Listening to the leadership debate and marvelling at the astonishing rise in the fortunes of the Lib-Dems following Clegg’s appearance with the two wolves – I thought it might be useful to write something brief, but topical, on libertarian principle.
The quotation in the post header seemed to me a reasonable start and more important when coupled with this quotation:
“It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.”
–Henry George
I may ‘outrage’ some who read what follows. So be it.
The government banned Meow Meow last Friday following outrage in The Sun and elsewhere. It will, of course, be a complete waste of time. The chemists will simply produce another ‘legal’ and, in any event, those who want drugs will always be able to get them. We waste fantastic sums of money – deficit increasing, industrial, sums of money fighting a pointless drugs war. Much crime is driven by drugs. If you don’t believe me have a look at the murder rate in Colombia and Mexico, the burglary and street crime rate in this country and in mainland Europe.
Will we ever win the drugs war? I doubt it? Should we try? I’m not so sure. Listen to my podcast with US federal Judge John Cane and consider the question after listening to it. This experienced American judge has many years of judicial experience. He is worth listening to.
I digress, but with reason. I have one simple question:
What business is it of ‘Mythical Anecdotal Man’, cited by leading politicians to justify their governance over us, what I ingest, inhale, smoke, drink, eat or do with my life so long as it does not do harm to others.
Maybe it is time for a smaller government, a government which does not respond to the dictat of tabloids, of banks, of corporate vested interests and which trusts people more to make their own decisions. In the case of drugs, would it be such a terrible idea to address the drugs war by legalising drugs? They may just reduce crime, reduce over regulation of people, raise additional revenue, cut prison costs, allow police to be used to deal with the remaining crimes which worry people (much burglary and street crime may well be reduced as a result) and trust people to make their own decisions.
Will any mainstream political party have the courage to trust people more and regulate less – and return to libertarian principles – by no means a monopoly of the Libertarians? That is the thing about libertarians – they tend to be tolerant of political views other than their own in so far as necessary government is concerned.
Jeremy Bentham had a theory of libertarianism… he called it a felicific calculus. it is worth looking at.
It is so rare for a government once it has ceased control of an activity that it will willingly cede back that control; in this governments of all colours are included. Thatcher had her faults and made her mistakes but she was the exception who did not prove the rule…..unfortunately. The spurious agencies created by this government are designed to disguise this continuing control by insisting that they are one step removed from Whitehall. Try telling that to those who resigned from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.l
An excellent blog, Charon. Some years ago I spent an afternoon with the last head of the National Drugs Squad. He was firmly of the opinion that all drugs should be legalised for the very reasons you give: the continued “war on drugs” means only ever increasing state control of all citizens, ever increasing police powers depriving us of our liberties, the criminalisation of entire generations who wish only to experiment without harming anyone else, the funding of criminal gangs both at home and abroad, and of course murders. Lots and lots of homicides.
I am not certain of all the details, but I am convinced that if drugs were legalised, there would be less reason for smugglers to bother bringing the drugs into the country, and the tax income could greatly help, if ring-fenced, to providing rehab facilities.
What I find utterly despicable is that Heroin, for example, is a moderately safe drug. Methadone, on to which addicts are persuaded to migrate, is actually lethal. So addicts are persuaded to move from safer to less safe – the only reason street Heroin is dangerous is because of criminal gangs cutting it with flour, sugar, rat poison or anything else to increase the apparent bulk.
So – the drug war is failing (as prohibitions always do), the number of people affected and criminalised is constantly increasing, and for what? It serves no purpose except to try to keep the public fitter and healthier in order to provide their labour in jobs to keep the country competitive. I honestly believe that – it would be terrible, after all, if people were allowed to enjoy their lives in the way which they wished.
I wish I had been born a hundred years ago. As AJP Taylor said, the English were at their most free at the turn of the twentieth century.
The problem lies with governments pandering to the people for very short-term gain rather than governing. There was an interesting paper published by the Better Government Initiative last October which is worth a read (http://www.bettergovernmentinitiative.co.uk/da/57699 – entitled ‘Good Government’). This paper damns the whole short-term approach to politics and policy making, and especially knee-jerk reactions. It’s well worth a read.
The state is too large and as a nation we’re too reliant on being told what to do by the government. Labour has shown how controlling and domineering a democratically elected government can be if they have a large enough majority in Parliament. If only governments would stop moralising and believing that they know what is best for everyone from their comfy offices in Whitehall.
Come over to the dark ssssiiide, Luke! ;o)
Obo Hahaha! I’ve been debating with @AlJahom all night…
Never met a left wing libertarian @alJahom said… this surprised me 🙂
The problem is that ALL political parties now pander to the hysterical anti-drugs lobby – if drugs were legalised lots of associated problems would be solved. But none of the current political entities has the backbone to do it, frightened of the howls of outrage. I believe that, if drugs WERE legalised, they would cease to be attractive to a certain class of society. There would also be no dealers with an incentive to get people hooked……………….