David McElroy

Different people want different things. We accept that in most areas of life, so why can’t we accept that the same thing is true for how the places we live are managed?

I like steak, pizza and chicken. I don’t care for seafood, Chinese food or most veggies. (Don’t mention that last part to my doctor.) I would be rather unhappy in a world where the majority voted to adopt seafood and Chinese for all the restaurants. I would be happy if none of the restaurants served what I don’t like, but many other people wouldn’t be. Fortunately, it’s not an either/or situation. I have the places I like. They have the places they like. We can change our minds and move back and forth between restaurants.

So if this competitive model is good for restaurants — and cars and computers and pretty much everything the free market provides — why do most people tend to favor “one true way” for governing territory?

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When you were in school, you were probably taught in civics classes that you have a duty to vote. It wasn’t just that you had a right to vote, but rather that you owed it to everyone else to vote. Many people still believe what was drilled into their 11-year-old heads.

The comment above was from a discussion on Facebook Saturday night, mostly between libertarians over the issue of whether it’s morally acceptable to vote or not. In the middle of heated exchanges over whether it was immoral to vote or simply being acceptably pragmatic to do so, a woman posted this. Clearly, she thinks it’s a trump card — duty. She has no need to lay out a rational argument. She has the faith of the state religion, and that’s all she thinks she needs.

There are too many angry arguments between libertarians and anarcho-capitalists and voluntaryists and whatever else we want to call ourselves over issues such as this. We can each choose our own path and let others do the same. But it’s important to realize that we have a common enemy. That enemy is a state that teaches children that they have a duty to obey it and perpetuate it. We have to quit fighting each other and get busy planning for what to do after that beast is dead or irrelevant.