Libertarians, borders and the military

I often wonder if people are even paying attention… and by paying attention I mean reading an entire sentence as opposed to simply latching onto one or two expected or particularly glaring words in the sentence and reacting to them. I have never once advocated the elimination of the government military and, in fact, I believe it to be a necessary function. One of the reasons I scored in the 126 range and not higher is that I believe open immigration is not a properly libertarian concept as while people must be able to freely leave a society, outsiders have no inherent right to join it. Indeed, Europe is learning how even partially open borders can end a society and tear apart its fabric in a relatively small period of time.

Indeed, Communist China could easily swamp any open-immigration society simply by sending in millions of immigrants to advocate a decidely non-libertarian structure. The defense of the borders and the defense of private property have long been considered among the only proper functions of government. However, what is profoundly libertarian about my position on the military is that I reject the notion that the state may have a monopoly on force. There is no reason why a citizen should not own a fleet of F-16s and hire them out to foreign countries if he so chooses. When the state has the means to balance a megalomaniac citizen ala Ted Turner and the citizens have the means to threaten the state, the situation is optimal. It is much better than having one and not the other.

People are capable of self-control. There is nothing preventing the leaders of the US military from overthrowing the US government anytime they choose, except that they do not and have not for more than 200 years. If an armed society is a polite society, a society where citizens are not out-gunned by the military is a society of limited and small government.

In any case, all things come to an end. There is no static system that will allow humans to live peacefully forever, because humans are inherently evil and someone will always seek to end the comity by enforcing their will over others. In our current system, government is the primary means of doing so, and the sooner one recognizes that, the sooner one realizes that government is often nothing more than a powerful instrument used by individual and interest groups to control and dictate the behavior of others.