The Evolution of Opinion

Over time, I have seen my opinion change quite a bit. It seems that as we come into new knowledge we must update our views on things. There should be no shame in doing so. In fact, a mature adult who holds his opinions from his younger and less experienced years would be a foolish person.

God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Perhaps because He knows everything. God never encounters new information therefore His opinion never needs updating. We mere mortals don’t have that advantage.

My views on government have changed significantly over the years. I was a republican. Then I was confronted with the reality that governments are just people and don’t have collective rights beyond what their individual rights are.

For example, you could rightfully retaliate against me if I tried to murder you, therefore governments should have that right. On the other hand, you would not have the right to demand any portion of my paycheck for yourself and enforce the demand with cage time (prison), therefore governments should not have that right. I don’t care how much “good” you claim is done with stolen money from paychecks (income scraping, Scraping Income Of Productive People), the fact that it doesn’t belong to them cannot be negated.

That’s the factual truth. That rationale extends to all of life. Therefore, I am a voluntaryist and an anarchist at heart. However, people must follow rules, but there cannot be special rules for those who are claiming to be government and then peasant rules for those who do not claim to be government.

But can I put this principle into practice in real life, even conceptually? I don’t think I can. So it has become hard to defend my position, even though it is right in principle.

So, I’m basically a libertarian now. Opinion changed.