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The State Is Too Dangerous to Tolerate

The State Is Too Dangerous to Tolerate. Robert Higgs. Background Reference. Robert Higgs, If Men Were Angels: The Basic Analytics of the State versus Self-government. Journal of Libertarian Studies 21 (Winter 2007): 55-68. “Anarchy” according to the Random House Dictionary.

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The State Is Too Dangerous to Tolerate

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  1. The State Is Too Dangerous to Tolerate Robert Higgs

  2. Background Reference • Robert Higgs, If Men Were Angels: The Basic Analytics of the State versus Self-government. Journal of Libertarian Studies 21 (Winter 2007): 55-68.

  3. “Anarchy” according to the Random House Dictionary • 1. a state of society without government or law • 2. political and social disorder due to absence of governmental control. • 3. a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society. • 4. confusion; chaos; disorder.

  4. James Madison, Federalist 51 • If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

  5. Madison’s Model • No StateState • Men are angels OK OK • Men are not angels Inconceivable Best • conceivable

  6. More Realistic Model • No StateState • Men are angels OK OK • Men are not angels Bad situation Worse situation

  7. Dresden, February 1945

  8. Bergen-Belsen, April 1945

  9. Auschwitz Survivors, 1945

  10. Hiroshima, August 1945

  11. Fallujah, November 2004

  12. Critical point • Defending the continued existence of the state, despite having absolute certainty of a corresponding continuation of its intrinsic engagement in extortion, robbery, willful destruction of wealth, assault, kidnapping, murder, and countless other crimes, requires that one imagine nonstate chaos, disorder, and death on a scale that nonstate actors seem incapable of causing.

  13. Nuclear Bomb Explosion

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