The Problem That Begets The Rest

Dr. Mario Rizzo talks here about French politicians getting their panties in a knot over a restaurant chain serving halal food in order to attract Muslim customers. From what I hear, French society is quite secular and worships at the alter of 'reason.'

I translate this as worship of political correctness and everything that is not individualism. Notice that non-ecclesiastical governments specifically discourage religion, nonviolent crimes, and anything else that doesn't propagate and extend their sphere of control. That is largely the state of affairs in many OECD countries, and the U.S. takes a few steps down this path every day.

I bring this up because Dr. Rizzo hits upon a theme that pervades my thought:

"Even more fundamentally, private property involves the right of private individuals to make decisions about resource use. And since some uses are incompatible with others, private property must imply the right to exclude." [Emphasis mine]

Very few people follow that last line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, and even Dr. Rizzo himself is, I'm pretty sure, a supporter of democracy as a form of government. The right to exclude, however, precludes this possibility.

If there was one idea that would bring about a revolution in the way policy is designed and the way people live their lives, it is that a civil society can only be based on the right to exclusion. If more folks realized this and accepted it, I feel that many 'problems' would be exposed for the paper tigers that they are and would be solved instantaneously.

Instead, ignorance of exclusion lands us right where we are today.