In reviewing the comments to my posting of Not Yours to Give by Davy Crockett I began to think of my favorite section from Thoreau’s Walden and Civil Disobedience.
I heartily accept the motto – “That government is best which governs least;” and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, – “That government is best which governs not at all;” and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best an expedient; but most governments are sometimes inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also be brought against a standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.
I would propose a revision of Thoreau’s famous phrase to “That government is best which spends least” and, for the more radical, the natural extension “That government is best which spends not at all” has great appeal.
If you are interested in experimenting with forms of government and social organization, whether libertarian in nature or otherwise, you may want to look into the seasteading movement.