Ahimsa Paramo Dharma, Or Why I'm a Libertarian This is a blog of happenings in my family, with my kids, and with the politics of the world. If you don't get satire you should probably stop reading right now. I tend to ramble on, and on, and on...

I was reading Gandhi's autobiography a number of years ago when I was physically assaulted by other men for the first time since I was a child. In their eyes an in the eyes of many around the world their actions were legitimate because of the uniforms they wore. In being forced from my home in the night Gandhi's own experiences were driven home to me in a very real way. Humans continue to make the same mistakes over and over again because every generation must learn anew what experience has taught previous ones. Gandhi spent a good deal of his life trying to understand the world's religions and draw commonalities. It would take me too far afield here the catalog the litany of misunderstanding and obvious falsification in ALL of the world's religions; suffice is to say that I am a man of science and I see only experiment as the true test of any theory. Nevertheless, many of the principles common to a multitude of the religions represent a kernel of understanding gleaned from centuries of human experience. Gandhi was able to distill down all the ideas about human interaction into a single axiom, which is often seen expressed in his native Gujarati as ahimsa paramo dharma, or nonviolence is the best way. The Romans, some of the greatest state builders of all time, understood better than most that the fundamental tool in statecraft is violence. So much so that their symbol for power was the fasces, twelve rods and an axe bound together to symbolize the power to beat and to kill respectively. Over the centuries we have created states which blunt and camouflage the naked force of government, but by nature the state can only be an instrument of force. If you do not pay taxes the government will send men with guns to take your possessions and perhaps even imprison you. If you resist they will subdue you by force and may even kill you. The state is violence. Now being a man of logic and having experienced firsthand the violence of the state I came across libertarianism, a political philosophy which seeks to maximize individual liberty. And how does one maximize liberty but by minimizing the state! If the state is violence and nonviolence is the best way, it follows that the more human interaction which can take place outside of the purview of the state the better. Indeed, in the ideal case there would be no state at all - ironically the end Karl Marx himself prophesied would follow a "short" dictatorship of the proletariat. But men are flawed and our institutions have the weight of history behind them so I do not think a state of pure anarchy, that is, one where no man is over another, is achievable. But if one believes in nonviolence then in striving toward it we must eliminate all the government possible.