Important Video: The Sunset of the State

August 5, 2010 by Ian
Filed under: Video, Your Evolution

I’m going to add this to the “New Here?” page. Big thanks to the brilliant Stefan Molyneux and Think Twice News:

Comments

16 Comments on Important Video: The Sunset of the State

Marty on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 2:01 am

Excellent video. Everyone should see this.

Sean Cushman on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 2:17 am

Great job Stefan!

trippwhyre on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 4:42 am

I love Stefan’s views on anarchy. He’s the one that convinced me to embrace it. He’s got brillaint arguments for why we should reject the state and how society might function in anarchy. What I haven’t found in his material is how to make the transition to anarchy. Is his idea simply that more and more people need to become anarchists while we wait for the state to simply self destruct?

Mitch on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 7:24 am

Possibly the best Freedomain Radio video to date! Please spread it around so this goes viral and more people get exposed to the ideas of voluntaryism.

Chaz Munro on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 8:28 am

Absolute genius! The best part is that he distilled it down to five words that we can readily take to the people, to bring them out of the darkness:

Every law is a gun.

open_kontainer on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 8:58 am

Unconvincing. The only thing that’s interesting about this site is the Keene activism stuff. High falutin’ political theory and general libertarian posts? Not so much.

theodorelogan on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 2:27 pm

What part of the video did you disagree with open_kontainer?

open_kontainer on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 5:29 pm

@theodorelogan It’s just built on an analogy to heliocentric astronomy. Like, that was wrong, and that’s what contemporary social democracy is like. But it’s an inexact analogy. Big gov’t isn’t going to be scientifically disproved.

Anyhow, I come to this site for the activism & local action, stuff that I feel I can actually do. I think FK should leave the theory stuff to the big libertarian sites. Keep it local. When I move to NH I wanna write specifically about like corrupt local councilmen and cops, stuff like that.

xrazorwirex on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 7:56 pm

Stuff like this counts as activism imho; it’s by a good friend of these people and it’s designed to convince people to move towards these ideas.

I credit Dale’s silly comics (notably the ‘top 10 reasons for minarchy’) for giving me that last push away from minarchism because it’s so easily consumed yet has such strong, logical arguments. You laugh at it until you find one that’s directed at your beliefs and you stop and wonder.

I agree with not becoming just another philosophical rant site but things like videos and comics and images and books and easy to consume material that one can simply repost makes a great difference.

Donovan on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 8:50 pm

This is one of Stefan Molyneux’s best videos ever.

Quinn Clark on Thu, 5th Aug 2010 9:32 pm

@open_kontainer, I disagree. Although the video makes use of an analogy, it doesn’t rely on it to make its points. I think what’s missing here is any discussion of how I prevent others from aggressing against me in such a society. These ideas seem unworkable to those that haven’t thought much about them. We need a more comprehensive follow-up.

trippwhyre on Fri, 6th Aug 2010 9:40 am

I agree with the concept of anarchy and would love to see it come to be; however, I am still trying to understand how that is going to transpire. Even Stefan himself, to my knowledge, offers no advice about how to get rid of the state. He has stated that he does not expect there to be anarchy in his lifetime.

I know some people on this site claim that they already live in anarchy and that the state doesn’t exist. Sorry, but that seems like so much gobbleygook. I understand their basic premise that the state is not a natural entity but was created by people. Yet, to say that it therefore doesn’t exist makes no sense. If it doesn’t exist, then what are we fighting? When children realize that Santa doesn’t exist, there’s nothing to fight. They just go on with their lives. No, the state does not exist as an independent physical entity. It is made up of state agents. Those state agents are still trying to run our lives. People saying the state doesn’t exist remind me of “Name it, Claim” religious extremists.

I want anarchy just like they do. No offense, but I don’t understand what all these acts of civil disobedience are accomplishing strategically. I understand the sentiment and philosphy and respect the integrity and grit of those folks doing such things. I just fail to see the strategy. It seems to me that the state is just flexing its muscles and therefore getting stronger and consuming more of our money through tickets, fines, bail, and incarceration costs. When the police chief goes before the city council or town meeting and asks for more funding is he going to be denied because those in power want less power for themselves and more freedom for us? Maybe I’m missing something. I hope so.

People decades ago performed courageoius acts over the Vietnam War and discrmination, etc. It seems to me that the state is stronger now than it was then. I am perplexed.

Quinn Clark on Fri, 6th Aug 2010 8:27 pm

@trippwhyre,

I’m a newcomer to this site, and I see your point. The primary difference between Santa Claus and governments is that people act on the belief that governments exist and wield legitimate power. That’s all. Neither Santa Claus nor goverments nor any other concept actually exist in the real world. The only reality is in the way in which specific concepts and beliefs influence the thoughts and actions of actual people. I think that’s what these folks mean when they say that there is no state: They’re saying that all that really exists are the thoughts and actions of individuals.

Of course, since some of those individuals carry guns and believe that they are legitimately within their moral sanction to shoot you for disobedience to some rules that somebody else wrote down, the idea of the state can still impact you through the actions of others, even if you don’t believe it exists. For that and similar reasons, you might want to go along with the charade in some cases.

Chad on Sun, 15th Aug 2010 10:34 am

I sure hope I live to see the day for this to become reality. Free people interacting without the threat of punishment and coersion. However one thing is for sure if you want to start convincing people of the ridiculousness of THE STATE and to be open to the idea of freedom then you have got to come up with a better name than ANARCHY. The word anarchy has such negative images associated with it that you will immediately turn most people off to the validity of your message. Using the word anarchy or calling yourself an anarchist is fine when your preaching to the converted but that is not who you are trying to win over, the general population is who’s mind you must change, and I don’t think you’ll do it advocating for ANARCHY!
Maybe call it a “Free Society” or something to that effect. I agree with the message but even I can’t come to accept using the word anarchy. Just my 2 cents.

Chaz Munro on Sun, 15th Aug 2010 1:41 pm

Chad,

Some of the terms for the free society (if we really have to put a label on it) are “agorist”, “voluntaryist” or just my favorite, “100% voluntary society”.

I suppose whatever flavor you like the taste of best, really. If you look up the word “anarchy” it’s definition is actually “no rulers” not no rules. Intellectually honest people won’t confuse the two. Sadly enough, the Legion of Doom and it’s education system, have a stake in confusing them.