Dictatorship Would Be A Lot Easier

If ever you're in Dublin, I heartily recommend Paddy Cullen's bar, at Ballsbridge, as an excellent place for both a bite to eat and a glass of Guinness. Something is missing though, when you get there, and that is the former welcoming crack of an Irish nicotinic atmosphere. This is, of course, because of the Irish government's banning of smoking in formerly private establishments, to force a change upon Irish culture; because that's what governments are for - to force necessary changes upon societal culture.

But forcing changes still isn't that easy to do, even for the maddening nannies of the Irish state. Admittedly, many Irish people seem to have adopted the position of a five year old child in their reaction to the ban: "Oh well, I wanted to stop smoking anyway, and now they've made me do it I'm pleased they did" - well done the welfare state, creating nations of children out of former adults - but the state still finds many things too difficult to carry out. For instance, only the US government was ever stupid enough to introduce alcohol abolition. The Swedish and Irish governments would also love to 'force a cultural change' in this direction, but are still too impotent to do so.

What would it take to make such things easier for our modern proto-tyrants? How do we reach the aspirational point symbolised in the infamous words of George W. Bush?

"You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier...So long as I'm the dictator."

Ho ho, George. My sides are shredding with mirth.

Well, we're nearly there in Britain, with the long awaited plan to introduce compulsory ID cards finally forced through the rats' nests of both emasculated houses of parliament. And once we have ID cards, the whole of Britain will become a bureaucrat's playground of rules and regulations, all of these attached to our chip-and-pin plastic tattoos. What joy.

Once ID cards in are in situ, we will also be just one step away from the long held government dream of a full military dictatorship. Here are my top three triggers, which will finally catapult us into this socialist heaven:

• A nuclear device is detonated by A.N.Other in Trafalgar Square


• London is taken over by fanatical Muslims, via the democratic process


• An entrepreneurial brain drain leads to a humiliating collapse in government finances and widespread tax riots

Who knows what the ultimate trigger will be, but ID cards mean the military dictatorship of Britain is coming; unless we can stop it first.

The only question in my mind is whether the United States beats us to it first.

And speaking of which, I'm heading to New York this weekend, for the first time in my life, to spend a week in a Manhattan apartment building - will it be Ayn Rand's? If anyone has any libertarian tourist spots I should hit while I'm there, I'd be pleased to hear 'em. I'll be looking for Ludwig von Mises's apartment building, the home of Murray Rothbard, and Ayn Rand's apartment building. If anyone knows where these are, please let me know.

I know most people go to see the Statue of Liberty, once they've got past the blackshirted border guards at the airport, but the irony of this statue's name, in the unwelcoming land of Lincoln, Wilson, and Roosevelt, is simply too much for this particular Austrian to bear.

Let's just hope the blackshirts at the border don't block my entrance at the airport due to my possession of Michael Rozeff's amazing video presentation on my MP3 player. If you haven't seen his confessions of an Anarchist, download and watch them immediately:

Michael Rozeff: The State as an Organization

One word. Superb. More Michael Rozeff please, Mises Institute.