I agree that Bishirjian wasn’t specific enough in addressing the problems with what the government does. As to your question, I think in Bishirjian’s vision and certainly in mine there would be some authority in private community institutions to regulate behaviour of their members. How they would go about enforcing that would probably depend heavily on the nature of the institution and the requirements that members accept in belonging to them.

I’m a student at St. John’s in Santa Fe, and I felt compelled to tell you how much I like your blog, which I came across in a Greenwald link. I’ve never really considered myself a conservative, but I do find myself agreeing with a lot of what you and Bishirjian have to say. Maybe I part ways in that I think he didn’t articulate the problem with the current state forcefully enough, and had little to say about the military-industrial complex and the war on drugs. A question: Do these other non-state institutions, such as church and local communities, have the right or power to regulate and monitor individual behavior?

Also, at least a few of us at St. John’s might qualify as Buddhist Hayekians, but we are exceptionally weird.

Patrick Kirts

The second thing is that most of his proposals just seem so jejune compared to his goals. Privatize air traffic control? Capital gains tax reform? Tell me again how those things will relieve the emptiness of our culture? Even if they are just examples of things we can do to reduce government, why choose those particular things?
As you (and Ross) point out, this is a distraction from his main points.