Do Not Use The Force

One of the best books I have ever read and definitely the most important book that I read about political philosophy was James L. Payne's, A History of Force. The book is a comprehensive examination of the use of force in human affairs and the book argues that the broad trends of history show that application of force was and is declining. What makes the go beyond being an interesting historical read is the how his later chapters show us that we are active participants and history and we have an obligation to work to reduce coercion or threats of coercion as legitimate means of conducting our affairs.

The first two thirds of the books cover practices like human sacrifice, slavery, political murder, imperialism (which is widely supported by the conquering society) and genocide. These are practices that have died out; all but have died out; are on the decline and if they still do exist, they exist outside of the developed world.

Near the end of the book he talks about taxation and that unlike something like slavery or human sacrifice, practices, which all of us would condemn, taxation is a force based practice that is widely accepted in our society. Though most of us complain about how taxation is carried out, almost no one condemns taxation itself as immoral. Essentially, we are like those who lived in times when slavery or human sacrifice was still practiced and we, like those in the past, generally excepted this common and legitimate application of force, taxation, how many in past centuries would have considered slavery or human sacrifice an inescapable fact of life, unpleasant but indispensable.

In many cases, we can look back smugly at past generations and their cruelty and/or ignorance. However, we will be seen in the same light by future generations. We live out our daily lives in a world where government uses the threat of imprisonment to make people give them a share of their wealth, regulatory agencies can usurp property rights, our military engages in various "police actions" and we have a national policy that considers the possession of many types of narcotics to be not just criminal but so egregious that in justifies a "war" on those narcotics.

I wonder how future generations will view us, I fear it will be unfavorable.