When statists hear about voluntaryism, a typical response is "That's stupid. How do you think society can function without a government?" When statists imagine a society without government, what they are imagining is a society of statists living without a state. That is not the intended image.

A possible short response would be: "If we move closer to the principles of voluntaryism, the biggest change would be that people would no longer see any need to force peaceful people to do things against their will. People are resilient and can find ways to form voluntary associations to serve their needs. Many of the problems that you perceive today are things that you (or future people) would not perceive as problems later."

Statists start with the perspective that people "need to" act in a certain way that generally corresponds to the laws proposed by their political party. Those beliefs are often contrary to the nonaggression principle, like putting parents in jail for not sending their kids to a state-approved school. If there is a lack of police with guns to force people to live that way, the statist would feel like there is something wrong. The real change is a change in thinking to respect the autonomy of others and to stop dwelling on what you can achieve by using force against peaceful people--people are not your pawns to create your vision of community. People are not pawns to be manipulated to force everyone to live according to your risk preferences or aesthetic sense.

I see part of the challenge as a perspective-taking problem. In other words, some people or so accustomed to being told what to do that they see nothing wrong with complying. It is difficult for them to understand how loss of liberty feels to other people. They don't see any problem with having to pay licensing fees and complete tax paperwork in every county where you operate your small business. More on this later.

About This Blog and This Post

This blog is mostly about finding ways to communicate so that we can reach a mutual understanding and agree to not harm peaceful people.

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