No Coercion

I live in Durham County (NC), right next door to Wake County, which is in the midst of a heated debate over its notorious forced busing program that the new school board just declared its intention to end (they’ve been assigning children still trapped in the government school system to schools very far from their homes in order to achieve a “diversity” goal of no school having more than 40% of the children in the free or reduced lunch program–the result is lots of parents who otherwise would have had their kids in the local neighborhood school and who now have a much greater difficulty staying involved in their children’s education while the kids spend hours each day on the bus, sometimes force to go out to the bus stop before sunrise). I’ve been having a tough time, in a particular discussion forum, trying to explain the injustice of such a program to some statists, who already don’t understand the injustice of the government education system in the first place. My latest attempt is to compare the State to the Mafia, along the lines of thinkers like Spooner and Rothbard. After I typed it up I decided it would make a good blog post, so here’s what I posted in the forum (for clarification, my use of the phrase “propaganda language” is a reference to the use of that phrase by one of the statists in response to another libertarian’s referring to taxation as theft):

Here’s maybe a different way of looking at this busing issue (and really any issue involving compulsory government). Imagine it’s not the government that comes around to take some of your money to fund schools, but rather a Mafia enforcer. Imagine it’s not the government that threatens to lock you up if you don’t send your kids to school, but rather the Mafia enforcer. Imagine it’s not the government that then makes it harder for you to be involved in your children’s education by sending them to a school across town that you otherwise wouldn’t have chosen, but rather your friendly Mafia enforcer. Now, what we call theft (or armed robbery if you refuse to send in the money on your own), kidnapping, and general aggression when the Mafia does it, we call ‘democracy at work for the public good’ or some other such *ahem* propaganda language when the state does it.

Ah, you say, but it’s okay when the state engages in this kind of violence because “we’re a democracy” and “we can vote for our leaders.” Okay, then–let’s say the Mafia comes along and says, “You can vote for which Mafiosi you want to do the hiring of the enforcers! Woohoo! We won’t let you out of the violence we’re initiating, but YOU get to tell us who you want holding the gun! Aren’t we nice?”

Ah, you say, but it’s not really like that with the state because we’re all part of the “social contract” that allows the state its monopoly on justice and the legal initiation of violence. Well, alrighty–so the Mafia comes back and says, “Hey, whatcha fussin’ for, guy? Don’t you know what we’re doing is okay because of this special “social contract” we just came up with that we say you’re agreeing to?”

So here’s the deal. The difference–the SOLE difference–between the Mafia and the state is that the state has managed, through nonsense logic and “propaganda language,” to convince enough of you terrified children of its legitimacy that you allow it to go about its business of aggression without too much resistance.

Ending the busing program is a reduction in the level of aggression involved in education, a smaller reduction for some and a greater reduction for others.

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Many Wake County residents (and plenty of other folks) may be interested in knowing that the Wake County Public School System has recently implemented something called the Adopt-a-School Initiative, which seeks to partner every school in the system with a “faith-based organization” in order (ostensibly) to mentor problem students. To begin with, it turns out that not all “faith-based organizations” appear to be welcome. The program is headed by Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services, Dr. Marvin Connelly, who also happens to be a Baptist pastor and is active in the Wake Baptist Missionary Association. At last check, hundreds of local Protestant churches had been notified of this program–no Catholic churches, and no non-Christian religious organizations. Very interesting.

And it gets even better. The “training” for participating individuals has been farmed out to a hardcore Protestant group called Another Step Forward Ministries. Their training brochure says the Adopt-a-School Initiative “links faith in God and good works for the improvement of life and the lives of others” and “seeks to build strong individuals, families, faith-based organizations, business and communities from a Kingdom perspective.” Really? This somehow didn’t seem problematic to the WCPSS Board?

This is almost certainly a violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause, as well as objectively immoral since it involves the public school system that is funded with our tax dollars.  It was Thomas Jefferson who said, “To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

[I submitted basically what you see above as a letter to the editor of the News & Observer.]

These kinds of problems are inherent in a government school system and just another reason to abolish it and prevent government from having anything to do with education. Then people could simply send their kids to whatever private schools best suit them. But in the meantime, the only fair solution is to not allow mingling of government and religion.

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Matt Drew, a resident of Durham and a local Libertarian Party activist, is running for Durham City Council. He’s looking to shake up the way things are done:

The inevitable question that gets asked is, why should I vote for you?  And my answer is: Chickens.  The debate over urban chickens in Durham stretched over months, three public hearings, and finally ended in February 2009 with a 7-0 vote in favor of allowing them.  Now, I support people having chickens on their property – as a Libertarian, how could I do otherwise?  The problem is not with the issue.  The problem is the default.

The Durham City Council is set to “default deny”: that which is not expressly permitted is forbidden.  In computer security this is a good thing; in a government, it’s a bad thing.  It took incredible effort to convince the Council to permit people to do something, as if it is the Council’s place to decide what peaceful people do in their homes and on their land without disturbing their neighbors.  And it took months to make what should have been a simple decision.  Are these people hurting anyone?  Are they stealing from anyone?  Are they causing anyone suffering?  Then why are we even talking about this?  It should have been a done deal weeks before.  Citizens shouldn’t have to prove why it’s a good idea to have chickens; the Council should have to prove why they should be banned.  The debate occurred in entirely the wrong direction, and as a result took far too long and wasted an enormous amount of time and energy.

I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon working the LP booth with Matt at the Eno River Festival a few weeks ago. He may not be a radical market anarchist like me (I would probably run on a platform calling for the city council to abolish itself or something), but he’s a great guy and a genuine libertarian. If you’re one of my local Durhamite readers, check him out, and consider voting for him and mentioning him to your friends.

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