One of the candidates running for governor here in Indiana is Libertarian Andrew Horning. I watched the debate he participated in with Jill Long-Thompson (D) and current governor Mitch Daniels (R). I was impressed with his views and the conviction he had when expressing his opinion. When looking for sound bytes of the debate, I ran across this little clip that says so much in so little time. It’s kind of hard to hear in spots because there’s a lot of background chatter. I don’t know what the conversation was leading up to this, but here’s what I understood him to say:(If you think it’s different, please post to that end in the comments)
[voice off camera: “So when applied to governments, liberties and freedoms have to be actually properly selected by the majority…’cause we have an issue with majority could actually choose to do very very bad things…do they have the liberty to do so?]
Mr. Horning: Well, government is an abstraction, remember…
There’s no such unit as “government”. Government is a fiction that we created and what we have to remember is that that fiction is composed entirely of violence. You know, government can’t do anything without at least the threat of violence.
[voice off camera: Or the monopoly on violence…]
Mr. Horning: Well, I mean to whatever the degree there is a monopoly, that is the government. So if a gang becomes powerful enough, it is the government. So, you know, basically, government is violence. Violence is, to some degree, government. Because to do whatever kind of restraining or whatever governing you wish to do, you have to impose force on something. So government being violence…you have to understand that giving violence liberties; giving it “freedoms”, is an extraordinarily dangerous thing to do. And that, you know, the history of humans, and their abstraction of “government” is really a 100% failure. To the degree with which we succeed at all for any period of time in civilization is how long and how well we restrain that violence. So if you put a leash on your politicians (whether that’s the leash of “law”; we call that “rule of law”), or whether you have [video trails off]
Dang. I really want to hear the rest of that. I think I will email him and ask him where it might be found if it exists.
Here’s the video:
2 comments:
I used to be very active with the local LP. Sad part was, for every one of the really smart guys like this or that are true believers, there are a dozen whacko nuts that embarrass the rest. Guys like Bob Barr that really have nothing in common with the party that just use it as a platform for getting their name out there or because it's their only chance to run for a position do nothing for the other really smart guys.
I'm friends with a local politician that identifies himself as a Libertarian publicly. He constantly has to fight the stereotype that a lot of the cooks give the LP. He really does lend a touch of class. To bad there aren't more like these guys.
Sounds like an oldie-but-goodie from George Washington himself:
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master."
One of my favorites by him.
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