A blogger here rejects Hoppe’s book on Democracy on grounds of his comments on page 218 about the need for society to expel communists and democrats “from society.” From the context of the book, it is clear that Hoppe is discussing the voluntary nature of covenants and the entrepreneurial nature of their rules. For example, on my property, I’m not permitted to place a storage shed in my own backyard–which seems rather arbitrary. Still, I signed the covenant. If this rule is an entrepreneurial error, the subdivision down the street will correct it at a profit.
I’m assuming, too, that my home-owners association would have something to say if I started publicly advocating the overthrow of the covenant. I recall one home-owners meeting where a person who advocated a vote on whether there should be bushes in front of electrical units was shouted down and shut up. It all happened very rapidly. She never suggested this idea again. On another occasion, a man threatened to move rather than dismantle his street-visible trampoline. People yelled: “Move!”
12:57 pm on January 6, 2004
