When We Demunicipalize the Garbage Service, Then We'll Have World Peace

This may just read like a "moment of zen" to most, but Radley Balko's thoughtful take on John Cole's rage over people who don't want a garbage collection monopoly reminded me of this quote from a 1963 letter from the then-chairman of the board of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), E.W. Dykes, to FEE's founder Leonard Read. It is taken from my history of the libertarian movement (which makes a great Christmas present, folks), Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement:

War is the culmination of the breaking of libertarian principles, not once, but thousands of times. We are challenged to jump in at this point and apply our principles to get out of the unholy mess, built up over years and years of error on errors. I suggest it would be a very little different challenge had he posed this proposition: "You are a second lieutenant. Your platoon is surrounded. Your ammunition is gone. Two of your squad leaders are dead, the third is severely wounded. Now, Mr. Libertarian, let's see you get out of this one with your little seminars."

My answer—"demunicipalize the garbage service."

Now wait, don't give me up as a nut yet. I have a point. That second lieutenant is a goner. And so is the prospect of a lasting peace until man learns WHY it is wrong to municipalize the garbage service. You can't apply libertarian principles to wrong things at their culmination and expect to make much sense. It is too fundamental.

You have to start back at the very beginning and that is precisely what our little seminars are for. There are people who build for tomorrow; there are people who build for a year; there are people who look forward a generation—the libertarian, a part of "the remnant," takes the long view—he is looking forward to the time when war will be looked on as we now look on cannibalism, a thing of the past….What do we do in our little seminars? We make the case for freedom which cannot coexist with interventionism….Again I say: We will never end wars until we at least understand why the garbage service should be removed from the jurisdiction of the police force—that is, government.