Wendy McElroy on Voting Against Hitler (and the philosophy behind my similarly-titled-video): At the last Liberty Conference, an intellectual brawl erupted during a panel discussion on terrorism. Since I consider electoral politics the milquetoast equivalent of terrorism, my opening statement was a condemnation of voting. My arguments were aimed at libertarians who consider themselves anarchists yet jump to their feet in ebullient applause upon hearing that a fellow libertarian wants to be a politician. In the two raucous hours that ensued, a question was posed: If you could have cast the deciding vote against Hitler, would you have done so? I replied, No, but I would have no moral objection to putting a bullet through his skull. In essence, I adopted a stronger line - a plumbline, as Benjamin Tucker phrased it - on eliminating the Hitler threat. I consider such a bullet to be an act of self-defense in a manner that a ballot could never be. A bullet can be narrowly aimed at a deserving target; a ballot attacks innocent third parties who must endure the consequences of the politician I have assisted into a position of power over their lives. Whoever puts a man into a position of unjust power - that is, a position of political power - must share responsibility for every right he violates thereafter. The question then shifted: If there had been no other strategies possible, would you have voted against Hitler? This postulated a fantasy world which canceled out one of the basic realities of existence: the constant presence of alternatives. In essence, the question became, If the fabric of reality were rewoven into a different pattern, would you still take the same moral stand? Since my morals are derived from my views about reality, it was not possible for me to answer this question. But my first response was to wonder what I would have been doing for the months and years that led to the momentous dilemma of whether to scratch an X beside Adolfs name. Or did I have no alternatives then either? I can address only the reality in which I live and, in a world replete with alternatives, I would not vote for or against Hitler. Let me address a more fundamental question: What is the nature of the state? youtube/watch?v=3Gt3YkiyXHU voluntaryist/articles/085b.html#.VGuQGhH7B7h
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:30:26 +0000
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