Glenn Reynolds comments on the federal mandate that blackmailed the states into changing the drinking age to 21.  This was one of the first things that really drove home to me the arbitrary nature of government by majority, since it happened when I was about 16.  It left a really bad taste in my mouth, and I haven’t forgotten it.  I’d done everything right and followed all the rules and then they went and changed the damn rules on me.  I felt I was being punished for something I didn’t do.

It was also the beginning of the erosion of my respect for the authority of government, since I habitually ignored their silly law from the time I was 18 until I was 21.  Over time, little by little, law by law, the government itself is creating libertarians out of more and more people.