"The exercise of one coercion always makes another inevitable." - Anders Chydenius
Thanks to Kilgore Forelle for this quote which he left in the comments.
It really reminds me of the truth that once you tell a lie, you end up telling more and more. To cover for the first lie, you have to make another lie, and another, and another. But the truth must one day be told.
Let's look at a blatant example of this: the US military. See, in order to 'spread democracy' and 'protect our interests' around the world, we have to establish bases in every country that doesn't belong to us. For this 'protection', you and I (the taxpayers) will pay dearly (so far, over $650 billion this year alone). Now that the military has seen to that, we should be nice and safe, right? I mean 737 military bases around the world and 2.5 million servicemembers ought to be enough?
So what happened? Did we live safe and sound for the rest of time? I think we all know the answer to that question. How well did our billions of dollars, millions of personnel, and hundreds of bases protect us on September 11, 2001? What was the Department of Defense defending, anyway? Certainly not it's own headquarters, or an economically important (and previously targeted) pair of towers in NYC.
It seems that maybe somebody, somewhere, got a little pissed about all those bases on 'their country'. Bah! Might makes right! What's the point of having the biggest military in the world, if you don't use it to oppress foreigners? Like they have a right to be mad about our occupation of those 'worthless countries'. We're America! We own the world! Of course, if they built a base here in America, you can bet your pet gerbil that we'd be kickin' their butts until they left.
So what happened? Did we leave everyone else's country alone, finally? Did we learn from our mistakes and correct them, so that a tragedy like this never happened again? Not exactly. We figured, hey, lets build more bases, and have more troops, and spend more money! That should make us safe. And, while we're at it, let's go ahead and get rid of that 'freedom' crap that we've had for so long. Less freedom should make us more safe, too.
And thus was born the Department of Homeland Security (what does the Department of Defense do?), the new and improved Transportation Safety Administration, and a bigger military, among other things. So now, you can't bring shampoo on a plane. Do you feel safer? Here, let us frisk you before you get on that plane. Do you feel safer? Don't set down your bag, or you're going to be arrested. Do you feel safer? Martial law has been declared. Do you feel safer? Habeas Corpus has been suspended. Do you feel safer? All your phone calls are being monitored. Do you feel safer?
So, instead of the government undoing what it started that caused the whole mess, it created some more messes! Gee, thanks! I can't think of words strong enough to convey my feelings toward you, government (and everyone that is a part of the destruction of our society).
I would like to recommend this book: The Myth of National Defense, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. It can also be read here.
WAR=PEACE
SLAVERY=FREEDOM
OBAMA=CHANGE
