Politics is the Art of Justifying Coercion

"If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law."
~ Edward Abbey

Politics isn't about delegating representatives to resolve disputes and administer complex societal issues. Politics is about creating a veneer of consent for the massive organized crime syndicate operated by the political class. Government is merely a gang supersized. Their borders are their turf. Their taxes are their racketeering operation. The police and military are their enforcers. The law is as arbitrary as their whims.

I made this using Imgflip.com. It's probably not the first time it's been made, though.

"If the government can take a man's money without his consent, there is no limit to the additional tyranny it may practise upon him; for, with his money, it can hire soldiers to stand over him, keep him in subjection, plunder him at discretion, and kill him if he resists."
~ Lysander Spooner

Lysander Spooner was an American lawyer, philosopher, and entrepreneur. He knew that taxation was extortion, and government monopolies were a racket. His American Letter Mail Company challenged the government monopoly on mail service and demonstrated how disconnected they were from the market prices and demands. Of course, this could not be allowed, and the government shut it down, but it still had an effect to reduce prices.

"To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality. And to think that there are democrats among us who pretend that there is any good in government; Socialists who support this ignominy, in the name of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity; proletarians who proclaim their candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic! Hypocrisy!"
~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Proudhon was a contemporary of Frédéric Bastiat, and while I think Bastiat had a better grasp on economics, both were writers who made principled defenses of the individual against the existing government and those who would impose a new government. Both are worth a read. It's all available for free online now. Both men present a strong objection to the moralistic busybody control freaks who seek to boss us around whether for our own good or for their base self-interest.

"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."
~ Frédéric Bastiat

Government always claims to represent society as an organizing and invigorating force that brings benefits to all. The alternative to a political solution can only be chaos and disorder, and government is magically immune to the waste and abuse inherent in every other monopoly, right? Wrong. Consent is the key principle for a civilized society. While governments claim credit for everything good in society, history and current events alike demonstrate the destructive nature of everything they do. Government requires that we imagine exceptions for every principle of civilized behavior. Consent is too tedious a process for these self-appointed reformers and rulers. But the only alternative is coercion, and they must always rob first in order to fuel their further schemes.

"It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning."
~ Ludwig von Mises

Mises was an Austrian economist who was forced to flee his home for the dual crime of being anti-fascist and being born Jewish. While he remained a classical liberal who saw a place for a small night-watchman state, his arguments show he had little faith in the government, and his students have been pushing these ideas to the logical conclusion of market anarchism. His analysis of central planning warrants attention, and it challenges the feasibility of any form it may take, whether left-wing or right.

"To have no proud monarch driving over me with his gilt coaches; nor his host of excise-men and tax-gatherers insulting and robbing me; but to be my own master, my own prince and sovereign, gloriously preserving my national dignity, and pursuing my true happiness; planting my vineyards, and eating their luscious fruits; and sowing my fields, and reaping the golden grain: and seeing millions of brothers all around me, equally free and happy as myself. This, sir, is what I long for."
~ attributed to General Francis Marion

One might be inclined to dismiss this quote as rank hypocrisy from a slaveholder, but hypocrisy does not negate a true sentiment. The quote is also of dubious veracity, since the source is the same author whose patriotic hagiographies included the blatant lie about George Washington chopping down his father's cherry tree. Those objections aside, this idea still represents the core of individualist anarchism. It is about community without coercion. It is the antithesis of politics. If the quote is false, it is no more false than the claims of politicians to authority. Governments claim the authority to tax your land, regulate your trade, tax your earnings, conscript you for their wars, punish you for violating any of their myriad prohibitions, and in general treat you as something on the spectrum from slave to serf. This is intolerable for anyone with a spark of dignity and self-respect.