To have a state, or government, there needs to be a body politic. To have a body politic, there needs to be citizens. To have citizens, there needs to be a guarantee that people will receive protection in exchange for pledging allegiance to "the state" (each of the hyperlinks above is a citation for the legal definition of the corresponding term.)
Given that the individuals acting under the alleged auspices of "the state" openly admit that they have no obligation to protect individual citizens, how could individual citizens owe them allegiance? Furthermore, even if this claim wasn't made, hasn't it been empirically demonstrated? What happens to any individual who refuses to comply with even the most mundane or trivial of "legal rules"? They are subjected to theft. Tail light out? Selling untaxed cigarettes? That'll be two hundred dollars. What happens if they resist the theft? Violence is used against them. What happens if they defend themselves? Their life gets taken from them.
"Statute", "code" and "regulation" are therefore euphemisms for "comply or die", and the men and women supposedly tasked with the "protection" of "citizens" are likewise responsible for making good on each death threat.
If there are no reciprocal obligations of allegiance and protection, how could there be any such a thing as a citizen? If there's no such thing as a citizen, how could there be any such thing as a body politic? If there is no body politic, how could there be a state?
"But Jared, government agents claim to be protecting the public and the people at large!"
Bullshit. If you buy something from Amazon and it never shows up, would you accept, "we don't have an obligation to fill individual orders; we only have an obligation to fill orders for our entire customer base" as a legitimate answer when calling customer service to inquire about it? Absolutely not. You'd accuse them of scamming you, and then you'd demand a supervisor.
How could an entire group of individuals receive a service that no single individual receives personally?
They couldn't.
So... Given that these reciprocal obligations of allegiance and protection don't exist theoretically or in practice, it can't be proven that citizens actually exist as anything other than the victims of men and women who force people to pay them, or that government actually exists as anything other than said thieves.
I'm Jared Howe! I'm a Voluntaryist hip hop artist and professional technical editor/writer with a passion for Austrian economics and universal ethics. You can catch my podcast every Friday on the the Seeds of Liberty Podcast Network.
