In Canada, where I live, there is a breed of person who takes smug pride and pleasure from advertising their listenership of CBC Radio – the radio side of the country’s “public” broadcaster. (“Public” of course, in this context, is a euphemism for “state financed.”) They’ll solemnly observe, well, “I heard on the CBC the other day…” or “when I was listening to the CBC yesterday…” I trust in the U.S. there are similar people who jump at any opportunity to thus display their culture and erudition in their NPR listening habits. No doubt, elsewhere, the same charade plays itself out with other “public” broadcasters.

 

Those of us cursed with the disposition to logically connect cause and effect have an obligation to explain to these people that they promote violence: specifically, violence against us who do not want any “public” broadcasters. The fact that they would be chagrined, aghast and incredulous in the face of such explanation reduces neither its validity nor our obligation. I’ll connect the dots for the “public” broadcast listeners momentarily. For us victims of their violence, who can connect the dots, I have a brief comment, first, though. We must not turn the other cheek on this. I have done so too often and too long and intend to desist from this destructive negligence. Failing to explain this to the “public” broadcast promoters makes me a passive accomplice in their violence. I will not play this role any longer and hope you won’t either.

 

In theory you could connect these dots for anyone who refers to using any state “service”: the post office, arts grants, the municipal library, etc. However, there are two reasons why I propose we specifically target the CBC/NPR, etc., enthusiasts. First, while all state-run “services” are an implicit form of pro-state propaganda, “public” broadcasting is an explicit one. I know that CBC Radio, and my impression is that NPR also, constantly provides grossly biased discussion which endlessly assumes the ethical and economic superiority (indeed, the exclusive ontological possibility) of statism. Second, and perhaps most importantly, CBC/NPR listeners – especially those who feel the endless need to refer to their having “heard it on the CBC” – perceive themselves as a superior self-selected intellectual and ethical elite. They actually believe they are smarter and more moral than others and take their “public” broadcast listening as an emblem of this superiority. Therefore, it is especially important to confront these cultural storm-troopers of the state.

 

Listening to “public” broadcasting (on the TV side, they sometimes do have some private commercial funding, but, really…) contributes to the strength of its ratings and thereby legitimizes the state funding it out of the “public” purse (there’s that euphemism, again). In some jurisdictions, there’s actually a formula for funding based on ratings. But even when the ratio isn’t fixed in legislation, higher ratings increase pressure for continued and increased funding among the CBC/NPR promoters and other statists.

 

Yet, the money in the “public” purse comes directly from taxation, which is taken from me against my will. Yes, I pay my taxes, the same way a store owner pays the “protection” money extorted by local hoods. I’d rather succumb to the theft than risk the bodily violence that would result if I didn’t. If I refused to pay my taxes, and the agents of the state thought I owed enough to make it worth the investment of resources, they would send men with guns to collect. And, if I resisted the action of those men, the state would say they were justified in using physical force to apprehend, confine and punish me. And, since their treatment of me is exactly the same, if I took the same attitude to the state as to the extorting local hoods: decided to stand my ground and protect my property from theft and violence by any means necessary. Then the state would say its men with guns were justified in killing me.[1]

 

So, CBC Radio, NPR and such “public” broadcasters exists only because guns are pointed – figuratively, always; actually, when push comes to shove – at my head as I’m victimized by state extortion. Thus, every time one of those self-styled cultural elite listens to the CBC they are initiating conditions of violence against me to keep them in the radio listening habits of their preference. Their radio listening preferences are achieved exclusively through the theft of my property and the constant threat of violence and even death if I resist that theft. Every time they listen to the CBC, they are pointing a gun at my head.