The first reason is straightforward and quantifiable: FDA approval takes years, and people die waiting for life-saving medications to be approved. To cite one example, beta blockers for heart attacks were delayed by six years in the United States. Walter Williams sums up the death toll here:
Beta-blockers reduce the risks of secondary heart attacks and were widely used in Europe during the mid-’70s. The FDA imposed a moratorium on beta-blocker approvals in the U.S. because of the drug’s carcinogenicity in animals. Finally, in 1981, FDA approved the first such drug, boasting that it might save up to 17,000 lives per year. That meant as many as 100,000 people might have died from secondary heart attacks waiting for FDA approval.
The other two ways the FDA kills are indirect. Getting a new drug approved can cost up to $400 million. All else being equal, this means there will be less drug research, and the research that takes place will be directed towards projects that have the highest probability of recouping that massive investment. That means research is mainly focused on finding ongoing treatments for common, chronic conditions, rather than cures for rare diseases. Finally, the FDA kills by lulling people into a false sense of security. People believe they are being protected, but the FDA has been captured by the industries it regulates. Their deputy director is Monsanto’s former lawyer.
“Radiation is bad for little boys…”
The TSA
The people at the TSA have a lot to answer for: from destroying what was left of the Fourth Amendment, to humiliating grandparents, fondling kids, and making you throw away your water. On top of all that, they have blood on their hands.
Statistically speaking, driving is a lot more dangerous than flying. Air traffic is still below pre-9/11 levels, and the TSA is the biggest reason why. More people driving instead of flying means more traffic fatalities, and the death toll already exceeds 9/11, by far:
According to data compiled by Cornell University researchers, the ugsomeness of dealing with the TSA has pushed a goodly number of former air travelers into their cars – and back onto the roads. This, in turn has led to a measurable increase in monthly traffic fatalities – about 242 per month that would otherwise not have occurred. [Emphasis added]
Your tax dollars at work
The War on Drugs
I’m not going to spend much time on this point, since anyone reading this blog probably gets this issue. Prohibition has never worked and never will work; they can’t even keep drugs out of prisons. Furthermore, making voluntary exchange illegal drives up profit margins while removing any path to peaceful dispute resolution, leading to violence.
Drug-related violence in the United States has decreased since the days of the crack epidemic, but it’s shifted to Mexico. According to the Mexican government, 47,515 people have died in drug-related violence since 2006. This is what happens when people with good intentions use coercion to mold society.
Agricultural Policy
I put this section at the bottom because it’s the hardest to quantify – there are a lot of factors that go into heart disease, diabetes, etc. – but this issue might be the deadliest. The federal government spends about $20 billion per year on farm subsidies, and virtually all of that goes to five crops: corn, cotton, soy, wheat and tobacco.
Fruit and vegetable farmers receive less than 1%. This is why a salad costs more than a Big Mac. People respond to incentives. If you lower the price of grains and meat relative to fruits and vegetables, people are going to consume more grains and meat, and probably be less healthy in the long run.
Sugar tariffs also play a role. In addition to stealing $3.86 billion per year from the American people, sugar tariffs combined with corn subsidies make high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) cheaper to produce than real sugar. Beverages containing HFCS have high levels of reactive carbonyls which are associated with cell and tissue damage that leads to diabetes. There may also be a direct link between HFCS and obesity, via the hormone leptin:
Leptin tells your body to stop eating when it’s full by signaling the brain to stop sending hunger signals. Since fructose doesn’t stimulate glucose levels and insulin release, there’s no increase in leptin levels or feeling of satiety. This can leave you ripe for unhealthy weight gain.
Finally, there’s the corn itself. You could argue that the question of the health effects of GMO corn isn’t fully settled yet. I would tend to agree, but I’d prefer not to be part of a society-wide experiment. The problem is, it’s very difficult to opt-out. GMO corn is showing up at Whole Foods, and California voters recently shot down a law requiring GMO labeling.
Conclusion
Government kills, both directly and indirectly. This is the inevitable result of using violence and coercion to achieve a goal, even if that goal is positive. Once again, this is just a partial list, so if you have any suggestions for expanding or clarifying it, send them along.
Traffic Court Outreach
Time is fleeting, and how long we have is uncertain. I want to use some of my time to spread the ideas of liberty, and I want to do that in the most effective way possible.
Some people can be brought to the ideas of liberty through moral or practical arguments, but they are not the majority. And even when you can change someone’s mind, the process time-consuming and frustrating. I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent way too much time talking about the roads and the schools.
How the legal system really works
Jury nullification outreach is pretty popular right now, and I don’t want to disparage it – the potential payoff is huge if your successful. My question is, what are the chances of success? Your typical juror is a probably more statist than most people – they’re registered voters who didn’t find or make up an excuse when summoned.
More importantly, as a juror, they are actively serving the state at that moment, so anything you do that calls the system into question also calls their actions into question. Yes, I understand that jury nullification is part of the system, or at least as it was designed to be, but that is not the story they’re going to get from the judge and the prosecutor.When is the best time to reach out to someone with the ideas of liberty? I think the answer is to reach out to someone is when they are being wronged by the state, and when a clear, concise moral case can be made to that person, explaining why what’s happening is wrong. I want to find those people and start a conversation.
I can think one State activity that generates victims by the hundreds each day: traffic court. Granted, they are very minor victims compared to other government aggression, but they are victims none the less. Whatever the stated purpose of government courts, they largely serve as revenue generators for the government, where a government employee sits in judgement, and the cop’s word is always gospel.
The State acts judge, and benefits from every guilty verdict. We wouldn’t accept such a blatant conflict of interest in any other area of life. How easy would it be to point out that miscarriage of justice to the person being victimized by it? It’s easy, and it would make a great starting-point to the ideas of liberty.
In order to be effective, activism must reach people who are when they’re sympathetic to the message. Providing monopoly dispute resolution services is one of the primary functions of the state. If you can show people the inherent conflict of interest involved in the “justice” system, then you have opened the doors to the ideas of liberty.
Succeeding at Seceding
Nothing pleases me more, personally, than all these talks about states seceding from the federal government. The back and forth between opposing parties makes the entire spectacle enthralling and enlightening because where else do you get to see statism vs. statism is such a grand array while each side reaches for the memories of our forefathers to defend their position on the matter outside of the conversation of taxation. But the question still remains, while this is illegal…. can it happen?
Now, of course, we have pseudo-intellectual “anarchists” coming out and chanting the “It’s statism… don’t ask to be free” mantra without a miniscule amount of critical thinking in the situation as a whole. You have others who talk down and make snide comments about it. As a “voluntaryist” (I despise titles, but for reference sake in this article I will use it), even I noticed the slight irony of trading one master for another. However, there is something bigger at work here that many of the other liberty driven people are failing to grasp because of short sighted opposition to all that exists on the political front.
People are thinking. People are talking. Ideas are being forged in the realm of liberty that hasn’t been crafted in ages. Many along the “anarchist” lines dump all over the idea, disregarding the fact that this is merely a rough draft, not the final product. While no one is saying that one should be 100% in support of many sovereign states, you have to admit that it takes a high level of testicular fortitude for groups of people to come out and openly support what was once a taboo topic.
People in our camp should be encouraging, not talking down and belittling this movement. Rather, we should be encouraging others to take it one step further and not stop with being satisfied with a smaller master. We are seeing for the first time in recent history where large groups of people are questioning the normality of what they have come to know and have taken it upon themselves to seek out new ideas. People are talking. People are thinking. This is the time for us to put away condescending attitudes and challenge more people to evolve themselves away from the autopilot life of tyranny and truly understand what it means to be free and achieve liberty.
We have not seen such a fertile group of minds, ready to be shown something new. Their masters have failed them. Ron Paul was not the savior they hoped he would be. Rand Paul sold his father out for the glory of the party. Mitt Romney lost to the allegedly worst president ever. Obama is still plowing over civil liberties as the people cling to the last few shreds of their beloved Constitution, regardless of party ideology. People are lost and in shock that their notions of liberty were overrun by the system and that the party paradigm has failed them. We don’t need to remind them that they failed themselves (What good does that do? How does that make us look credible?), but meet them where they are and begin steering the conversation in a more correct manner, one that challenges their concepts of liberty and their statism. To them, liberty is smaller government control because they don’t know better and “anarchy” equals in their minds a chaotic concept that too many have a hard time grasping without being guided down that path through logical discourse and debate. The masses haven’t disconnected form the matrix yet and we shouldn’t be giving them reason to stay plugged in.
Should we support states seceding from the union? We should be quietly ambivalent about it, in my opinion. Focus the conversation more on what being free is, rather than cliche and demeaning responses that are geared to shut people down. We have an audience more open to listen to what we have to say than ever before and it would be a shame to allow our pride to spoil a great opportunity.
An Open Letter to Romney Voters
Mitt Romney could not have won this election, but if you consider yourself a principled conservative, then it is your fault that the Republican nominee lost. Please allow me explain that statement…
Now that the election is over, take an honest look at your candidate. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed the healthcare law that was the blueprint for Obamacare, including the individual mandate. Romney also signed an assault weapons ban into law.
More importantly, Romney stands for nothing. He has held almost every conceivable position on every issue, and what he says can be predicted in advance if you know to whom he’s speaking. He is a hollow suit who inspires no one.
A very nice suit
That is why he lost to a president with approval ratings below 50% and with official unemployment near eight percent. And that is why a Republican will not be moving into the White House this January.
So how is this your fault? You may not have voted for Romney in the primaries, but the blame is still yours. You, and people like you, should have raised hell. Delegates should have boycotted the convention, and better yet, protested outside of it. There should have been a national write-in campaign for “none of the above” or an attempt to recruit a real conservative for a third-party run. The RNC is known for changing the rules at the last minute – perhaps you could have scared them into rewriting the entire nominating process.
Would it have worked? I don’t know, it depends on whether the GOP cares more about winning the elections or continuity and keeping the big donors happy. Most likely it is the latter, but remember, politicians have a lot in common with serial killers, and Mitt Romney personifies the upper echelon on the GOP – spineless, unprincipled power-seekers. If you keep passively accepting the Romney-type candidates, then that is what they will give you, because they are the least threatening to the status quo.
Romney lost the popular vote by around three million votes. It would have been far better for you and me had he lost by 20 million votes, because it would have sent a signal to the GOP, that no, we are not going to accept any more RINOs. The nation is $16 trillion in debt, and only someone with the courage of conviction to slash the budget in the face of massive opposistion can save this country from bankruptcy.
In the coming weeks, you will hear that the Republican party needs to be more inclusive, become a “bigger tent” and embrace horrible ideas such as tax increases. That is a lie. No one compromises like Mitt Romney, he says so himself. Politicians are notorious for changing their positions to suit public opinion polls, but Romney stands out as flip-flopper par excellence. And yet he lost.
The Republican party can’t win by compromising what’s left of it’s values, and America can’t survive more big government. The time for compromise is over, we have to get out there and make the most principled case for limited government and personal responsibility we can, and let the chips fall where they may.
If you believe as I do, that free markets are the best path to prosperity, and that the government that governs best, governs least, then it’s time for you to begin to stand up to the party hacks at the GOP and demand candidates who stand for real principles, who are not out just to win an election, but to change the course of history. It’s the only way we can win, and it’s the only way we can save the country.
Liberty In Our Lifetime
Last night was a very interesting night. Elections tend to be. But what exactly did we see? While the world focused the presidential race, some very key things were happening in other races across the nation and even here in Alabama.
While I am amused that we, yet again, have a worthless Congress and that Obama must have used his magic drone strike abilities on the GOP (or the GOP destroyed themselves); I want to focus more on the ballot measures that were passed at the state level. While Federal level activities are passable for overall discussion, it is often boring and blatantly “bought and paid for” by deep pockets for it to matter to the everyday person unless there is a talking head on TV ranting about it.
Three things caught my eye on the ballot measures portion of Politico, which seemed to be covering key issues of those states pretty well. They are as follows:
1. Prop 37 in California
The fact that this failed (by the same voters who also voted to raise their own income tax…go figure) to pass really truly stands out as an enigma. Monsanto and other companies spent millions to prevent this law, which would require GMO foods to be labeled, allowing for consumers to be warned on the packaging that GMOs are present in the food they are about to eat. The most “leftist” state in our country, was bought out by special interest groups… and the same ones they say they hate. It was an epic win for Big Corporations in California last night and another show that government can not protect you.
However, this can be looked at as a good thing if people take a step back and reassess. Relying on the state to protect you has failed and socialistic process was inept to protect you because cash is always king… what happens next? The people take responsibility for protecting each other into their own hands and take the fight to the street to prevent others from buying these products. Not through government force or use of violence, but through education and exchange of ideas which is the true bastion of change in our society. We can look at this as a failure or as a chance to take our own health and welfare into our hands and economically drain these deep pockets dry while maintaining a non-violent and pro-liberty stance.
2. Colorado and Washington legalize Marijuana
A very significant moment in the time line of liberty. While we live in a “free” nation (which has more laws and people in jail per capita than most countries combined…. go ahead… chew on that for a second…), the “freedom” to ingest an item is still one we are fighting today. Why is that? Even with science trumpeting the positive medical and personal benefits of an herb, the majority feel that its dangerous (as they pop a pill and drink a beer) and feel they have the right to dictate to others about how to live their life. It baffles me how we still fight this battle or how people are still blind to the negative impact of “mob rule”.
However, these two states still have to contend with the Federal government and their over reaching, non-Constitutional “law” that makes it illegal from the federal standpoint to grow, possess and resale a plant. So, what do you do in this situation? Not a situation many in “control” like to think about.
What you will end up seeing, most likely, is either a passive “thumbing of the nose” to the Feds (and the subsequent raids on poor old ladies and other easy targets) or an aggressive stance, whereby law enforcement would be able to arrest anyone who impedes on the lawful action of another, causing a showdown between local and federal governments. As the “right” has used the 10th Amendment to nullify Obamacare by making it illegal to force anyone to purchase insurance, it is not too far out of the question for these states to also enact the 10th Amendment and nullify the federal law in that state. The question here is, will these states have the testicular fortitude to tell Washington where to go and how to get there? I would be surprised to actually see this happen, however the movement is making strides in the right direction by turning basic decisions about one’s self back to the individual. It is only a step in a long, tedious journey. Maybe its more of a death march, which is most likely the case with Alabama.
3. Gay Marriage in Maine, Maryland, Washington and Minnesota
Finally, we are seeing some movement in basic human rights at the state levels. Three of the above state legalized it and one (Minnesota) voted against a ban, which isn’t allowing gay marriage as much as it is saying “eh…. we aren’t going to say no…” as they go back into discussions.
We are at a crossroads in our society where we are evolving just as we were back in the 50′s and 60′s when interracial marriage and desegregation was the next step in our process . With the increase in knowledge, we are out growing preconceived notions and bigotry hidden behind the veil of religion. With information at our finger tips and open dialogue, we are seeing old and archaic concepts dying away while more people are becoming honest with themselves. What does this mean for liberty? Nothing at the moment, but it does give a glimpse of hope that some people are becoming ready to shake off the need for governmental micromanagement in the lives of others and allow people to be themselves.
In order to see it here in Alabama anytime before hell freezes over, we need a firestorm of liberty to hit this state and have more people come to the realization that in order for the person to be free, that person must also allow others to be free. Liberty allows for subjective deviancy because there is no absolute moral code that we all abide by. Just because we allow for deviancy doesn’t mean we condone or support it, only the environment for the liberty to grow. We may think of it as good or bad and that is our right as individuals, however we have no right to deprive the rights of liberty from others over ideological differences.
Will we see true liberty in our lifetime? Probably not, barring some major incident that forces us to operate as truly free individuals; however, the fact that there are steps being made shows people are thinking…. something that hasn’t been done in ages.
How to make Real Change in Society (X-Post)
Cross-post from My Strange Mind by Chris Case
Political action is not the road to effective change. The way to really change society is to start with yourself, your own groups, your own businesses and work your way out. The further away from your self you get, the less of a chance you have of changing anything.
Recorded on 2012-10-17
Columbia Meets @ El Jimador!
Meet us @ the NEW EL JIMADOR on Forum Blvd. now, every Thursday evening for Liberty on the Rocks.
LotR Columbia is a relaxed bunch of locals who get together for intelligent conversation, food, and libations. Liberty IS on the rocks in Columbia – but we strive to be a force for such liberty in this ever-changing world of stamped, authorized constraint and bureaucracy.
If you are curious to see what we’re all about, we’re always welcoming newcomers. Stop on by.
Location:
The NEW El Jimador on Forum Boulevard
1412 Forum Boulevard
Columbia, MO
Columbia Hosts Liberty on the Rocks
**Note 6PM time change
Meet us @ the NEW EL JIMADOR on Forum Blvd. now, every Thursday evening for Liberty on the Rocks.
LotR Columbia is a relaxed bunch of locals who get together for intelligent conversation, food, and libations. Liberty IS on the rocks in Columbia – but we strive to be a force for such liberty in this ever-changing world of stamped, authorized constraint and bureaucracy.
If you are curious to see what we’re all about, we’re always welcoming newcomers. Stop on by.
Location:
The NEW El Jimador on Forum Boulevard
1412 Forum Boulevard
Columbia, MO
Columbia Gathers Locals for Liberty
**Note 6PM time change
Meet us @ the NEW EL JIMADOR on Forum Blvd. now, every Thursday evening for Liberty on the Rocks.
LotR Columbia is a relaxed bunch of locals who get together for intelligent conversation, food, and libations. Liberty IS on the rocks in Columbia – but we strive to be a force for such liberty in this ever-changing world of stamped, authorized constraint and bureaucracy.
If you are curious to see what we’re all about, we’re always welcoming newcomers. Stop on by.
Location:
The NEW El Jimador on Forum Boulevard 1412 Forum Boulevard Columbia, MOColumbia’s Weekly Gathering for Liberty
Fed up with the Nanny State yet?
Come congregate with others of like-mind in the Columbia area! We meet every Thursday at the Heidelberg during Happy Hour. Just ask the hostess for “Liberty on the Rocks”.
When you get to the Heidelberg, enter @ the room to the right of the entrance. Weather/crowds permitting, rooftop patio will occasionally be used during spring/summer months.
Location:
The Heidelberg 410 S. 9th Street Columbia, MO