November 8, 2010
“The first libertarian intellectual [in the world] was Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism. Little is known about his life, but apparently he was a personal acquaintance of Confucius in the late sixth century BC…
“Unlike the notable apologist for the rule of philosopher-bureaucrats, however, Lao-tzu developed a radical libertarian creed. For Lao-tzu the individual and his happiness was the key unit and goal of society. If social institutions hampered the individual’s flowering and his happiness, then those institutions should be reduced or abolished altogether. To the individualist Lao-tzu, government, with its ‘laws and regulations more numerous than the hairs of an ox,’ was a vicious oppressor of the individual, and ‘more to be feared than fierce tigers.’”
Posted by Thomas Hill in anarchism, libertarianism Tags: anti-state, Lao-tzu, libertarianism, rothbard
The Fr33 Radical 