Tonight I decided to grab some Thai food and catch a couple of movies the second of which was Syriana. I took along a book to read while waiting for the food, and for the movies to start, and to set on the Galaga machine for safekeeping while I played Ms. Pac-Man. The book: Carl Watner’s I Must Speak Out: The Best of the Voluntaryist, 1982-1999.
Coincidentally enough, a quote from one of the characters in the film was strikingly reminiscent of a line in Carl’s introduction to the book, which I read while waiting for mussamun lamb curry.
Mr. Watner:
The honest among us realize that the resort to coercion is a tacit confession of imbecility. If he who employs force against me could mold me to his purposes by argument, no doubt he would.
Prince Nasir Al-Subaai in Syriana:
When a country has 5 percent of the world’s population, but 50 percent of the military spending, its persuasive powers are on the decline.