Do We Really Need "Government"? - What is Voluntaryism? - Introduction - Liberty on the Rocks - Sedona - The Voluntaryism Conference

Etienne de la Boetie2, author of Government: The Biggest Scam in History... Exposed! & Founder of the Art of Liberty Foundation gives an introduction to Voluntaryism

We are excited to announce the release of the full videos from Liberty on the Rocks, - Sedona - The Voluntaryism Conference including a bonus video from Senior Mises Institute Fellow Dr. Bob Murphy on the Market for Private Military Defense.  All the videos can be found on the website of the conference at Sedona.ArtOfLiberty.org AND on CiVL, the new streaming platform for intellectuals, libertarians, and voluntaryists where the content is available for the “big screen” on Roku, Fire and their app.  Check it out at: https://watch.civl.com/programs/the-voluntaryism-conference-2024

Etienne de la Boetie2, author of Government: The Biggest Scam in History Exposed, delves into the provocative ideas that challenge conventional views on governance. Etienne argues that government, far from being a legitimate or moral institution, serves as a mechanism for control and exploitation driven by intergenerational organized crime using “government” as a technique to rob and control populations. He introduces voluntaryism, a philosophy advocating for a society free of coercion, where interactions are voluntary and markets fulfill the roles traditionally held by the government. Etienne discusses concepts like the non-aggression principle, the power of free markets, and the manipulation of public perception through media. This episode sets the stage for a thought-provoking journey into a society without rulers, where peace and prosperity arise from individual freedom and spontaneous order.

Transcript & Slides

My name is Etienne de la Boetie2, I am the founder of the Art of Liberty Foundation. I'm best known for the book “Government” - The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed!, where I make the case that government is best thought of as a technique for robbing and controlling populations.

It's always illegitimate because it's impossible to have a legitimate moral government for some reasons we're going to outline further on, but it's impossible to delegate rights you don't have yourself to a representative to represent you doing something that you don't have the ability to do yourself.

It is impossible to be bound by a social contract you did not sign. And if my lovely fiancé and I can't vote to rob you because there's two of us and one of you, it doesn't matter that there's 10 of us, or 158 million of us, or 338 million of us, or that we “vote” to have an organization work on our behalf to do something that we don't have the ability to do ourselves.

And so, “government” has really been the biggest scam in all of human history; it's been a way of robbing and controlling populations and tax-farming human labor.

And we really don't need government. And we're going to break that down in a little bit. But the subtitle of the book is: How Inter-Generational Organized Crime Runs the “Government,” Media and Academia. Our thesis is that the government works hand in hand with monopoly media to control the information that the population receives and make them believe that government is legitimate, desirable, and necessary, even though it is not.

And so, on 50 different television channels, news channels, you're going to see all of this arguing over the election. Vote for the blue “government” candidate, vote for the red “government” candidate. But you're never ever going to see the alternative which is: We Don't Really Need “Government”!

The world is a self-organizing place, it produces spontaneous order and everything the government does would be done better faster and cheaper by the free market and so that's really the case that we're going to make today.

That everything the government does, that is not redistributive… I.E. you can't rob Peter to pay Paul, but most of what the government does is provide services that include: Delivering the mail, running a train system and the managing aircraft into airports and things like that. All of that could be done by the free market much better.

This has been the best-kept secret in all of human history because it's the one thing that the rulers don't want you to know about: There's an option on the menu that involves no rulers!

And so just to give you some examples:

Google and Facebook turned down our advertising, they would not advertise this conference. The Art of Liberty Foundation is regularly censored on Google. We've had links de-indexed off of Google. We can prove that. We've been shadow-banned. We've been demonetized. We've been de-indexed. And so, this is really the thing that government does not want you to know that you really don't need its mandatory services.

So, what is the alternative? If we do not have a government, how would we organize society? How would things get done? Who's going to build the roads?

And that really is the good news message that I bring you today, that everything the government does would be done better, faster, and cheaper by the free market.

And so, that's widely known as voluntaryism. And what does that mean? Well, number one, it means that all relationships between people must be voluntary.

Nobody is able to force you to do anything that you don't want to do. Nobody has the ability to extort money out of you if you don't want them to extort money out of you. Nobody has the ability to force your children to go to a school that you don't want them to go… to learn about a curriculum that you don't feel comfortable with.

Nobody gets the ring of power because there isn't a ring of power. And that's when I say that's the only “ISM” that's fair for everybody. Every other “ISM,” whether it be communism, socialism, or constitutional republican ism, all of those other political “ISMs,” has a ruling class that has rights that you don't have, and that has an exemption from morality that you don't have, that has the ability to use violence and extortion and coercion on the rest of the population, and moneyed interests so easily rig that system that it's frankly a joke.

On our Substack at ArtOfLiberty.Substack.com, I have an article titled: Why (and How!) You Should Help Your Kids Steal Their Student Council Election.

In it, I break down five or six different techniques that are very simple behavioral psychology techniques that would allow a moneyed interest or just some people working together behind the scenes to easily rig not just a student council election but, frankly, the elections that the population is going to be participating in next week, where they're going to be voting on unauditable black box voting machines and with mail-in paper ballots.

Moneyed interests so easily rig the system that it's useless. It simply doesn't deliver the goods.

And so, the good news message is: That we really don't need government!

Also inherent in the idea of voluntaryism is really this idea that the world is a self-organizing system. It produces something called Spontaneous Order. And everything that the government does would be done by the rest of society better, faster, and cheaper without the waste, fraud, abuse, and extortion.

And so, on the slide I want to show you two visual examples. I’m really known for my visualizations… most people are visual learners, and they come to insight much quicker if you show them an image versus just trying to explain it to them.

The alternative to voluntaryism is something called Statism, and Statism is essentially the indoctrinated belief in having a state.

It is the indoctrinated belief in having a government, whether that government is communist, whether that government is a constitutional republican government, whether that government is a democracy, or that government is a monarchy. If you believe in having a government, then you're a Statist, and you believe in having a “State,” and if you believe in having a State, you believe in using violence on your friends and your neighbors and your colleagues to put your preferred ruler into power over them. And there's a karmic debt that comes with that.

That's why I say that Voluntaryism is the only political “ISM” that's fair for all and that leads to harmony and prosperity for all because we don't have to be fighting about these things at the political level.

One of the examples I gave last night is going on in these elections right now. There's a real knife fight at the school board level. And if you lose in San Francisco, you get critical race theory or LGBTQ studies imposed on your child, whether or not you want them to learn about that or not. If you lose in Oklahoma, you get fundamentalist Christianity pushed on your children, whether or not you're a fundamentalist Christian or not. If you lose in Minneapolis, you might get some flavor of Islam pushed on your kids.

In a world without government, YOU get to decide what school your child attends. YOU get to determine if it's Waldorf, Montessori, homeschool, vocational education, or a gazillion other kinds that the market offers instead of the one-size-fits-all, we're going to fight about this at the ballot box, and the winner takes all and the loser just gets stuck with whatever they get stuck with.

On the right-hand side of the slide, you'll see a visualization of voluntaryism compared to a few other political “ISMs.” And what you're looking at is in the light blue box, almost at the bottom, you see Minarchism. Minarchists are people who believe in having a minimal government. And so strict constitutional conservatives would fall into the category of minarchists. And minarchism is really saying: “I'm willing to act violently on peaceful people to acquire fire protection, police, military, courts and roads.” And then that little box is nestled in a purple box where you'll see Conservatives. Most conservatives are willing to act violently on peaceful people to acquire unemployment insurance and limited health care, limited housing, education, and things like that.

Then that box is nestled in socialism, and they want to have universal health care in addition to everything and all of the other boxes.

Then communism - all the other boxes are nestled in that, and communists are willing to act violently on peace. people to acquire housing, food, energy, clothing, and everything else in the list.

Under those boxes is the dark blue box for: voluntaryism which says: “I am not willing to use violence against peaceful people. I will seek to acquire desired services through voluntary relationships”

we don't need to act finally on anybody the world self-organizing system and that we will seek to acquire and meet our political and socio-economic goals voluntarily. Peacefully through cooperation and collaboration with others. And so that really is what sets us apart.

Voluntaryism is a little bit of the rebrand of peaceful anarchy. Now, for a lot of people who are tuning in from around the world, that name may scare you because anarchists have been associated with everything from violence to communism when, in reality, all anarchy means is “No Rulers.” It does NOT mean “No Rules”. It simply means “No Rulers, but “the rulers” because they don't want you to know that there's an option on the menu called “No Rulers.” They have used control of the media and even control of the dictionary. I break it down in my book “Government”- The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed! how they've changed the meaning over time so that the word for “No Rulers” now means: “Chaos and Dystopia” when that could not be further from the truth.

You know, we don't need government. And so, I mentioned that it's a provider of services and whether whatever that services, whether it's armed protective services that they call the police, or dispute resolution that they call the courts, all of these things could be and would be provided. And we will demonstrate to you today throughout the conference that it can be provided by the free market, mutual aid societies, homeowners’ associations and co-ops, insurance companies, nonprofits, and genuine charities.

There's a moral case for voluntaryism, and it really is centered on something called the Non-Aggression Principle(NAP), which states that nobody has the ability to use violence or aggression on anybody else. And while that sounds like so basic that you would teach that to a kindergartner, you'd be amazed at how many people. give the government an exception from the Non-Aggression Principle and say: “Oh, well, the governments just got to do that because without it, how would we have roads? How would we have courts? How would we have all of these things that we desire?

The other side of this equation is if you advocate for government, whether you're advocating for “blue government” or “red government:” You advocate for violence to be used on your friends, your neighbors, and your colleagues to impose your desired ruler over them and “voting for violence” has, as I mentioned, a karmic debt. So, there's a moral case for voluntaryism.

There's also a logical case for voluntaryism: everything else is immoral, unproven, or has failed. You know, a lot of people think communism looks good on paper, but it simply doesn't work, doesn't deliver the goods, and leads to bloodshed and murder and violence. Society falls apart, and everybody forgets about it. And then the young idealistic youth want to try it again, but… this time… they will get it right! It’s just not logical, and the non-aggression principle should apply to everybody, or else it would be dumb to give your potential political opponents an exemption for morality.

There is a utilitarian case for voluntaryism. Free markets produce the goods!

Commerce benefits both parties, OR the trade does not take place. Now when I say commerce or capitalism, many people associate this with the system we're under right now. Which is NOT capitalism at all, and it's not a free market at all! It would technically be called “cronyism” or “crony capitalism,” where the banks are given the ability to create money out of thin air. And they're buying up the world with their little paper tickets, providing unlimited capital to certain favored corporations, and these favored corporations are buying up and monopolizing the world.

The unfairness of the world we live in today is made possible by the government, which has metastasized, making all of the evils in the world worse.

There's also the “I-Don't-Want-to-be-a-Chump” case for voluntaryism because Statism is being openly and obviously propagandized to the population using various unethically manipulative techniques that I break down in my book.

The Award-Winning Documentary Theatres of War Breaks Down the Pentagon and Intelligence Agencies involvement in 1000+ Movies and 1000+ Tell-a-vision Shows

The government is “running game” on the population! The “government” is weaving the American flag into 1000+ movies and 1000+ television shows that we know of. They're using an advertising technique called anchoring to build up the audience to a moment of high positive emotion and then show you the flag.

They're going to put the flag on the back of NBA backboard so you subconsciously associate the exhilaration of the goal with the flag. They're going to run a gazillion other little tricks and techniques on you. Once you see it you can't unsee it and nobody wants to get “chumped!”

I'm going to tell you that my organization is called the Art of Liberty Foundation. We're a startup public policy organization. We're approaching the problem from a principled, voluntarist perspective: that government is illegitimate and undesirable on its face. And I'm going to wrap it up there.

About the Speaker

Etienne de la Boetie2 is the founder of the Art of Liberty Foundation, a startup public policy foundation exposing the illegitimacy and criminality of “government” from a principled voluntaryist perspective. He is the author of “Government” – The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed! – How Inter-Generational Organized Crime Runs the “Government,” Media and Academia – available at Government-Scam.com and Voluntaryism – How the Only “ISM” Fair for Everyone Leads to Harmony, Prosperity and Good Karma for All – available at Voluntaryism-Book.org. 

He organizes the Liberty on the Rocks – International Voluntaryism Conference each fall in Sedona that brings together voluntaryists from around the world at Sedona.ArtOfLiberty.org. He publishes the Daily News from the Art of Liberty Foundation at DailyNewsFromAoLF.Substack.com and Five Meme Friday, a weekly survey of the best of the alternative media at ArtOfLiberty.org/Subscribe and all his original writings and research can be found at ArtOfLiberty.Substack.com and ArtOfLiberty.org

Check Out the Rest of the Conference On CiVL!

Get the Rest of the Conference on CiVL, the new free streaming platform for intellectuals. libertarians and voluntaryists at: https://watch.civl.com/programs/the-voluntaryism-conference-2024

Like the Conference? Pre-Order the Book!

If you liked this presentation from the 2024 Liberty on the Rocks conference in Sedona, then you will love the Art of Liberty Foundation's upcoming book, Voluntaryism - How the Only “ISM” Fair for Everyone leads to Harmony, Prosperity, and Good Karma for All. The book is in the same image and meme-rich format as “Government” - The Biggest Scam in History… Exposed!, featuring “the executive summary of the executive summary” to rapidly understand the important issues. If you or anyone you know has any doubt that the free market could provide all the legitimate, non-redistributive services provided by government, better, faster, and cheaper, without the waste, fraud, abuse, and extortion, then this is the book for you. You can pre-order a copy of the book through our $25,000 Indiegogo campaign to launch it and get it into wide distribution at voluntaryism-book.org.