Lessons from Minneapolis

“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.”

— Thomas Sowell

This week, we saw the fatal shooting of an anti-ICE demonstrator in Minneapolis, which reminds us of the importance of not facing the state head on.

From the footage we've seen, the shooting looks excessive. But that's the privilege of the state. If you go face to face against it, you may well get a bullet through your head, just like Renee Nicole Good found out the hard way.

Based on this, we can skip any discussion about the justification, or absence there of. However, this is precisely what everybody is focusing on.

That's exactly how politicians like it. Because they thrive in the antagonism that they create. The polarization of opinions creates a red team against blue team atmosphere, which in turn creates calls for new laws and regulations.

It's a win-win situation for both the red and the blue team. Politicians get more power, and everybody else lose.

However, if we make a simple observation like: "It was excessive but legal," and leave it at that, we can get on with our lives, largely unaffected by the turmoil created. Instead of focusing on the actions of the individuals involved, we can look behind the scenes to see what caused the situation in the first place.

This is where an anarchist view of the world comes in handy. Because, in an anarchy, this conflict would not have occurred.

Without taxation and subsidies, there's no incentive to move into a country in search of special favors.

So, the creation of the ICE task forces could have been avoided simply by cutting subsidies. A few cuts here and there would have had a greater deterrent effect on illegal immigrants than what the ICE agents are able to create.

But this peaceful solution wouldn't create the dynamic red vs. blue situation that we're now seeing. So, it never comes up as a suggested solution to problems. It simply isn't in the interest of politicians to create a stable non-antagonistic climate of trust and respect.

Thomas Sowell

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