thelizardking52 Posted June 12, 2014 Posted June 12, 2014 Hi everyone, I thought I'd start a new topic ( I'm assuming no one's done this before here. I'm rather new) on great books that you've read that helped shape or influence your views towards libertarianism or anarchism and why. Please, no spoilers though. I'd like to start with two great books- The Law - by Frederic Bastiat. Bastiat was in the French legislature in the 19th century. He championed private property rights and argued that the welfare state was plunder. This is a great book to convert statist over from the dark side. It uses morality rather than numbers as it's basis for it's arguments making the book hard for a statist to debate against and will actually open their eyes. This book was a foundation for all I believed in. That is, until I came to the conclusion that the state, or "The Law" would never stay true to what is written in this book and will always grow to carry out evil as it always has done historically. Realizing this is a big reason why I am an anarchist. Still, this is a great book and powerful tool to convert statist to the light. If you have the book, it's a short read and a good one, which you should lend to your statist friends. As the premise of the book is private property rights you can hound the person all day if they fail to return you the book. Another book I would add to this list is: A voyage from Yesteryear - By James P Hogan It's a science fiction book in the future, in which Earth is running out of resources and looking to colonize another planet. Earth sends a fleet of unborn children to a planet known as Chiron. The kids grow up in the spaceship with no adults from earth's culture to corrupt them. They build their own society on Chiron until one day the humans from earth (oh no, not humans from earth!) decide it's time they need to settle on Chiron as well. Conflict is yet to ensue. Great book and paints a picture of how a society would have to think and what their culture would be like in a stateless society. Highly recommended book if you are a libertarian and/or science fiction fan.
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