From: A
Sent: Thursday, October 5, 2017 10:17 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Question RE non-contact sexual offences/harassment
Hi Dr Block, I only became aware of libertarian theory earlier this year, and it has felt like I have opened my eyes for the first time as I’ve spent the whole year educating myself out of the leftist propaganda I was raised on and never truly questioned. I’m in Australia and there is basically no libertarian presence here that I can find, except for one or two think tanks. I would like to thank you for your work, it is really inspiring and important to me, to demonstrate the strength of holding to principles completely and without exception.
If you have time to answer my question, it is about the NAP and certain types of non-contact offending. I’m a psychologist working with sex offenders, so this is relevant to my work. For example, would it be considered aggression for someone to make repeated phone calls to a woman and just breathe heavily down the line, or to make other lewd comments? Or what about if someone was exposing himself to women or masturbating openly while standing in his own front yard? Or say, stalking a woman (following her and staring at her from a distance all day)? There is no direct threat of physical violence in any of these cases, but I feel like they are deserving of punishment. Thanks! A
Dear A: Thanks for your kind comments. Welcome to our philosophical neck of the woods. There is too a libertarian presence in Australia, and a strong one. I gave a series of speeches there about five years ago , and there were hundreds of solid libertarians in the audience. See this material for contacts:
December 1-2, 2012. Sydney, Australia. Benjamin Marks [mailto:[email protected]]; Privatize the Oceans? Defending the Undefendable II? Sukrit Sabhlok [mailto:[email protected]]; Benjamin Marks [mailto:[email protected]]; Washington Sanchez [mailto:[email protected]] [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
Dr Washington Y. Sanchez
Post-doctoral research officer
Therapeutics Research Centre
University of Queensland
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Woollongabba, 4102
Queensland, Australia; https://vimeo.com/52907791
MISES SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Sukrit Sabhlok [mailto:[email protected]]
Australian Mises Seminar: http://www.mises.org.au/
– Be Part of an Intellectual Revolution – http://youtu.be/juZJZi6sO5Y
– A Pioneering Event – http://youtu.be/-Z7jMb5uD9Y
http://economics.org.au/2013/01/what-would-bert-kelly-think-of-the-mises-seminar-and-walter-block/; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnZH1gb3ef8;
1. Libertarianism 101 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnZH1gb3ef8
2. Business Cycle Debate – Walter Block Vs Stephen Kirchner –
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/walter-block-vs-stephen-kirchner-austrian-business-cycle/;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJT6WAw0NzY; http://bastiat.mises.org/2013/10/4459/
3. But Who Will Build The Roads?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xew2Le4oF3s
4. Free-Market Environmentalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erKprnio28Q;
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/walter-block-free-market-environmentalism/; WalterBlock.com: http://www.walterblock.com/2013/10/14/walter-block-free-market-environmentalism; https://twitter.com/WalterEBlock; http://bastiat.mises.org/2013/10/walter-block-free-market-environmentalism/
1. Libertarianism 101 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnZH1gb3ef8
2. Debate with Dr Kirchner – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJT6WAw0NzY
3. Free-Market Environmentalism –
4. Who Will Build the Roads? –
5. Defending the Undefendable –
6. The Errors of Friedman, Coase & Buchanan –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad21XtXAsFY; http://archive.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/walter-block-vs-nobel-prize-winning-economists-friedman-coase/; http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/11/walter-block-errors-of-friedman-coase.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FKpwH+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29; https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.economicpolicyjournal.com%2F2014%2F11%2Fwalter-block-errors-of-friedman-coase.html&ei=CabiVL62H8eJoQT2-4GYCg&usg=AFQjCNHY_TsLFeJ71dbot37QPEloS1qiUg
7. General Q & A – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLqEk3BKoiQ
Now to answer your very important questions. What they all have in common, is that the problem stems from lack of private property rights. When these are introduced into the system, the challenges disappear. For example, repeated phone calls to a woman and just breathe heavily down the line, or to make other lewd comments. The private owners of the phone companies will compete with each other so as to minimize such uncivilized behavior. No government needed. Or what about if someone was exposing himself to women or masturbating openly while standing in his own front yard? The problem here is government streets. If they were all private, their owners would prohibit such actions, at least in most neighborhoods. There would be condominium associations virtually of all which would forbid this. There might be a few, however, devoted to libertinism, that would allow this. Heck, maybe encourage this. Double heck, maybe even require this. But most people would avoid such places. Or say, stalking a woman (following her and staring at her from a distance all day)? On what property, precisely, would this “following” occur? With private property, the analysis is the same. Most places would forbid this contractually, but a few might encourage or even require this, and pay women to be the “targets” of such “stalking.”
I’ve written a bit about these sorts of issues:
Block, Walter E. 2009. The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors; Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-And-Highways-Factors/dp/1279887303/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336605800&sr=1-1; available for free here: http://mises.org/books/roads_web.pdf; http://mises.org/daily/3416; http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/radical_privatization.pdf; audio: http://store.mises.org/Privatization-of-Roads-and-Highways-Audiobook-P11005.aspx; http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-Privatization-of-Roads-and-Highways-Audiobook/B0167IT18K?tag=misesinsti-20; http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bf16b152ccc444bdbbcc229e4&id=6cbc90577b&e=54244ea97d
see below, especially, “Long thin things.”
Block, Walter E. 1980. “Preface,” Zoning: Its Costs and Relevance for the 1980s, Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, pp. xi-xx; reprinted as “Zoning isn’t motherhood to everyone,” The Financial Post, August 30, 1980, p. 9; reprinted as “Is Zoning Obsolete? Free Urban Land Markets,” in ERC Transcript Reprint Series, December 1980, No. 12; reprinted as “Zoning: A Tragic Public Policy,” in The Freeman, August 1981, pp. 470-477, http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=994; translated into Spanish as “La Zonificacion Urbana no es Necesaria,” Ambito Financiero, December 1981; translated into Portuguese as “Zoneamento: Desastre de una politica,” in Visao, November 8, 1982, pp. 95-98; anthologized as “An Economic Appraisal of Zoning,” in Urban Economic Issues: Readings and Analysis, ed. by Stephen L. Mehay and G. Nunn, New York: Scott Foresman & Co., 1983; reprinted as “Zoning: Its Costs and Relevance” in Free Market, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1983; reprinted in The Mercury International Digest, Vol. II, No. 3, March/April 1980, pp. 21-31.
Block, Walter E. 2014. “Private urban planning and free enterprise.” In David Emanual Andersson and Stefano Moroni, eds., Cities and Private Planning: Property Rights, Entrepreneurship and Transactions Costs. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar
Block, Walter E. 2009. The Privatization of Roads and Highways: Human and Economic Factors; Auburn, AL: The Mises Institute; http://www.amazon.com/Privatization-Roads-And-Highways-Factors/dp/1279887303/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1336605800&sr=1-1; available for free here: http://mises.org/books/roads_web.pdf; http://mises.org/daily/3416
Block, Walter and Matthew A. Block. 2005. “Private Parks and Walkways Under Free Enterprise.” Ethics, Place and Environment: A Journal of Philosophy & Geography. Vol. 8, No. 2, June, pp. 201-208; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228304197_Private_Parks_and_Walkways_Under_Free_Enterprise_A_Geographical_Economic_Analysis?ev=prf_pub
Block, Walter E. 1991. “Old Letters and Old Buildings,” The Freeman Ideas on Liberty, March, pp. 96, http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=2363.
Block, Walter E. 1990. “Sunday Shopping Lawbreakers,” Fraser Forum, January, pp. 35-36.
Block, Walter E. 1990. “Don’t Ban Demolition, Ban the Land Reserves,” British Columbia Report, v. 1, n. 25, February 26, 1990, pp. 7.
Block, Walter E. 1981. “Zoning: A Tragic Public Policy,” The Freeman Ideas on Liberty, August, pp. 470-477, http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=994.
January 29, 1981. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. “Zoning and the Free Market,” Presented at the School of Law, Dalhousie University; http://media.mises.org/mp3/Block_19810129.mp3; http://mises.org/media/6657/Zoning-and-the-Free-Market; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CUTDgCEDvs
Block, Walter E. 1980. “Zoning: Its Costs and Relevance,” The Mercury International Digest, March/April, pp. 21-31.
Block, Walter E. 8/30/80. “Zoning isn’t motherhood to everyone,” The Financial Post, p. 9
Block, Walter E. ed. 1980. Zoning: Its Costs and Relevance for the 1980s, Vancouver: The Fraser Institute
Block, Walter E. Speech. 1980. “Is Zoning Obsolete?” delivered to the Building Owners and Managers Association, Vancouver, B.C.; reprinted in Vital Speeches of the Day, August 15, 1980, Vol. XLVI, No. 21, pp. 659-662; reprinted in World Market Perspective, 1981;
Block, Walter E. 2012. “Long thin things.” September 3;
http://archive.lewrockwell.com/block/block209.html
Please get back to me if these publications, and my answers above, do not suffice.
6:30 pm on October 10, 2017
