On State Power and Voting

I oppose the use of violence to achieve ends.

The state uses violence to achieve its ends. That is, the police, military etc. all enforce government mandates positively, while generally private industry uses force defensively – hiring security guards etc.  The reason for this disparity is that it is not economical to use violence to achieve ends unless you have can force individuals to fund the use of that violence against their will.  That is, unless you have taxation and a monopoly on the use of force, force is not economical.  Because corporations compete, and the use of force is not economical, corporations generally avoid the use of force.  Now, corporations can use kickbacks and favors to get the state to use violence to achieve the corporation’s ends, (think of using the local law enforcement as strikebreakers, or the east india trading company’s government funded goons) but we’re getting off topic here.

Because the state wants to continue to exist, and people will not oppose/eliminate something that they control, the state has granted a certain amount of apparent control to individuals, in the form of democratic elections.  I do not want the state to exist.  I do not want to wield state power.  I think that using the mechanism of a state is an immoral way to get one’s needs met.  If I were to vote to make the state smaller, that would be using what I believe to be immoral means to force others to live under a smaller state, which they might not want to do.  I think that people who want to live under a powerful coercive monopoly should be allowed to do so, in the same way I think that  those who do NOT want to live under the same system should  also be permitted to live in their way.

So I don’t vote.  Voting is just using violence by proxy.  I would be a hypocrite for saying that I do not believe in the legitimacy of the coercive monopoly of the state while simultaneously attempting to use the coercive monopoly of the state to shape the world to a model that I think is best.

There’s a Confucian quotation that is particularly relevant, I think:

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.

Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.

I can’t say that he meant it in this context, but the way I take it is this:

The way to affect the world is to work on yourself.  The modern equivalent quotation is probably “think globally; act locally.”  Investigate things so that you are capable of sincerely speaking the truth.  The truth is the simplest form of virtue.

I have not seen any convincing argument that there are moral uses of state power.  The main thrust of the arguments I’ve seen is: “The state exists, we have to deal with it, so we might as well make the best of it and try to make it help us instead of harm us.”  But I don’t know that it’s possible.  Any use of the state takes money – resources – energy – time from people who want to use it in other ways.  It signifies a theft from the helpless to the powerful brokers of state power.

I abrogate my use of the power of the state.  It is power from an immoral source and I cannot bring myself to use it.  I cannot bring myself to force others to live in my world, even though they are forcing me to live in theirs.